NATLE FYI

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

TrialSmith/Counsel Financial has committed to sponsoring a Social Event on the Saturday of our Annual Meeting in Nashville.  The details are in-progress and will be shared the instant they’re available.  We have invited Ringler Associates to again sponsor the Membership Luncheon on Sunday and a letter to our other Justice Partners will go out ASAP with the remaining opportunities.

A Call for Nominations to the NATLE Board of Directors is in draft form – look for it early next week.

The 4th Monday Zoom Series this month is March 25th 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 almost 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…WARNING! The following contains a vague description of insect extermination; creepy crawly conservationists may opt to skip this week. Do you ever have one of those days when you whack a spider on the ceiling directly above your bed and, when you think you've collected the flattened carcass left behind on the ceiling in a tissue, the spider vanishes? I searched. I flicked the comforter from eye level to see if anything moved. I even looked up my sleeves. I was determined, but my efforts were fruitless. I found no evidence there’d even been a spider.  I had a hard time getting to sleep that night, not just because I couldn't find the spider, but because I wasn't 100% certain my whack eliminated the intruder. Et tu, Arachne? (Sorry, I know I’m mixing my English lit and Greek mythology, but I couldn’t resist. Beware the Ides of March!)

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

The Planning Committee for the Annual Meeting in July is met this week to kick-off the brainstorming.  You can expect to see topics on AI, membership, and leadership development programs.  Plus, we’re scheduling in time to visit the exhibit hall and will make it fun and impactful…more to come!

Please join the conversation on Zoom this afternoon (1pmET) with AAJ’s State Affairs.  The topic is the Alabama IVF Immunity bill. This bill is a concern if it gets filed in other states and becomes a national campaign.  We'll walk through the bill and the process, as well as outline the concerns and talking points to push back if this comes up anywhere else.  (Our bonus Zoom Series episode with Asana is postponed due to unforeseen personnel issues.)

The 4th Monday Zoom Series is back on schedule on March 25th 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.

Our Zoom Series recordings are available via our website.  Log in and find “Zoom Series” under the Events tab.

You may have seen a recent email from Mary at the National Civil Justice Institute (formerly the Pound CJI).  She has asked us to make sure you all received their notice seeking nominations for their Annual Advocacy Award. The deadline is March 25.  Reach out to Mary at Mary.Collishaw@ncji.org if you need more info.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…I rarely succumb to the digital ads that come with my NYT subscription, but one recently caught my eye.  I’ll be taking a couple very long flights next month on either end of a vacation (more on that in a future PS), and I’ve always envied my fellow passengers who nap comfortably with a neck pillow.  For short flights, it didn’t seem worth the real estate it would take up in my luggage, but for an 8-hour flight I'm willing to reconsider.  It’s a bit odd looking, but the clincher in favor of the Pluto Pod is the added blackout hood.  It means I won’t have to suffer the side-eye glances from those around me.  And, even though I don’t snore…at least, I don’t think I snore, it might muffle the occasional snort or snuffle.  (The link is for the Pluto Pod curious.)

P.P.S. Happy International Women’s Day.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

The Planning Committee for the Annual Meeting in July is meeting next week, so now is the time to suggest themes and/or topics and speakers!

We are getting a bonus episode in our usual Zoom Series offerings.  Responding to recent traffic on the Listserv about Asana and staff/task management platforms in general, we are holding an interstitial session of our Zoom Series on March 8th at 2pmET. This will be a 2-parter starting with an introduction to the platform by Anthony Salas, a representative from Asana’s Enterprise Development & Support group. The second portion of the session will be an interactive discussion about your experience with staff/task management platforms. If you use them or have questions, please join the conversation.

