NATLE FYI

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

The Planning Committee for the NATLE Annual Meeting in San Francisco met on Monday for a productive kickoff session.  The agenda came mostly together in an hour and an early version of the program will be issued as soon as we have links to AAJ’s registration page and room block.  Topics will include non-profit tax compliance, membership, leadership academies, websites, boards, planning for ED/staff vacuum, and the popular idea exchange from Miami continues!  NATLE registration is open and applications for the Tommy Townsend Memorial Scholarship will be accepted until April 11.  In the meantime, save the dates of July 19-21. 

If you attended AAJ’s Special COP meeting on Wednesday afternoon, you heard updates on recent threats to the rule of law, executive orders affecting DEI programs, and implications for non-profit associations.  An email with follow-up materials is in the works at AAJ and will be shared ASAP.

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend and don’t forget to “spring forward” on Sunday!

P.S. In case you’re still here…I’m a horrible landlord.  I torment the squatters with smelly mothballs and vinegar, and bar access to the premises with netting.  My wannabe “renters” are of the black ‘n white variety – I don’t appreciate the threat of getting sprayed whenever I walk by the woodpile – as well as the feathered kind.  My project this weekend is to rig up netting underneath my new deck to prevent any nesting.  A few years ago, I felt guilty using my kitchen sink because I disturbed the young family of cardinals with a nest in the burning bush just outside.  The parents would take off when they’d see me appear behind the glass and I felt badly about their abandoned eggs.  It got to the point where I’d slowly peek around the edge of the window to see if they were home.  If they weren’t, I moved around like I owned the place, but if they were in the nest, I’d tiptoe up to the sink, bent in half so they wouldn’t see me, and go about my business.  Very awkward.  I want to avoid any guilt this year by making the attractive 8” wide cross piece under the deck off limits to real estate prospectors.

P.P.S. That and it's tax prep time.

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

If you know of websites that can help prepare for (or, uh, post-pare from) a disaster – there were several urls that came up in the first session during the Winter Meeting on “When Disaster Strikes”.  I’m collecting a list, so please share the urls!

In case you’d like a few bullets of what we covered at the Winter Meeting, here’s what I picked up:

* When Disaster Strikes - send me the urls
* Your Data Journey
            - Track what matters, not everything
            - Use what you already have
            - Start small (small wins build momentum)
* Working Lunch Idea Exchange – stay tuned for the Annual Meeting program!
* Start Using Your Data
            - Start small with Excel, grow into PowerBI
            - Simple data cleanup and using dashboards helps tell a clear story
            - Learn to leverage the data
* AI: How Are Members Using It?
            - 90% of law firms are investing in AI over the next 5 years
            - “AI will not replace lawyers, but lawyers who use AI will replace those who don’t”
* Creating a Culture Commitment with Data Insights
            - engagement opportunities lead to stronger commitment among members
            - track activities and engagement with help of a score card (of both individual attorneys and firms)
* From Prospect to President: Engaging the Next Gen of Donors
            - understand current trends and donor demographics
            - identify key challenges
            - navigate donor transitions, develop messaging strategies
            - identify best messengers
            - adapt strategies to attract and retain younger donors
            - “Refine you fundraising approach, enhance donor engagement, and ensure long-term sustainability”

This week’s 4th Monday Zoom Series discussing Asana was recorded.  Click here (or on the Events tab at NATLE.org) to listen to the webinar with Mary Kay Kennedy about this tool with uses from basic project management to a more comprehensive, whole-office collaboration.

The Planning Committee for the NATLE Annual Meeting in San Francisco is going to kickoff a brainstorming session on Monday, so now’s the time to chime in with any suggestions you have for topics and speakers.  Save the dates of July 19-21.  We’re working on the timing of the NATLE Board Meeting as well as a wine-country tour, so stay tuned!

