NATLE FYI

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Our Zoom session with Jeff Tenenbaum on Monday was an extremely useful way to spend 75 minutes.  The recording, sample documents, and soon-to-be-added transcript, are available on our website.

Panelists who are part of our Annual Meeting lineup have been meeting to talk about their sessions and how to bring out the most relevant takeaways that you can begin to employ immediately.  If you’re on the fence about attending, let me know if you have any questions, and if you haven’t yet registered, you may receive a call from a NATLE Board member encouraging you to sign up!  The brochure is frequently updated to include information as it comes in, like the location of the events.  You will also find links to AAJ registration and hotel information, as well as NATLE registration.  As additional speaker bios come in, keep an eye out for new Panel Profile blasts.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great long weekend and please join me in appreciating those we remember this Memorial Day,

P.S. In case you’re still here…I was on my front porch early one evening this week, watering the hanging geraniums.  I was making my way to the last pot when I caught a glimpse of the neighbor’s cat lurking in the Hosta just beyond the end of the porch.  He usually takes off like a shot as soon as I open the door, so this was odd that he was not moving.   My mother had a colorful vocabulary when it came to sayings, such as describing a particularly furious thunder and lightning storm as a “real ripsnorter”.  Mom may not have blushed at my choice of sayings, but it wasn’t nearly so polite when I realized that the furry white back belonged to a skunk.  It was a mere four feet away and I was the one to take off like a shot.  With my stomach around my slippers and my brain reset to survive-at-all-cost mode, time slowed down and it felt like it took forever to fumble open the screen door to escape inside.  I didn’t even think to put down the watering can.  It sloshed inside with me as I ran to the kitchen to get the spray bottle loaded with vinegar from a few weeks ago.  I crept out the front door again and carefully peered over the edge of the porch, but it was gone.  I still sprayed for good measure because that was a close call I don’t care to repeat.  I do some of my best thinking when I’m mowing the lawn or weeding the flower gardens.  I don’t like feeling like I have to be hyper vigilant or concentrate just to avoid intruders.  (If you’re saying to yourself, “enough of the skunk stories, Jenn”, believe me…I’m hoping this is the last one, too!)

P.P.S.  Happy National Wyoming Day!  Yah, it's a thing.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

There is still time to submit your questions, concerns, and issues that you’d like Jeff Tenenbaum to address.  Our Zoom session with Jeff is set for Monday, May 20 at 4pmET and we have over an hour with him to get all of your questions answered related to association antitrust issues and how to avoid allegations of collusion.  The conversation originated on our ListServ along with a suggestion for an expert to join us to answer questions.  Of course you are free to ask your questions live!

The brochure for the Annual Meeting has been uploaded to the website and contains links to AAJ registration and hotel information, as well as NATLE registration.  As additional speaker bios come in, keep an eye out for new Panel Profile blasts.

MemberCentral held a webinar this week about the soon-to-be-enacted requirement for an opt-out feature in blasts.  (The feature already exists for Listservs, so no action is needed for Lists.)  It was less than an hour and Cole walked us through the steps to setting up the feature for your various List types, ie. fundraising, events, etc.  Be sure to avoid having only one “global” opt-out option!

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…I think one of the homeschoolers next door has taken up an instrument.  It’s not the unmistakable squeak of a violin or the shriek of a recorder – the kind that sets your teeth on edge – but it’s definitely not the in-tune harmony I enjoyed when the twins on the other side and their younger sister belted out selections from Taylor Swift’s top 10.  I don’t have perfect pitch, by any means, but when a voice or instrument is out of tune, you feel it.  I’m feeling it in my scalp, it seems, and it’s just adding insult to injury today.  I spent a few hours after work on Wednesday weeding the Hosta garden in front of the ravine in the backyard.  “Ravine” sounds grand, but when we moved into this house in 1972, that’s what my parents dubbed the natural pit that’s 8’ wide, 20’ long, and 4’ deep, and the name stuck.  They transplanted trillium and Jack-in-the-pulpit plants that have thrived in 50 years.  It’s also a bit of an archaeological wonder, well, more like a time capsule from the 60s.  Planting irises one year, I dug up medicine bottles, (empty) Red Stripe beer cans with the pull tabs, and an intact light bulb that survived my shovel because of its thick glass.  Anyway, there’s nothing like a little weeding to remind you of the muscles you haven’t used since last summer.  This time, when digging, I came across a few tennis ball-sized holes that I hoped weren’t skunk outposts and kept my haunches coiled to flea at the first sight of a pointy black snout.  So, add in a little adrenaline, and I ache all over.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

