[Ed. note: This article was written before the AJEI kick-off in Dallas in November.]

"You'd better start swimmin'
or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin."

As the Chinese proverb says, "May you live in interesting times," and these times are certainly "interesting" for CASA. And with an acknowledgment to Bob Dylan's words, still relevant today, CASA has to keep swimmin' as we forge a new relationship with the Appellate Judges Education Institute (AJEI) and the ABA's Appellate Judges Conference (AJC). This relationship is addressed in other CQ articles in this issue.

The great news is that the CASA 2004 Seminar at Park City, Utah was a resounding success! With 113 attendees (59 CASA members, 54 non-members), representing 31 states, seven federal appeals courts, and Guam, CASA turned a profit of between $6-11,000. That bottom line should send a clear message to the AJEI leadership that the CASA organization can put on a legal seminar to rival any in the country, with memorable social events, and still end the balance sheet in the black.

Not to rest on our laurels (Joe Merling still wears the Park City laurel wreath), CASA's major test is ahead at Dallas, July 25-30, 2005, at the Omni Mandalay. This event will be the first CASA seminar under the aegis of AJEI and currently has all the earmarks of another terrific seminar.

CASA's Executive Board met in Dallas in late October to plow a deep and straight furrow toward the July seminar. Representatives from AJEI and the AJC attended. The proposed agenda was approved, and important budgetary matters were discussed in detail.

The Omni Mandalay is a superb hotel with excellent plenary and breakout rooms, probably nicer than any previous CASA seminar site. Too, inferences have suggested that, if Dallas is successful, CASA may be given preferential rates in other Omni hotels throughout the country. AJEI/CASA is already exploring San Francisco's Omni for 2006.

Once the AJEI "kickoff" seminar is concluded, AJEI's Rebecca Greenan and Rebekah Bell, will be able to shift efforts to our 2005 Seminar. We expect to see a large number of Texas attorneys, and those of nearby states, attending the summer seminar. Rebecca Greenan, AJEI's Executive Director, told me that they would be making a special effort toward the Texas-Louisiana-Oklahoma-New Mexico jurisdictions for attendees.

Needless to say (but I will, anyway), this is an important time for CASA. And it is our collective charge, not just that of the CASA leadership, to explore the ways and means of keeping CASA relevant and important to the AJEI and AJC organizations.

For, as Dylan wrote:

As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a changin'.