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…Years ago, my mother told me that I used to get terrified going through the carwash.  Through a toddler’s eyes, that’s a legit reaction.  Like, going into the belly of the beast with no light at the end of the tunnel.  How could I know that it would only take a minute to get through.  Heck, a minute feels like an eternity to a three-year-old.  Fast forward half a century and I make great use of my unlimited pass to the new carwash facility next to my dad’s senior living community.  On my second visit this week, though, I momentarily put my car in reverse before quickly shifting back to neutral, but that was enough to activate the proximity sensors.  As the track sucked my car into the gaping maw with high velocity parotid glands (side water jets) and rotating uvula (overhead brushes), the dashboard warnings lit up like the 4th of July.  Anthropomorphizing my vehicle, it must have decided after 15 seconds that “this chick is toast, there’s no escaping certain death now” because the warnings just stopped.  My dad seems to think that going through the carwash is an ordeal.  He complains that it’s really loud, but at least he doesn’t cry and think that the end of the world is coming.

P.P.S. When I heard that JoAnn Fabrics was closing all of its stores, it made me nostalgic for the days when Mom and I would park our butts at the long tables covered with those giant pattern books.  She would flip through book after book looking for a pattern that looked like whatever outfit she was trying to create, while I busied myself with a book, too, trying to look adult-like, “Yes, I’m going to use a sewing machine to make something, just like you other ladies around this table.”  Actually, years later Mom had taught me enough that I made a few of my own clothes and several Halloween costumes.  I’ll admit that I haven’t darkened the door of our local JoAnn’s in years, but it seemed comforting to know that whenever I needed fabric it was there.  RIP to another institution.

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

The Winter Meeting was a success and I’m collating the evaluations.  Please fill it out to help future conference planning committees put together programs that are meaningful to you.  LMK if you need the link (I can’t figure out how to permission it for attendees.)  Also, several websites were brought up during the first session on “When Disaster Strikes”.  I’d like to collect a list, so please share the urls!

Register for next week’s 4th Monday Zoom Series, February 24 at 4pmET.  We will be discussing Asana, a tool with uses from basic project management to a more comprehensive, whole-office collaboration.

The Planning Committee for the NATLE Annual Meeting in San Francisco is going to kickoff a brainstorming session in early March.  Now’s the time to chime in with any suggestions you have for topics and speakers.  Save the dates of July 19-21.  We’re working on the timing of the NATLE Board Meeting as well as a wine-country tour, so stay tuned!

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…”Wait, you’re how old?!”  I get that a lot along with, “You look really familiar”, and the last time was this past Saturday evening during the Winter Meeting’s Opening Reception in Miami.  So, when I walked up to a cocktail table with my plate of food and asked the nice couple who were already there if I could share the real estate, I said to the gentleman who uttered those you-look-familiar words, "Yah, I get that a lot”.  I feel like I’m the vanilla ice cream that people add sprinkles (glasses) and various sauces (hair color) to when they think I look like someone they know.  Back in the ATLA days, I was regularly mistaken for the daughter of [fill in the blank, ie. law partner, past speaker, etc].  In college, the wife of our then-Senator Patrick Leahy tried to convince me, while I filled her bagel order, that I must have a sister.  (Spoiler, I checked with my mother who denied having any other kids.)  Before heading to Miami, I’d scanned the AAJ registration list and barely recognized any of the few names from Vermont, so imagine my surprise when I humored the gent and looked at his badge.  He was one of my members from back in the day at the Vermont TLA!  Between bites, we caught up on the last two decades.  In this sea of people, I happened to find an old friend.  What were the chances?!?

P.P.S. I think My Little Pony and a pack of Care Bears got together when the Fontainebleau needed to name their conference rooms.  In a parallel universe, Sparkle, Shimmer, Dazzle, and Trickle sound like Strawberry Shortcake’s “reindeer”.

Good Afternoon and Happy St. Valentine's (Fri-) Day!

The Winter Meeting Happy Hour is tonight (February 14), so meet at the Fontainebleau’s Bleau Bar, sponsored by the Florida Justice Association.  Please gather there to reconnect over a beverage!  (The timing is concurrent with the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus reception, so feel free to float between the two events.)

