Board Committees: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Any good leader knows the importance of delegating authority. To work efficiently, the Law Student Division's Board of Governors has delegated authority to seven committees. The division's bylaws call for standing committees to deal with such issues as resolutions, operations, finance, membership and programs, and publications. In addition, the board has authority to create any other committees it feels are necessary. Much of the board's work is done through its committees. Each committee reviews every resolution presented to the Board of Governors and provides a recommendation. Additionally, each committee has its own area of expertise and makes policy and/or recommendations to the Law Student Division as a whole. Here is your guide to these committees:

Diversity
Helps law schools and the division's 15 regional circuits develop diversity programs and diversity training;

• chooses the recipient of the division's Dean Henry Ramsey Jr. Award for the person, law school or group that makes substantial strides in meeting the American Bar Association's Goal IX of promoting the full and equal participation in the legal profession by minorities and women;

• plans and implements national Diversity Day, a newly created Law School Division program in which law schools are encouraged to offer programs about diversity and discrimination of any kind: race, gender, religion, class or sexual orientation. Because it marks the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the ABA/LSD Board of Governors has symbolically designated April 4 as national Diversity Day.

Chair: H. Lamar Willis (lawn justic@aol.com), Boston College Law School, First Circuit governor.

Elections
Oversees the election of the division's national officers as well as its 15 circuit governors, which requires monitoring the nominees' campaigning, the question-and-answer sessions, and the actual voting; currently in the process of recommending revisions to the election code so the language and procedures are consistent for all elections.

Chair: Jennifer Brumley (brum9201@uidaho.edu), University of Idaho College of Law, Twelfth Circuit governor.

Membership and Programs
Recruits and retains Law Student Division members;

• works with division staff to coordinate member benefits and develop new benefits;

• promotes the division's competitions and its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program;

• supports the ABA/LSD school representatives at ABA-accredited law schools;

• this year's goal: to increase division membership by 50 percent by August 1999.

Chair: Christopher Stephen (LSDViceChair@abanet.org), Catholic University of America-Columbus School of Law, Law Student Division vice-chair.

Operations and Publications
Reviews resolutions submitted to the division's Assembly for financial impact;

• keeps an eye on the division's publications, including the Division Reporter, the Career Series books and Student Lawyer;

• works to make the division's Web page more user-friendly.

Chair: Kyle Mitchell (kmitchel @law.fsu.edu), The Florida State University College of Law, Fifth Circuit governor.

Student Bar Associations
Supports the nearly 200 student bar association presidents with information on programs, speakers and fund-raising;

• determines the recipient of the SBA of the Year Award;
• monitors an e-mail discussion group for SBA presidents.

Chair: Jose Contreras (jcontrer @law.vill.edu), Villanova University School of Law, division vice-chair/SBA.

Public Interest
Selects recipient of the Public Interest School of the Year Award;

• chooses theme for annual Work-A-Day program;

• implements Project 2000, the division's effort to count the total number of public-service hours that law students put in around the country.

Chair: Tim Tuttle (Timtuttle @abanet.org), University of Nebraska College of Law, Eighth Circuit governor.

Resolutions
Screens every resolution proposed for the Law Student Division's Board of Governors or its annual Assembly for compliance with division bylaws.

Because part of the committee's job is to send faulty resolutions back for more work, this committee isn't always popular! The committee may refer a resolution to another committee.

Chair: Division Delegate Virginia Wu, a student at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio.

Lee Farbman