May is a busy month for The JBA
If there was ever a single month that proves membership in The Jacksonville Bar Association is much more valuable than the prices of admission, May would be that month. While there are certainly multiple important events in the other 11 months of the year, May is by far our busiest, as noted below:
We start on Wednesday, May 5, with a continuing legal education event at the Aetna Building beginning at 10 a.m. about child exploitation and human trafficking. While I would guess that the majority of you do not realize the significance of this problem or the closeness of it, I humbly suggest that the facts and non-remoteness of this problem will disturb you. Jodi Seitlin, Crystal Freed and others have done an outstanding job of bringing awareness of this problem to the forefront and deserve our thanks.
On Thursday, May 6, we celebrate Law Day at the Hyatt Riverfront at noon. Our keynote speaker is the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General, Vice Admiral James W. Houck. In other words, Vice Admiral Houck is the Navy’s top lawyer. This year’s Law Day theme is Law in the 21st Century: Enduring Traditions, Emerging Challenges. I can personally attest to Vice Admiral Houck’s tremendous work to prepare the Navy JAG Corps for the 21st Century. He has been at the pointy end of the spear on the JAG Corps 2020 Program which has placed the JAG Corps in an ideal position with respect to the other Navy communities.
On Monday, May 10, the electronic voting commences for the election of our 2010-2011 JBA Board of Governors and President-Elect. More below on the outstanding folks and issues upon which you will be asked to vote. You will also be able to vote for the BoG on-site at the Annual Meeting May 20 at Deerwood.
On Thursday, May 13, we have yet another continuing legal education event regarding CME/CLE at the Florida Coastal School of Law. The event, led by Jake Schickel, provides mediators with all of the ethics, diversity and domestic violence CME hours you will need for your two-year reporting cycle. This event and the quarterly CME lunches are The JBA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Practitioner’s Section, led by Blane McCarthy, methods of allowing local mediators to earn all of their CME hours locally rather than having to drive south a few hours.
On Friday, May 14, we have The JBA’s annual Spring Event and you and your guest will have a wonderful time partying at the Stadium with Wayne Weaver and the Jacksonville Jaguars. This event is at no cost to you or your guest. The event runs from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, East Touchdown Club. Wine and beer tasting will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., followed by a presentation by the Jaguars followed by casino night complete with heavy hors d’ oeuvres, more beer and wine along with prizes. Remember to wear your Jaguars gear! To RSVP, e-mail [email protected].
On Thursday, May 20, we will celebrate the 113th Annual JBA Meeting along with our golf and tennis outing. While we have not had our annual meeting at Deerwood every year for the past 113 years, it certainly is a wonderful location for this event. Hank Coxe, Brad Johnson and David Barksdale have agreed once again to deliver the “State of the Bar” address commencing about 7 p.m. Last year’s address was outstanding and included a hilarious interview with the mayor. This is one of my favorite events of the year.
At the annual meeting we will also announce the winners of The JBA Board of Governors’ election. Current members of the BoG running for re-election are Giselle Carson, Troy Smith, Braxton Gillam, Tad Delegal and Kirby Oberdorfer, and Jodi Seitlin, Rose Marie Preddy and Fraz Ahmed are running for their first terms. Each of these folks has worked tirelessly on behalf of our Association and I regret that all who want to serve cannot. We will also introduce the new President-Elect Mike Freed, who is running unopposed. Mike has been a tremendous member of The JBA BoG and will be a tremendous leader of our Association.
You will also be voting on the amended bylaws to The JBA at the Annual Meeting. With respect to this vote, The JBA BoG unanimously approved the amended bylaws and they also were scrubbed by the Past Presidents of The JBA. While the Past Presidents were not completely unanimous on all the changes – getting 40 lawyers to all agree on one item is impossible – but everyone agreed that our bylaws needed to be amended to be brought into compliance with state laws regulating nonprofits.
Ray Driver and Braxton Gillam took the lead on this huge project and produced a virtually new set of bylaws.
The changes were so dramatic that when we produced a red-lined version of the bylaws as compared to the proposed amended version, the only terms that were not marked through were “The Jacksonville Bar Association.” The changes, it turns out after a thorough review, were necessary.
While you are welcome to review every scintillating word on our website, www.jaxbar.org, the significant changes in my view include the following: the president-elect will need to have served as a member of the BoG for a minimum of four years. While most of the current members will have served close to a decade on the BoG before running for president-elect, we believe that four years of service will provide the necessary experience to operate the second-largest professional association in the City that also possesses an operating budget exceeding $1 million.
We also have simplified the membership classifications to make it easier to understand, and we have created a secretary and treasurer position because we recognize that the complexity of the Association has increased as well as the time commitment involved. We are hoping that the secretary and treasurer will be able to assume some of the responsibilities from the president and president-elect.
We hope that you will vote in favor of the amended bylaws and we hope that you will enjoy all of the events we have planned this month. This month is a great month to be a Jacksonville lawyer.