Register for this month’s 4th Monday Zoom Series, February 24 at 4pmET.  We will be discussing Asana, a tool with uses from basic project management to a more comprehensive, whole-office collaboration.

The Planning Committee for the NATLE Annual Meeting in San Francisco is going to kickoff a brainstorming session in early March.  Now’s the time to chime in with any suggestions you have for topics and speakers.  Save the dates of July 19-21.  We’re working on the timing of the NATLE Board Meeting as well as a wine-country tour, so stay tuned!

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…Should we mourn the death of the penny?  My first thought when I heard the not-so-new news on Monday, was of the copper-colored toy poodle, Penny, belonging to a couple that were longtime friends with my grandparents.  They brought this pint-sized version of my grandparents’ miniature poodle, Sandy, with them whenever they came to visit.  To this forever-the-pet-less seven-year-old who cherished every second with Sandy, the chance to cuddle with an even smaller doggy was irresistible.  Penny had other ideas.  As soon as Mrs. Boehme let her off her lap, that dog vanished under the couch just out of reach and ignored my pleas to come out to play.  Only reluctantly did she emerge when it was time for them to leave.  At least I got to pet her quivering head while she was in the safety of her owner’s arms.  That’s the long way of getting around to the realization that it won’t be long after the penny falls out of use that future generations may not know why so many reddish dogs, cats, and ginger-haired babies are named “Penny”.  That’s worth a moment to mourn.

P.P.S. A service dog accompanied a young woman at my Pure Barre studio this week.  I don’t know collies, but this looked like Lassie with German Shepherd coloring.  I struggled against the vortex=of-cuteness and stated out loud to no one in particular that it’s just not fair that you can’t love on a service dog.  They’re working, after all.  It would be like driving through construction traffic and jumping out of your car to hug the flagger…completely inappropriate.  The young woman understood my plight and said her dog totally knows she’s the most beautiful one in the room.  Maybe they just shouldn’t make working dogs that cute and hard to resist.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

The Winter Meeting registration is on par with last year and we always have room for more.  The Event page is open for registering through the conference, so we hope to see you!  If you arrive by late afternoon/early evening on February 14th, wear your Valentine’s Day finery and meet at the Fontainebleau’s Bleau Bar.  The Florida Justice Association is generously sponsoring a Happy Hour on Friday from 5p to 7p.  Please gather there to reconnect over a beverage!  (The timing is concurrent with the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus reception, so feel free to float between the two events.)

Register for this month’s 4th Monday Zoom Series, February 24 at 4pmET.  We will be discussing Asana, a tool with uses from basic project management to a more comprehensive, whole-office collaboration.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, so chain smoking is a concept I only observed from the backseat of a college boyfriend’s parents’ car.  Ahem, just to clarify, the parents chain-smoked in the front seat all the while that one time they drove us to dinner.  (We took two cars next time after that experience.)  Anyway, starting a new one as you extinguish the last one fits how I switched books one night this week.  I finished local author, Chris Bohjalian’s Double Bind, and would normally have waited until the next night to start a new book.  I was too wound-up from the O Henry-like, “wait, what??” ending and wasn’t anywhere near sleep mode.  I immediately picked up my next book, CJ Box’s Paradise Valley, read and reread the first page while my brain adjusted to the new characters and setting, and happily banged out the first few chapters before turning out the light.  I may have stayed up a little later than usual, but it was way healthier than chain smoking.

P.P.S. I spotted two robins this morning – the usual harbingers of spring in these northerly parts – probably in the area to check out the real estate prospects.  They were so fluffed up in our below-freezing temps, they looked like might be regretting their decision to come back so soon.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Our 4th Monday Zoom Series this month was a discussion about “Boosting Team Efficiency & Member Engagement: Leveraging AI, Customizable Templates, and Strategic Tools for Event Planning and Communication“.  The recording is available, along with several documents from the presenters where you’ll find useful tools and tips for customizable graphics and templates, filesharing, content calendars, and artificial intelligence.