I’m excited that we have a Zoom session on the books to get all of your questions answered related to antitrust issues.  The conversation originated on our ListServ along with a suggestion for Jeff Tenenbaum as an expert, so we have him for over an hour on Monday, May 20 at 4pmET.  Please submit your questions, concerns, and issues that you’d like to have addressed by next Tuesday, May 14.  (We have a working group assembled to compile and expand, if necessary, the submitted scenarios.)

The brochure for the Annual Meeting has been uploaded to the website and contains links to AAJ registration and hotel information, as well as NATLE registration.  As additional speaker bios come in, keep an eye out for new Panel Profile blasts.

Thank you to those who replied with intentions for attending the Winter Meeting in Puerto Rico.  We will forward any details as soon as they’re available.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…on a few mornings this week I spotted a big black kitty ambling through my backyard.  It’s not so unusual to see the neighbor’s tuxedo cat prowling around the leaf pile where the chipmunks hang out.  What caught my eye that first morning was the wide white stripe down the middle of kitty’s back and tail.  Yah…and it was big.  I grabbed my handy binoculars meant for bird watching and lost its trail around the woodpile.  The second morning, I saw where it went in.  I quickly Googled skunk repellants and settled on white vinegar.  (Coffee grounds also work, but I didn’t feel like taking the time to crack open my used Kcups.)  I loaded a spray bottle with vinegar and crept out to the woodpile.  My sense of hearing was in hyperdrive – I wanted to know if Pepe heard me coming – so when the A/C compressor for the townhouse over the back fence clicked on with a hiss, I nearly jumped out of my skin.  I quickly discharged the ammunition from a safe distance and retreated to my office perch on the second floor.  For the third morning, my bottle was reloaded and ready, but there hasn’t been another sighting of the interloper.  White vinegar, people, it works for all kinds of problems!

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

Since I’ve been out of the office this week, I thought I’d list a few things that are in the works for upcoming programs.

    • Antitrust discussion and session with an attorney – tentatively scheduled for 5/20, more info to come.
    • Membership 101 Webinar re onboarding new membership development staff, new TLA member recruitment and orientation, as well as a MemberCentral primer.
    • Planning has already begun for the Winter Meeting in Puerto Rico, so AAJ is asking about our expected attendance – I’ll send out a quick survey next week to collect a rough tally of those planning to be there.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…I knew I’d get in a lot of walking over the last week on the riverboat cruise and the daily excursions, but 117,000 steps exceeded my wildest guess.  I signed up for the “active” options, like walking from the ship up to the castle or the faster-paced tours around the cities that were built in the Middle Ages.  I’ll never get used to the history in Europe…there are churches, fortresses and castles that have stood for over a thousand years.  Unfortunately, we saw many fewer than there would have been had Louis XIV of France not destroyed the majority of them along the Rhine River.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Congratulations to our Townsend Scholarship Awardees for the Annual Meeting.  The Committee selected Bonnie Benitez, CEO of the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, and Barbara Jorden, Executive Director of the Idaho Trial Lawyers Association.

