Ringing In The New Year
By Joan Stone

Happy New Year to one and all! Or, as they say where I come from, “A Guid New Year Tae Ane and Aw!”

In Scotland, Hogmanay (the traditional New Year celebration) is the most important holiday of the year. When I was a child, even quite small children would be woken up to join in the celebration that officially starts at midnight and continues through the night. Until the early hours of January 1, groups of neighbors and friends “firstfoot each other with gifts of coal, food (generally shortbread or black bun) and the ubiquitous bottle of whisky to ensure prosperity in the coming year.

From dawn until dusk on December 31, my family, like many others, spent the day in feverish preparation that included cleaning the house from top to bottom and doing all the laundry so that we started out the year with a clean slate. This was no mean feat given that the winters in Scotland are pretty hard, it was usually raining or even snowing and we did not have clothes dryers or central heating. We also had to prepare the feast that was laid out for the many visitors who dropped by during the night.

Despite years of teasing by family and friends, I continue the tradition of trying to start off the New Year on the right foot by cleaning furiously on the 31st and making everyone put on clean clothes before midnight. But then I ruin it all by having a huge party on January 1 with the result that the house has to be cleaned all over again.

There is a moral to this story. Every new SCBA president has the opportunity to start off the New Year with a clean slate but we also have a large number of ongoing commitments and great traditions that we want to honor. The secret is to find the right balance of old and new. This year, thanks to the foresight of outgoing president Bion Gregory and executive director Carol Prosser, we have a unique tool to set us on the right path.

By now, you should all have received a membership survey along with your dues statements. A lot of thought has gone into the professional design of the survey so please take the time to answer the questions. As I am sure you noticed, the candidates’ statements of the 2004 executive board members, Stuart Home, Jack Laufenberg and Stacy Boulware Eurie as well as my own expressed a common theme of better service for our members and for our Sacramento community. Honest and forthright answers to the survey will help us design and improve existing programs. Tell us what you think. We promise not to take your criticism personally. But, we also welcome constructive comments that will help us improve. Let us know what we can do for you.

2004 promises to be an exciting year, not least because we, along with lawyers, judges and community groups throughout the nation will be engaged in a year-long celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, which will set the theme for many of our events. Our newly-designed website at www.sacbar.org and our email listserv will keep you informed of all our activities.

We need a strong, vibrant, committed membership to fulfil our goals. Please send off that membership statement and check along with the survey right now if you have not already done so. Consider joining a section or signing up to become an ARS or IDP panel attorney. Your participation is important to us. We look forward to a phenomenal year working with our fantastic members.