Save the date for next month’s 4th Monday Zoom Series, February 24 at 4pmET.  We will be discussing Asana, a tool with uses from basic project management to a more comprehensive, whole-office collaboration.

The Winter Meeting guarantees are going in next week and we’re finalizing the last-minute details.  If you arrive by late afternoon/early evening on February 14th, wear your Valentine’s Day finery and meet at the Fontainebleau’s Bleau Bar.  The Florida Justice Association is generously sponsoring a Happy Hour on Friday, February 14 from 5p to 7p.  Please gather there to reconnect over a beverage!  (The timing is concurrent with the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus reception, so feel free to float between the two events.)

That’s the NATLE Weekly Wrap.  Have a great weekend!  (If you find that you’re repeating tasks on Sunday, don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s Groundhog Day.)

P.S. In case you’re still here…I know I’ve mentioned my dad in this space in the past, but it has been a while.  The last time he had his hair cut, for reference, the first round of COVID vaccines had just come out.  Yah, he’ll be 84 in less than a month – six months older than David Crosby (RIP), but with an identical do.  Some men can rock the long hair, but Dad just looked homeless.  I finally wore him down and we went to a stylist on Wednesday.  He’s never had a bigger ego boost with all of the positive feedback coming from his neighbors at his independent living residence.  It’s not just the ladies, but the men and staff are also telling him it’s quite the transformation.  On the way home from the cut, he said he felt lighter.  I just felt relieved.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

This is the last week for any discount on the Winter Meeting registration.  The cost increases to the Walk-In rate on Monday.  The Florida Justice Association has generously offered to sponsor the Happy Hour on Friday, February 14 from 5p to 7p at the Fontainebleau’s Bleau Bar.  Please gather there to reconnect over a beverage!  (The timing is concurrent with the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus reception.)

We have a NATLE/AAJ State Affairs Update via Zoom this afternoon at 1pmET to discuss Uber and the proposed legislation that includes language re vicarious liability, UM/UIM coverage, and more.  Daniel Hinkle and Geoffrey Louden of AAJ State Affairs, will bring us up to date on these bills and we invite you to bring your experiences, talking points, and lessons learned.  Register here!  This will NOT be recorded, so if you can’t make it, feel free to assign a substitute…just let me know who that’ll be so I don’t bounce them off.

Our 4th Monday Zoom Series is on January 27 at 4pmET.  Register to get in on the discussion about “Boosting Team Efficiency & Member Engagement: Leveraging AI, Customizable Templates, and Strategic Tools for Event Planning and Communication“.  The presenters will demonstrate useful tools and tips for customizable graphics and templates, filesharing, content calendars, and artificial intelligence.  Enable your team to streamline office operations and engage with members through creative communications.

The deadline to submit and receive results from the CEO Compensation Survey has passed.  The Spark Mill has the data and is in the number-crunching phase.  If there are crosstabs missing from the 2022 Survey packet, please let me know so that they can be included in this year’s edition.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…Hoo boy, what a week.  For me, Monday was a crazy sine wave going from the peace of reflecting on the goodness and moving oratory of MLK Jr to the jarring lows listening to the mind-numbing voice and head-scratching speeches from #47.  The Rev Martin Luther King Jr. was killed four months before I was born and less than a week after my paternal grandfather, an Episcopal priest, died in a plane crash.  Just as I like to hope I’ll someday meet my grandfather in whatever is The Great Beyond, I like to think of those two having coffee together and commiserating over the state of things these past five and a half decades.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

I’ve been alerted to strange emails confirming interest in buying our Winter Meeting attendee list.  Poor grammar and fake domains aside, these are a scam.  A test email to one of the senders came back as originating in New Delhi.  Moreover, NATLE doesn’t sell its lists.