TLA Presidents receive a 50% discount on the AAJ Annual Meeting registration fee, so please let your folks know to use promo code: 1STLAP when signing up.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…I used to be a great flyer.  My mother used to like telling the story about how she lied to the airline about my age in order to get me on a flight out to Michigan for her brother’s wedding.  I was three weeks old and you had to be one month.  Anyway, when I was growing up, we flew all the time and I was blissfully ignorant of any flaws in planes that could interfere with a smooth flight.  Such was not the case on our flight out of Dulles on Monday.  We were over an hour out when the captain came on to let us know that the plane was experiencing a “maintenance issue” and we had to return to Dulles.  A little later, he came back on to say it was a fuel leak and, not to worry, but the protocol for returning planes in these situations is to be met by fire trucks…lots of fire trucks.  I haven’t had “fun” flying since 9/11 and I try not to catastrophize, but my mind couldn’t help picturing a 737-sized fi reball coming in for a landing.  I shouldn’t have worried and we survived.  We sat for a few hours while our replacement plane was cleaned and the luggage transferred.  Thankfully, our layover in Munich was more than enough to absorb the five-hour delay and we arrived on time in Luxembourg.  So far, we’ve been through Trier, Old Town Luxembourg (the Duke and his entourage drove by our group four times, once being just as we were in front of the palace...our tour guide was thrilled at the serendipity), and this morning was a hike up to Reichsburg Castle.

OOO Note:  I know it’s not normal, but I feel guilty taking vacation.  When VC called me three years ago with the job offer, I actually declined a fourth week of vacation and said “I’d be happy starting with three since I've always found it hard to spend even that amount”.  Anyway, I’ll be taking another riverboat cruise with a gaggle of friends, one of whom is my loud-snoring friend who came with me on the first riverboat cruise in October 2021.  (I love ‘er to death, but I have my own stateroom this time.)  I will have my laptop and from what I can tell, there’s a six-hour difference between the east coast and central Europe, so there will be a delay in most replies.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

The Annual Meeting agenda is getting fleshed out with speakers and panelists.  I don’t think I’m painting with too broad a brush when I say that every TLA puts on conferences of various sizes and at some point deals with hotels, A/V providers, and F&B.  Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could take your meeting specs and come back to you with a compiled list of options that fit your budget?  Then, they’d sweat the details in the contract, look out for your best interests, and negotiate on your behalf?  They’d also help you hash out any issues during the conference and/or with the final invoice.  If you’re not already working with a meeting and event management company, your wishes have come true!  Ricky Hopkins with ConferenceDirect will join us on Saturday morning to highlight the benefits of working with a partner who really knows the industry.

TLA Presidents receive a 50% discount on the AAJ Annual Meeting registration fee, so please let your folks know to use promo code: 1STLAP when signing up.

The deadline to nominate a colleague to the NATLE Board of Directors is next Friday, May 3rd.  A Call for Nominations is a short form to let the Nominating Committee know of your choice.  Current Board members must complete this form if they wish to be considered to stay on the Board.

The 4th Monday Zoom Series is on pause for April, but we are working on a great session for May.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…I’ve mentioned my exercise studio, Pure Barre, in this space before, but its importance in my life hit me in the face last week when talking with family who was visiting to view the eclipse.  I realized with a chuckle that the studio is a common denominator in so many of my stories involving friends and experiences.  It got to the point where I’d pause in a story and say “altogether now” and the three of us would chime in “Pure Barre”.  Yes, after almost seven years, it’s a community that has given me friends for life.  Its importance also hit me in the gut this past Tuesday when I arrived for the 5:45pm class.  I learned that one of these friends had died that morning.  Somehow, we got through the class, but we were in shock and just went through the motions.  We had just seen her on Saturday, laughing and being her usual beautiful, positive self.  The cause of death hasn’t been shared, yet, but we’re guessing that she had an undiagnosed heart defect.  I mean, what else could it be?  She’s a few years younger than I am and could do the best pushups and lunges with the rest of us.  The loss hasn’t sunk in, but my heart goes out to her husband and two kids, a high schooler and college student.  It should go without saying, but, hug your loved ones.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Our Zoom session with AAJ’s State Affairs at 1pmET this afternoon will cover Med Mal Caps and Polling Data from New Mexico.  Guest presenter, Stephen Clermont of Change Research, will join us.  Register to receive the zoom link.