The 4th Monday Zoom Series is back on schedule on March 25th at 4pmET with a presentation by Hallie Kennedy, NCAJ’s Senior Director of Marketing & Strategic Initiatives. She’ll tell us how NCAJ turned their one-off vendor sponsorships into a vibrant annual program and tripled their revenue.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…it’s been called “a once-in-a-lifetime event”.  No, not the eclipse, though I think I’ll be 111 when the next one rolls around my ‘hood.  No, I’m referring to the convergence of two cicada broods, the 13-year and 17-year groups, that will surface from their lengthy diet of tree roots at the same time this year.  Not everyone will witness this phenomenon since it will occur mostly in the Midwest and central East coast, but experts are talking about hundreds of billions of insects making the most of a monthlong courtship.  Some of you have heard my DC cicada story, so here’s a recap.  Back in 1998, the ATLA/NATLE Annual Conference was in DC and a small group of us walked from the Sofitel, I think it was, to the White House.  We stayed long enough to snap a few photos, but what I thought was an obnoxiously loud counter-espionage buzz coming from speakers hidden in the trees along the wrought iron border fence , made us move along to the next monument.  Turns out it was nothing so sophisticated, but rather a recently-emerged clutch of randy cicadas hoping to woo a mate.

P.P.S. Looking out to my backyard between the monitors on my desk, I see that the red-winged blackbirds are back in town and the chipmunks are getting frisky…is it Spring already?

P.P.P.S. It’s Women’s History Month. Appreciate the women in your life, be they family, friends, or foes…they’ve all had a hand in shaping who we are today.

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

The Winter Meeting wrapped up almost two weeks ago and the evaluations have trickled off. This seems like a good space to address a few other opposite-end-of-the-spectrum comments from the anonymous submissions. The Winter Meeting runs on a bare bones budget and I try to get the breakfasts and breaks covered with the help of sponsors. With the smaller crowd and hollow square seating that facilitates roundtable discussions, which tend to be a highlight of the more intimate conference, we haven’t included a screen and projector. Instead, presenters submit their PPTs in advance for distribution to registrants, and onsite we share a Zoom link so attendees can either follow along on a laptop or just listen to the speaker.  While more responses praised the cost-saving effort, one suggested that we should go full A/V though acknowledged the high cost. Another area where responses were at odds is the length of the programming day. Some indicated that they like having free time to explore the city or simply sit with colleagues and catch up, while another said the days were too short. The first day’s schedule accommodates the need for members to attend the AAJ COP meeting held mid-afternoon.  We might consider having alternative programming for those who don't want to attend the COP…send your ideas!  I thank you for submitting your evaluations as they help plan future conferences.  If you want to get involved in the planning, let me know of your interest.

The Planning Committee for the Annual Meeting in July is forming, so now is the time to suggest themes and/or topics and speakers!

Our 4th Monday Zoom Series on Feb 26th at 4pmET is about website audits.  When it comes to the world of websites and digital marketing, TLAs have unique needs and objectives, as well as challenges. Of course, the primary concern is how to best use your website and marketing channels (i.e. social media, email, etc) to service, inform, engage, activate, and increase your membership. The marketing and creative team from Studio 3 Marketing has reviewed over 40 TLA websites and works closely with MemberCentral. In a "visual-heavy" presentation, they'll share the do's and don'ts of TLA websites from a design and marketing perspective. They'll discuss a case study from audit through redesign to highlight best practices for websites and digital marketing, and tips will be tailored for justice associations as relevant to your efforts to serve and engage your attorney members. This will be interactive, so bring your questions!

We are setting up a webinar discussion and demo on the topic of Asana (the staff/project management tool) for March 8th, so watch your email for more information.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…do you ever have one of those days where you think of yourself like a citizen of Whoville? Horton Hears a Who! was my favorite Dr. Seuss book as a kid and watching any program where Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses the universe brings me right back. For context, Horton, the elephant, discovers a whole planet on a speck of dust and is harassed by other animals in his world as he tries to save the little planet. I wish my philosophizing had to do with the noble fight to defend the defenseless, but it’s more about acknowledging that the universe is beyond enormous and our earth is a mere speck within a speck. I just heard this week that scientists have found a black hole that’s 17 billion times bigger than our sun and gobbles the equivalent of one sun each day. The heat and light generated by all that matter getting sucked in is 500 trillion times brighter than our sun…I’ll be skipping that eclipse, thanks. At the risk of sounding insigni ficant, I’m going to make a garlicky shrimp and white bean sheet pan dinner tonight and ponder the cosmos. Who’s with me?!

