As all you NABE members know by now, a major emphasis during this year has been to communicate with you and keep you informed about what your association is doing. There is so much going on that you need to be informed of and aware of, so that you have a better understanding of what activities are available for you and how you can be involved in the workings of NABE.

Whether it is the weekly e-mail blast, NABE News, various authorized and "unauthorized" listservs, NABE-NET or our website, there are just three words for you to remember - communicate, communicate, communicate.

In addition, you are still receiving a lot of snail-mail and by July, we will have communicated with every NABE member by telephone to get your comments and input. Finally, there is this Bar Executive publication that is also an excellent communications tool.

NABE's major decision making body is its Board of Directors. Consequently, I want you to be aware of what your Board of Directors has been doing in order for you to be able to communicate with the Board members on these issues that affect you.

The NABE Board meets four times a year - twice at the Mid-Year and Annual Meetings of the organization in February and August, as well as once in the fall and once in the spring. During this year, we met in Omaha, Nebraska in September - an historic joint meeting with the National Conference of Bar Presidents' Executive Council - and in April in West Virginia. I have given you brief synopses of the Board's work in several NABE News messages. However, I want you to have more detail based upon what occurred at the most recent Board Meeting in April.

Your NABE Board of Directors is a diverse group of bar executives who give a tremendous amount of time and effort to improve and enhance the programs and services of our organization. They are:

Tom Pyrz - President-Elect (Indiana State Bar) Anne Fritz - Vice President (Memphis Bar) Larry Buxbaum - Secretary (Hennepin County Bar) Ev Sullivan - Treasurer (Lancaster Bar) Allan Head - State Bar Director (North Carolina Bar) Rod Wegener - State Bar Director (Oregon State Bar) Ann Scarle - Local Bar Director (Baton Rouge Bar) Ken Schear - Local Bar Director (Philadelphia Bar) Janet Sosin - Director At-Large (Illinois State Bar)

At the Board meeting in April, the following actions and decisions were taken or made:

1. The 2003-2004 NABE Directory will be received by members by November 1.

2. A Board committee working on a membership survey was authorized to set up appropriate focus groups of annual meeting attendees at San Francisco in August as well as non-attendees.

3. The Board re-approved its continuing commitment to leadership development as a major component of NABE programs with the Program Committee being made aware of this ongoing commitment.

4. The Board spent an extensive amount of time reviewing the financial status and a proposed budget for 2003-2004. The underlying assumptions were that the NABE membership would be constant, dues will not increase, the sponsorships at the annual meeting will be greater than in prior years and that the costs of the overall operation of the organization will increase by 8% overall. The financial report and the budget were approved by the Board members.

5. A detailed report was made by Tom Edmonds (Virginia State Bar) in his position as NABE's representative to the ABA House of Delegates. The House did approve a membership dues increase to be effective in August, 2003.

6. The Board approved a resolution honoring the memory and achievements of the late Bernie Raverty (Dayton Bar).

7. After in depth discussion and review, the Board selected Bob Craghead (Illinois State Bar) to receive the Bolton Award, the highest honor which can be bestowed on a NABE member. The Board also selected Allen Kimbrough (Nevada State Bar) to serve a two year term as NABE's representative to the American Bar Association's House of Delegates.

8. The Board reviewed its criteria for designating honorary members of NABE, who are those individuals who have been NABE members for ten years, have retired from a bar association position and have strengthened the organization. It was agreed that there would be further review of the criteria and means of selection of Honorary Members. The Board did take action to designate the following individuals as NABE Honorary Members - Tom Barletta, Mona Buckley, Kay Fisher, Frank Moran, Lori Ruello, Cynthia Spanhel, Jack Sweeney and Dalton Menhall.

9. The Board approved a recommendation from the Election Committee that the NABE listserv not be used for campaigning in NABE elections.

10. The Board approved the Diversity Development Committee's request to conduct a survey and create a mentorship program.

11. The Board received a report from President-Elect Pyrz regarding his Committee's investigation of alternatives for NABE meeting at the same time as the ABA's Annual and Mid-Year Meetings. There will be a further discussion and review of this situation at the next Board meeting in San Francisco in August.

12. Vice President Fritz and John Norwine (Cincinnati Bar) were assigned to participate in a task force including representatives from the National Conference of Bar Presidents and the National Conference of Bar Foundations to look at pricing of American Bar Association programs.

13. The Board approved a recommendation from the Sponsorship Committee relating to the definition of „non-member‰ of NABE as a person otherwise qualified to be a member, but has not paid the necessary membership dues.

14. The Board approved reports from several NABE sections, committees and forums.

Your NABE Board of Directors will next meet at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, August 5, 2003 at the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco. All Board of Directors meetings are open to any NABE member. Why not stop in and see your NABE Board in action. I guarantee that it will be an interesting experience for you!

Then, you will know even more of what's up!