The Annual Meeting brochure is drafted and the final details are getting confirmed.  We are excited about our keynote speaker, Beth Z, who is local to the Nashville area.  If you haven’t yet stuck a toe into the AI pool or were an early adopter, she’ll share her favorite sites and apps to get you started and up your game.  Her preferred audiences are associations and she does her research ahead of time in order to gear her presentation to be targeted and relevant.

The deadline to nominate a colleague to the NATLE Board of Directors is May 3rd.  A Call for Nominations is a short form to let the Nominating Committee know of your choice.

Spring brings a wave of new beginnings and it includes a warm welcome to our newest members (since March 1st):  Nadia Aparicio, Dielle Telada, Julia Defaria, Mac Hubbard, and Anna McKnight!

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…I have to admit, Monday’s total eclipse was really special.  I’ve seen a few partials in my lifetime, but they don’t hold a candle to the ability to take off the special glasses for those few minutes to admire the breathtaking, ethereal beauty of the corona.  I looked around at my fellow baskers to see that this was truly an experience beyond the partisan strife and worldly conflicts splitting us apart.  This brought us all together for an afternoon with the knowledge that most of us will only see it once and we needed to enjoy it to the fullest.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Our Zoom session with AAJ’s State Affairs next Friday will cover Med Mal Caps and Polling Data from New Mexico.  Guest presenter, Stephen Clermont of Change Research, will join us.  Register for the zoom link and to save the date and time in your calendar.

The Strategic Planning team for Goal 2.3 Elevate Membership Outreach & Engagement is meeting this afternoon to begin brainstorming ways to reinvigorate NATLE’s new member onboarding process.  If you have templates, timelines, and/or tried ‘n true methods, please share!

The Annual Meeting planning committee met yesterday to finalize the lineup of topics and speakers, so the brochure is taking shape.  While we firm up the order of the sessions, please make your hotel reservations even if you’re on the fence about attending – room blocks tend to fill up quickly and NATLE has no negotiating position.

Don’t write off attending the Annual Meeting if you feel it’s not in your budget.  Submit a Scholarship application – before the end of today.  The selection committee will award the funds to an applicant to cover the cost of travel, hotel, and conference registration!

A Call for Nominations to the NATLE Board of Directors has a deadline of May 3^rd.  If you – or you know of someone who – would make a great addition to the leadership and direction of NATLE, complete this short form to let the Nominating Committee know.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…and ICYMI somehow, there’s an eclipse happening on Monday and northern Vermont is in the path of totality.  The last time that happened here, it was 1932.  With all the hype about the event, you’d think Beyoncé was coming to town.  Our little state, population 643k, is expecting up to 200k visitors.  Most of the schools have decided to shut down for the whole day, not because of the three minutes of darkness, but because of the potential traffic.  My sister-in-law and her older daughter are driving up from Durham, NC on Sunday to be here for the experience.  Dear Readers, I’ll have my phone with me (of course) on Monday at 3:26pmET, but will step away from my computer.  I’m planning to take a walk with my visitors up to a park above my neighborhood that has a stunning 150^o view of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks to the west.  Now, fingers crossed that the weather report for clear skies turns out to be right so all of this build-up will have been worth it.

P.P.S. It’s National Self Care Day!  Go for a walk, take a deep breath, or get a manicure.  Oh, the possibilities…

Good Morning and Happy (Good) Friday!

The 4th Monday Zoom Series on Monday was a well-attended and very informative presentation by Hallie Kennedy, NCAJ’s Senior Director of Membership & Strategic Initiatives.  The recording (and passcode) is available via our website.  Log in and find “Zoom Series” under the Events tab.  Hear how she turned their one-off vendor sponsorships into a vibrant annual program and tripled their revenue!