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

The Winter Meeting earned both kudos and constructive criticism and the evaluations are still coming in.  If you haven’t completed it, there’s still time – LMK if you’d like me to resend the link.  A few clear issues are the date and days of the Winter Meeting.  I don’t know the variables that go into AAJ’s planning of the dates and if the Superbowl comes into it, but there may not be a lot of wiggle room when booking a block of ~1700 rooms across 3-4 properties.  NATLE doesn’t get a say, but our program has always been held in conjunction with AAJ’s and has the benefit of being one of the few occasions where you are together with your members away from the TLA routine.  Shifting the NATLE Winter Meeting program to a Sat/Sun was implemented last year to accommodate members who have session obligations at home – the primary impediment to attending the Winter Meeting.

The Planning Committee for the Annual Meeting in July is forming, so now is the time to suggest themes and/or topics and speakers!

Our 4th Monday Zoom Series on Feb 26th at 4pmET is about website audits.  A more explanatory announcement will go out on Monday, but the gist is that Studio III Marketing has reviewed 40+ TLA websites and works closely with MemberCentral.  They understand that TLA digital needs are pretty unique and very different from most DTC (direct-to-consumer) industries.  Featured in the presentation will be a case study using a current TLA client and they’ll also summarize helpful takeaways on websites and marketing for TLAs.

We’ve heard you on the topic of Asana (the staff/project management tool) and are working on a date/time for a webinar discussion and demo, so stay tuned!

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…I don’t have cable, so I may not have seen the Superbowl last weekend unless I’d headed to a friend’s house.  I’m not a huge football fan to begin with – I don’t know how many frustrated (mostly) male friends I brought to tears trying to explain the concept of downs (don’t worry, I get it now) – but I like to watch the championship games in baseball, football and especially hockey.  I let the team from our newest Justice Partner, Esquire Bank, know that co-hosting a watch party for the AAJ/NATLE Winter Meeting attendees was a stroke of genius.  They acknowledged that free food and drinks usually guarantees a crowd.  Before I peeled out midway through the 2nd quarter, I had a sneaking suspicion that the crowd may have exceeded the not-to-exceed capacity for the bar.  I’ll never know, but I definitely enjoyed the halftime show, 2nd half and OT in my jammies from the comfort of my hotel room.  Even though I don’t get a vote, holding the Winter Meeting over Superbowl weekend gets a nod in my book.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

The Winter Meeting program begins tomorrow.  Please join us tonight for an extended Happy Hour-and-a-Half at La Condesa (5 to 6:30).  Check out the latest NATLE conference flyer on the event page.

February’s topic for our 4th Monday Zoom Series is all about website audits, like what to know as you consider an upgrade.  The presenters are with Studio III Marketing’s Austin office.  A complete announcement with registration link was sent yesterday.  (I missed including their company in the first post, but I’ll fix that in the blast I’ll send out next week.)

This is a travel day – I’m hitting send from the Burlington airport ahead of my pre-6AM flight – but I’ll have a few hours in Philadelphia to check email and voicemail.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…It’s nearly 50 degrees in Vermont in February.  Sadly, that’s just not at all inspiring.

Good Morning and Happy Groundhog Day!

Our second in a series of zoom meetings with AAJ’s State Affairs is at 1pmET today.  The issues to be discussed are pesticide immunity (think Bayer/Monsanto’s RoundUp) and the Veterans’ Services Protection Act recently faced in Virginia, as well as a VFW-backed bill that initially raised concerns about its impact on the Camp Lejeune cases.  Please register for the zoom link.

February’s topic for our 4th Monday Zoom Series is all about website audits, like what to know as you consider an upgrade.  The presenters are with Studio III Marketing’s Austin office.  A complete announcement with registration link was sent yesterday.  (I missed including their company in the first post, but I’ll fix that in the next blast.)

