Almost exactly nine years ago, on July 9, 2004, I wrote an article titled “Out with the old and in the new” with a subtitle of “But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
The earlier article recognized the hard work and dedication Driver exemplified as president of the Young Lawyer’s Section of The Jacksonville Bar Association, as well as my excitement in taking on the role for the coming year.
Nine years later, I find myself again accepting the baton from him and I am proud, but also humbled, by this opportunity.
Like in the previous article, I want to commend Driver for the outstanding job he performed last year.
In addition to maintaining the numerous perennial programs we expect from The JBA, he completely restructured the sections and committees of our organization.
The result of this effort
was greater coordination among the volunteers and increased
programming for our
members.
Last year, The JBA, through the hard work of the section and committee chairs and members, hosted 27 separate continuing legal education opportunities for our members — a record for our association.
In addition, Driver, with the ever-present support and commitment of Jim Bailey, facilitated a partnership with W.C. Gentry and the Duval County School Board that allowed lawyers and judges from our association to participate in the reintroduction of the civics curriculum in 7th grade Duval County classrooms.
It was a truly great year. So now what?
First, the Bar is committed to continuing the new programming and partnerships Driver fostered last year.
The civics education partnership with the school board is scheduled to significantly expand this year.
To meet our commitments to the school board, we will need more volunteer teachers.
Last year, Driver and I had the opportunity to present to six sections of seventh graders at Twin Lakes Middle School.
Our topic was ethics in business. The classroom time commitment consisted of only one day, however we also assisted with the lesson planning.
Total, we had 20 lawyers and judges who participated in the program this spring and spoke to 30 classes at five schools. Ultimately, this pilot program reached nearly 800 students. There are more than 9,600 rising seventh graders in the Duval County school district, encompassing 26 area middle
schools.
This year, we have the potential to present to as many as 385 classrooms of students, but we need your help.
This fall we also will roll out a new JBA website.
Giselle Carson, her team and The JBA staff have spent countless hours with web designers to develop a modern platform for our association.
The end product will not only be more user-friendly, but will provide more public information about the services offered by our members and information about the association’s ongoing membership activities.
In addition to maintaining the ongoing work of the JBA, we also will focus on growing our membership this year.
A notable accomplishment of our Bar in recent years was reaching the 2,000 member milestone.
As a result of reaching this goal, the association was granted the opportunity to appoint a delegate to the American Bar Association.
Only six voluntary Bar associations in Florida enjoy the distinction of appointing delegates to the ABA.
With a total membership today of 2,001, we are on the bubble to maintain this distinction.
However, with more than 3,600 members of The Florida Bar living in Duval County — and even more living outside the county, but commuting every day to Jacksonville — we should not be on this bubble.
As we kick off the association’s new year, I welcome your thoughts, suggestions and, most of all, help in continuing the good work of our association and to develop ways to grow. Thanks, and for the record, the Bar REMAINS open!