- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BAR EXECUTIVES -

Ever feel like you’re trapped in a three-ring circus?
For bar association communications professionals, this is an all-too-common feeling. And more often than not, just a typical day at work.

You arrive at the office, determined to tackle that pile of paper on your desk. As you scan the morning paper, you find that one of your committee chairs, in an interview with the paper, has taken a position against a political candidate. What’s more, the newspaper has stated that the committee chair is speaking on behalf of your bar! Your voice mail is full of messages from other media outlets hungry for a comment. Time to play the lion tamer.

This year, your bar association is combining its annual meeting with a judicial conference. It’s a big one. Members and the media will be there tomorrow to cover the State of the Judiciary and the State of the Bar address. You casually remark to your Executive Director that you hope your president’s speech comes off well (since you haven’t been shown a copy yet). She looks at you blankly—you mean YOU didn’t help him with it? There’s no speech! You’ve got 12 hours to pull something together or you’ll all end up looking like clowns.

The article you scheduled for the lead in the next issue of the monthly magazine is a cover feature on a hot legal topic. The artwork has been completed, the article has been reviewed and approved, the editing is done, the formatting looks great, and it’s ready to send off to the printer. A colleague happens to send you the latest issue of her local bar publication. You notice that a different author has written on the same topic.

As you skim the article, you notice that some of the language sounds familiar. Too familiar. You realize that your author has plagiarized several paragraphs. Only an escape artist can get your publication out of this mess.

You’re called in to a membership committee meeting and are told that your new member packets need to be completely rewritten, redesigned and printed for the new attorney swearing-in ceremony … this Friday. It’s gonna be another encore of your juggling act.

Your overworked staff is miraculously managing to keep their heads just above water when an edict comes down from on high: “Thou shalt offer online versions of the past five year’s worth of the association’s publications, and thou shalt DO IT YESTERDAY!” Better start jumping through hoops.

It’s days like these when you need helpful ideas and support from those in the know. This is the perfect time to call on your colleagues in the Communications Section for advice, sympathy and most importantly—Answers!

Two heads really ARE better than one and you’ll find some of the best heads in the business in the NABE Communications Section. You’ll find a network of colleagues who are accessible, speak your language and have been there. With the NABE Communications Section, you’ve always got a safety net. Join the section today!