Our Winter Meeting is just one week away and if you can, please join us for an extended Happy Hour-and-a-Half on Friday evening at La Condesa.  Check out the latest NATLE conference flyer on the event page.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…Sometimes these just write themselves.  I needed something from the basement last weekend – a frozen pizza for dinner, if you must know.  Not surprisingly, there are cellar spiders down there and a few times a year I’ll vacuum them out of the dark corners.  If it has been a while since I vacuumed, I’ll pinwheel my arms between each light switch, just in case, so I don’t get a web across my face.  On this trip down there, something caught my eye when I pulled the cord for the light over the workbench.  The bulb is one of the older pigtail lights that take forever to get up to full illumination.  I didn’t have my glasses on and the dim light didn’t help.  I crept over to within a few feet hoping it was, at best, a dead mouse.  At worst, it was a turd the size of a dead mouse.  I scampered back upstairs to grab a flashlight praying I wouldn’t run into whatever critter left it behind.  You may recall that I needed to have a part replaced in my boiler a few weeks ago.  Imagine my relief when it turned out to be a piece of black foam, probably from the box the part came in.

P.P.S. It just hit me…POTUS is the OG WFH gig.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Thank you to the nearly 50 attendees who tuned in for our Zoom Series on Social Media & Advocacy for the Rest of Us (hyperlink to recording, members contact me for passcode) with Heather K. Sager, AAJ’s new Director of Strategic and Digital Communications and Media.  There were another 20 folks registered, so we recognize the interest in the topic…there will be follow ups. 

February’s topic for our 4th Monday Zoom Series is all about website audits, like what to know as you consider an upgrade.  The presenters are with Studio III Marketing’s Austin office (thanks for the referral, Tiffany!)  A complete announcement with registration link will go out next week.

Our Winter Meeting is just two weeks away and registrations are still trickling in.  Please note that the fee increases on Monday.  If you are hosting a group event for your TLA members, the Austin CVB, Visit Austin, is ready to help you find a venue.  Reach out to Dane Piper, Director of Convention Services.  Information on the location of the Happy Hour on Friday evening is in the latest NATLE conference flyer on the event page.  Presentation materials have been coming in this week, so look for an email (to registrants) next week with links to the pdfs.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…I only sort of enjoyed the show, Big Bang Theory, so I wasn’t in a hurry to watch Young Sheldon when it was added to Netflix.  I’m now midway through Season 2 and it’s laugh-out-loud funny.  Not only are all of the characters well-played and include old favorites like Annie Potts (think, Designing Women), it’s my nostalgia for the late 80s that pulls me in with references to dial-up internet, hair bands, shoulder pads, and wide belts.  Sheldon’s mom even carries the exact same purse I had!  I was sucked into Stranger Things for the same, albeit more subtly delivered, reason.  Since you don’t know what you don’t know, I didn’t recognize the innocence at the time…pre-9/11, pre-Y2K, even pre-“it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”  I know we’ll never recapture that innocence, but it’s fun to escape back to it in 20-minute segments.

P.P.S. It’s National Peanut Brittle Day.  If you have any dental work, curb your celebrating for the same reason my orthodontist nixed my plans to join the high school field hockey team.  ADA conspiracy anyone?

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Registration is good for both today’s AAJ State Affairs presentation and discussion on Medical Records/CIOX & AI Deepfakes at noon ET and for our Zoom Series topic on Social Media & Advocacy for the Rest of Us (Wed, Jan 24 at 4pmET) with Heather K. Sager, AAJ’s new Director of Strategic and Digital Communications and Media.

If your TLA has a Social Media presence, please add it to your member record – it will help us create a more relevant plan of presentations once we know the range of capabilities.  Please also feel free to let me know your comfort level (or lack thereof) with SM and the various platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc.  If enough folks feel like a tutorial on how to set up an account would be helpful (or even mission critical!), we’ll know to fit that into the plan.

Good news!  We have a breakfast sponsor for Saturday’s program during the Winter Meeting.  Physician Life Care Planning is joining us at the first-timer Partner level and agreed to the additional sponsorship.  I also had a great conversation with a representative from the Austin CVB, Visit Austin and they are very excited about hosting our Winter Meeting.  If you are looking for help in finding a venue for your TLA’s reception or need ideas of sights to see when we’re not meeting, they’ll be happy to provide suggestions.  Reach out to Dane Piper, Director of Convention Services.  The latest NATLE conference flyer on the event page for registration steps and links.