Thanks to a suggestion during the AAJ COP call on Wednesday, we have set up a NATLE/AAJ State Affairs Update via Zoom to discuss Uber and the proposed legislation that includes language re vicarious liability, UM/UIM coverage, and more.  On Friday, January 24 at 1pmET, AAJ State Affairs, Daniel Hinkle and Geoffrey Louden, will bring us up to date on these bills and we invite you to bring your experiences, talking points, and lessons learned.  Register here!  This will NOT be recorded, so if you can’t make it, feel free to assign a substitute…just let me know who that’ll be so I don’t bounce them off.

The panel for this month’s 4th Monday Zoom Series met to plan the program that has been renamed, “Boosting Team Efficiency & Member Engagement: Leveraging AI, Customizable Templates, and Strategic Tools for Event Planning and Communication“.  Communications to members, event planning, staff efficiency; all of these functions (and more) can benefit from customizable graphics and templates, filesharing, content calendars, and artificial intelligence.  This session will be packed with useful tools and tips, and a resource package that will inspire the whole spectrum of AI users, from the novice to the "old hand".  Integrate fun into your CLE programs, be prepared to respond quickly to newsworthy opportunities - and gaps - with a cache of social media posts, and don't let deadlines slip by.  Enable your team to streamline office operations and engage with members through creative communications.  Register and save the date of January 27 at 4pmET.

The NATLE website has a few new pages to check out.  I’ve added a link to a list of Past Presidents under the About tab – that’s a lot of history!  For vendors interested in sponsoring our events, I’ve added a page that highlights the Sponsorship Opportunities.  If you think of a page that should be added, please let me know.  Full disclosure, the PP page had been set up, but was simply missing a link from the homepage.

I know you are familiar with the struggle to get your members to respond to requests – especially when you’ve paid a consultant to collect the data – so I ask you to please take the 5 minutes necessary to complete the CEO Compensation Survey.  There are 15 executive directors yet to respond and the Working Group has been making calls to these stragglers.  The email with a link to the survey has the subject line, “NATLE Compensation Survey”.  Our consultant, The Spark Mill, is beginning to format the results and we need your response to ensure the most relevant information for you and your colleagues.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…I need a little action.  And, mystery, drama, and a murder never hurts.  Yes, I’m talking about my reading material…pfft, what did you think I meant?  I pulled a book off the shelf from Mom’s collection a few weeks ago and persevered to finally finish it last night.  It’s A Light in the Window by Jan Karon and I kept expecting something to happen – surely someone must die a horrible death or a tongue-wagging scandal will shake up the fictional town of Mitford.  I should have known that with a character list topped by a milquetoast parson and his moody, misconstrues-everything neighbor-turned-girlfriend, that the only measurable bee-boop on this reader’s EKG came when the town gets walloped with feet of snow during a blizzard – be still my heart.  I’d take that over a heatwave any day.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my life relatively tame life, but it makes my brain itchy for excitement, even if only on the page.  I picked up the next volume in CJ Box’s Joe Pickett series last night and, digging in, it was a salve for that itch.

P.P.S. Ever had an ocular migraine?  My first one was about seven years ago and I called my optometrist fearing the worst.  Unlike the headache-type migraines, those of the ocular variety come with no pain or even discomfort, for me, at least.  Instead, there’s a snake-y void in my field of vision that flashes and pulses in brightness.  With zero previous experience, personal or friend-wise, that first incident was understandably disconcerting.  They show up about once a year and my last one was yesterday afternoon.  It was so distracting that I could barely see my screen, so I took a 15-minute lie down and let it work itself out.

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

The response rate to our CEO Compensation Survey is up to 60% and, in the hopes that we’ll best our previous rate of 83%, the Working Group is making calls to the stragglers.  The Spark Mill sent an email on Wednesday shortly after noonET with a link to the survey.  If you haven’t yet completed the survey, please check your inbox (or spam) for an email with a subject line, “NATLE Compensation Survey”. (The responses are confidential and the unique link is just so TSM can let us know who’s responded and who hasn’t.)  Sentiments from a colleague...