Speaker profile blasts are beginning to roll out as we book presenters for our Annual Meeting.  First up is Megan Whiteside with The Ethics of Mindfulness.  We included her bio in the announcement, but I’ll forward a blurb on her topic as soon as it lands here.  We just signed a contract this morning with Beth Z, also known as Your Nerdy Best Friend.  She is a self-described AI expert and tech guru who will give us practical uses of AI for TLA professionals.  Her profile will go out once I receive her bio.

Don’t write off attending the Annual Meeting if you feel it’s not in your budget.  Submit a Scholarship application until April 5 that will cover the cost of travel, hotel, and conference registration!

A Call for Nominations to the NATLE Board of Directors went out last week with a deadline of May 3rd.  If you – or you know of someone who – would make a great addition to the leadership and direction of NATLE, complete this short form to let the Nominating Committee know.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great Easter weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…I meant to add in my last post about The Name of the Rose…if you get a chance to see the movie, the set for the library tower has a staircase that would tie M.C. Escher’s brain in knots.  And, yes, I had a poster of Escher’s Relativity on the wall of my college dorm…next to posters of a black Lamborghini Countach and the Soloflex guy.  It was the mid 80s, what can I say?

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

The Annual Meeting Planning Committee met this week to continue brainstorming the topics and speakers for Nashville.  We’ve heard your appreciation for Roundtable sessions and have built in a handful to discuss membership recruitment/retention, what’s new in CLEs, engaging members in events other than CLE, and how to deal with difficult people.  Ringler Associates has committed to sponsoring the Membership Luncheon on the Sunday of our Annual Meeting and our new Gold Justice Partner, Physician Life Care Planning is sponsoring a break.  I have asked Esquire Bank to sponsor the Working Lunch on Saturday, explaining that feedback from conference evaluations says that time is valuable and scattering for lunch breaks the momentum.  Scholarship applications may be submitted until April 5.

The first Call for Nominations to the NATLE Board of Directors was distributed yesterday with a deadline of May 3rd.  There is a new form this year for the nominees to complete to help the Nominating Committee in their decision–making.

The 4th Monday Zoom Series is running this coming Monday at 4pmET with a presentation by Hallie Kennedy, NCAJ’s Senior Director of Membership & Strategic Initiatives. She’ll tell us how NCAJ turned their one-off vendor sponsorships into a vibrant annual program and tripled their revenue.  We have over 40 members registered and I’ll send a reminder on Monday.

Our Zoom Series recordings are available via our website.  Log in and find “Zoom Series” under the Events tab.  Recordings date back to May 2022.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. In case you’re still here…I love historical fiction.  Throw in a mysterious murder and I find it simply irresistible.  My favorite book is The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.  It takes place in the 14th century, set in an Italian monastery.  My fandom for the book only grew when I found the movie version starring Sean Connery and a very young Christian Slater.  My fascination with the period started when Mom and I lived in England during my sixth grade year – she took a sabbatical to join the cancer research team at the University of Bristol.  We didn’t have a car, but the public transportation system made getting around a breeze.  Almost every weekend, we’d ride our bikes to the nearest train station for a fun journey to check out Stonehenge, the British Museum, White Horse Hill, and the Roman baths in…well, Bath.  As to the book, I don’t know if it’s reading about the depth of the religious fervor that drove the Inquisition to root out heresy or the methods of torture used to extract “confessions”.  Maybe it’s the medieval era and the castle architecture with thought given to defense, like the narrow windows, or arrowslits, for archers, and the openings above the entry gates for pouring hot oil down on invaders.  It’s incredibly barbaric.  Stoking my interest in what constituted methods of “getting at the truth”, were visits to the Tower of London.  It’s hard to explain, but it’s just plain mind-boggling how human beings treated each other.  I considered taking a spin on the rack to make me taller, but they frown on touching the goods.  My teacher, Miss Poole, at the Ashton Park Lower School started every Monday with an invitation to her students to talk about what we did over the weekend.  After a few weeks, my classmates would just turn in their seats to look at me to start things off knowing that I’d had the most interesting adventures.