On the flip side, Strategic Capital has revised their marketing efforts and is now targeting structured settlement brokers as their audience.  They won’t be renewing their Silver Justice Partnership this year.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…Living in the north as I do, winter is also flannel sheet season.  I switched out the percale for flannel a few weeks ago and added the heated blanket.  Climbing into a warm bed with sheets that don’t remind you of making snow angels as a kid, but without the snowsuit, is pure bliss.  Pair that with flannel PJs and I regularly wake up in the same position after several hours…it’s like Velcro and rolling over is not worth the struggle.  I never relish getting out of bed in the morning during winter, but even less when the boiler craps out.  I knew, for sure, that something was amiss Wednesday morning when I turned the shower knob as far as it will go – a point I don’t normally hit.  I like a melt-your-skin-off hot shower and this was barely north of tepid.  As I scurried back to my room to get dressed, I stuck a finger in the register – like I really needed more confirmation – it was stone cold.  Thankfully, I’m on the Cadillac-level service plan and a repair guy came within a few hours.  Meanwhile, I thank my lucky stars for the heat pumps I had installed just over a year ago.  The bad news was that a plastic part had seized and he’d have to order it.  The good news was that it only took a day and he came back to install it right away.

P.P.S. It’s National Popcorn Day.  I’ll just say, it’s a wonderful thing to have fresh kernels for an air popper.  Several years ago someone gave me an assortment of “gourmet” popcorn, but the kernels weren’t heavy enough to stay in the popper.  Flouting the instructions and leaving it unattended while I fetched the butter, I ended up with kernels all over the kitchen.  At full speed, they ricocheted out of the bowl and bounced off the walls.  What a mess.

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

AAJ’s COP meeting falls on the 4th Monday this month, so we have shifted our NATLE Zoom Series to Wednesday, Jan 24th at 4pmET.  Heather Sager has recently joined AAJ’s staff as Director of Strategic and Digital Communications and Media.  Her presentation is titled, Social Media & Advocacy for the Rest of Us.  Once relegated to the interns, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have become integral to the long-term success of every organization.  But where do you start if you don't have a team of social media mavens at your disposal?  We'll walk through the current landscape, take a look at different approaches, learn best practice basics, and discuss how to take early steps or continue your journey.  Click on the linked date above to register.

AAJ State Affairs will be presenting updates on timely issues that many of you are (or will be) facing on the legislative front.  The first of these updates will be next Friday, January 19th at 12pmET, though the “issue” is TBD.  I’m hoping to send out an announcement later today.

I’ll be requesting the registration list for the Winter Meeting from AAJ a few weeks out (the week of Jan 22nd), so I will distribute to the EDs in case you need to plan receptions or just like to know who’s coming.  If you are still on the fence about attending, the JW Marriott is sold out for Saturday, but the AAJ conference accommodations page has a links to nearby hotels.  Check out the NATLE conference flyer on the event page for registration steps and links.  More information on our meeting room, topics, and speakers was added this week, so check out the latest.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…I'm one of the millions having a “dry January”.  I’ll admit that during the early end of the lockdown, my wine budget increased to the point where I thought the guys who pick up my recycling might judge me poorly.  (I tend to overthink things, fyi.)  I’ve since cut back to pre-pandemic levels and cutting it out completely for (at least) a month isn’t a big deal.  My father was a teetotaler since my high school days when he recognized that he’d be thinking about his next cocktail before he finished his first one.  Also, his uncles died of cirrhosis long before I was born, so he felt the tendency might be in his DNA.  Since he’s moved into the independent living facility where they host happy hours a few times a week, he’s started enjoying a glass of wine again.  He stops at one, though, which he’s learned is his limit.  For me, the first few times going out to dinner with him where we’d both order a beer must have felt a little like a parent sharing a first adult beverage with their child.  So weird.