[There are] cool comparators and cross tabs in your survey – size of urban area, membership base, budget, staffing levels. The last report was easy to read and digest. It looked very attractive, visually. I hope you have the best possible results for this next report.  I would encourage the hold outs to be more altruistic and consider the greater good.

A working group of TLAs facing pesticide legislation has been meeting (almost) every Friday at 2pmET via Zoom to review the latest challenges and discuss issues such as EPA rulings and the industry’s positions.  If you want to be part of the discussion, let me know and we’ll tie you in.

We have 8 outstanding dues renewal notices and I continue to reach out to bring them all up to current.

The panelists for this month’s 4th Monday Zoom Series are meeting on Monday to plan the hour.  Amanda Feil, with enSYNC Corp, and Erin Robinson, of IdentityPR, look forward to updating their highly-rated presentation from our virtual Winter Meeting in 2022, “Streamlining Communications: Effective Communication to Members”.  If you have questions/suggestions on TLA issues and challenges, please let me know.  An announcement will be distributed Monday afternoon.  In the meantime, save the date of January 27 at 4pmET.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…It’s a good thing there’s not a critter cam set up in my office watching my every move or you might have caught me playing Twister by myself the other day.  I had to replace the chair mat under my desk because the old one was cracked and falling apart.  The new mat came tightly rolled in a long box from Amazon and since it had been chillin’ on my porch for at least a few hours, I unboxed it to thaw overnight in the hopes that it would be more pliable.  That was wishful thinking.  It was as unwilling to unwind as if it had just come out of the freezer.  I put my toes on the edge of one end and pushed out the roll until I was in downward dog with nothing handy to use as anchors.  It was an exercise fraught with danger as I failed to avoid getting stabbed by the sharp pointy nubs on the underside of the mat.  It bucked my attempts to lay flat until I wrestled with enough weighty objects to knock it into submission.  I needed that reminder of why I don’t play Twister.

P.P.S. I listened to the speeches at President Carter’s memorials in the rotunda on Tuesday and at National Cathedral yesterday.  I was most impressed with his grandson, Jason Carter.  I’ve volunteered at a few Habitat for Humanity projects, one on the south side of Chicago as part of the extra activities during a years-ago ATLA conference.  It was a great experience and I loved feeling useful for those couple of hours.

Good Morning and Happy First Friday of 2025!

I was “off” on Monday, so this has been a super-short week, though it was definitely impactful with a fond farewell to Larry Shannon who retired after almost four decades with WSAJ!  I hope you all saw his final listserv post.

We have 13 outstanding dues renewal notices and I hope to bring them all up to current by next week!  (The grace period ended Dec 31st, so they won't see this email.)

I’ve just asked The Spark Mill to send the latest list of not-yet-responders to the CEO Compensation Survey – as of December 20th, only half had completed the survey.  The Working Group will make follow up calls to those EDs beginning on Monday timed to coincide with a final invitation email from TSM that includes a link to the survey.  (The responses are confidential and the unique link is just so TSM can let us know who’s responded and who hasn’t.)

This month’s 4th Monday Zoom Series is shaping up to be a “back by popular demand” session with the panel we hosted at the 2022 Winter Meeting in Phoenix.  “Streamlining Communications: Effective Communication to Members” will be an updated program covering tech, particularly communications, planning events, and staff efficiency.  If you have questions/suggestions for the panel on issues and challenges, please let me know.  I’ll forward an announcement ASAP, but in the meantime, save the date of January 27 at 4pmET.

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

P.S. In case you’re still here…I enjoyed my time off last week and spent several hours re-settling my office since it was painted as part of my deck project.  I grabbed a couple of bookcases out of storage and that helped get a boatload of binders of NATLE archives off the floor and also hung a much-reduced number of pictures.  It’s finally looking more like a professional space!  I feel like I’ve been waiting to exhale for over three years, and I appreciate no longer having the distraction of clutter.

P.P.S. I’ll take my 1,500th Pure Barre class tonight and I’m so grateful for the shared experience of fitness and friendship.  Here’s to the next 1,500!