Chair's Message By James Baird Midyear Meeting Report The ABA held its annual Midyear Meeting in Miami, Florida, during the first two weeks of February 1995. The Section did not hold a Council Meeting, because we will be meeting at the end of April in Key West for the entire Section's Spring Meeting. (If you haven't made your reservations, you had better do so immediately; we are rapidly running out of space.) Besides an Executive Committee Meeting, the Section's Officers were busy on several fronts. The Section's Executive Committee (Chair, Chair-Elect, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Budget Officer, and Communications Director) held an all-day meeting Saturday, February 11, 1995. Please allow me to fill you in on the basics of the meeting. Budget Officer Pat Arey reported that the Section's finances are in fairly good shape, primarily because of our highly successful publications program. In my Chair's report, I reviewed the assignments I had made to Council members in September of 1994 and we discussed the progress which had been made on those assignments. Council Assignments: We Need Your Input For your information, and in case you would like to have input into the substance of these assignments, please be advised that the following Council members are responsible for the following subject areas and they will report back to the Governing Council during our Key West meeting: Lee Keatinge - Receipt and analysis of all requests received from other sections for "blanket authority" to testify or submit statements of position on substantive areas before legislative or judicial panels. Ruth Kleinfeld - Coordination of all activities of the "Emerging Issues" Task Force. Fred Leonhardt - In conjunction with Larry Ethridge, to submit a long-range planning report to the Section. Deborah McAbee - Prepare a report concerning new ideas to generate nondues revenue (excluding publications) for the Section. Charlie Olson - Preparation of the appropriate application in order that the Section might receive consideration for the ABA's "Partnership Award" for our video on Coping with Crisis. Diane Schenke - Preparation of a report and recommendations concerning steps the Section should take to increase Section members' involvement in committee activities. Sandra Van de Walle - Preparation of a report and recommendations on the appropriate federalism policy to be adopted by the Section. (Sandra submitted a draft report which was absolutely tremendous.) Peter Buchsbaum - Preparation of a report concerning steps the Section should take to reach out to various state bar associations. John Copelan - Preparation of outreach activities for the Section's Key West Spring Meeting 1995. Dan Curtin - Preparation of a report and recommendations concerning our Section's internal governance structure, including any possible bylaw changes. (Dan submitted a draft report which was also positively excellent.) Carol Dinkins - A report card on the Section's achievements on its Goals 1 through 9 with comments, suggestions, and recommendations. Adriane Dudley - Prepare an action plan to help the Section better achieve the ABA's Goal 9 (advancement of minorities) objectives. Larry Ethridge - In conjunction with Fred Leonhardt, submitting a long-range planning report. Sholem Friedman - Preparation of text materials to accompany the Section's crisis video. Fay Hartog - Preparation of an appropriate "Ross Essay" topic for submission on behalf of the Section. Modest Membership Decline We were quite chagrined to learn that our Section has apparently suffered a membership decline in the neighborhood of 6 to 9 percent. Some of that decline has been caused by increased ABA and Section dues and some caused by members leaving our Section to join other ABA sections, forums, or task forces. Nonetheless, the Executive Committee, and especially Rich Hill as Membership chair, is quite concerned about this development and will be formulating important membership growth initiatives to be implemented within the next several months. Secretary Fred Leonhardt reported that our Section's committees are, for the most part, proceeding on pace to prepare annual reports for publication in The Urban Lawyer. The Committee Preference form was filled out and returned by almost 25 percent of the Section's membership (an extraordinarily high rate of return we are told), and new membership lists will be sent to committee chairs so that they might contact their new members. Several of the committees have expressed an interest in holding committee meetings during the Key West Spring Meeting and the Executive Committee so far has reacted positively to each such request. Larry Ethridge reported on our professional services, with special emphasis on new publications and our Coping with Crisis video. We are delighted to report that Public Employee Privacy: A Legal and Practical Guide to Issues Affecting the Workplace has recently been published and Exactions, Impact Fees, and Dedications: Shaping Land-Use Development and Funding Infrastructure in the Dolan Era will follow in May. Larry also reported Section sales of publications for the first quarter of this fiscal year amounted to $56,535, a new Section record! Meetings In addition to the Section's Key West Meeting, April 26-30, 1995, plans are being finalized for the Section's meeting in conjunction with the ABA's Annual Meeting in Chicago, August 3-7, 1995. Our Section's hotel will be the Intercontinental on Michigan Avenue, an excellent location in almost every respect. We are currently planning to hold substantive programs on several different subjects of interest, including land use, first amendment issues, and the Americans With Disabilities Act, to name a few. While it is not official, Chair-Elect Rich Hill indicates he is considering a spring 1996 meeting in either Cancun or Cozumel, Mexico. If you have a preference, please don't hesitate to call Rich directly with your comments. Section Delegates John Witt and Carol Dinkins reported on the many resolutions before the ABA's House of Delegates. Among the more controversial are resolutions from the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities concerning the denial of public welfare to children born while a family is receiving public assistance (Report 105); a resolution from various sections opposing efforts to deny children equal access to various social services depending upon the immigration status of the parent (Report 110); and a resolution supported by the Commission on Women in the Profession and the Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Legal Profession, among others, opposing bias and discrimination based on race and gender which prevents multi-cultural women from gaining full and equal participation in the legal profession, with sanctions when violations are established (Report 119). After considerable discussion (much of it emotionally charged) consensus was reached to give delegates Witt and Dinkins authority to exercise their personal judgment and discretion when voting on these and other issues before the House after hearing all appropriate debate. The Executive Committee also discussed various additional issues impacting the Section, including the new Jefferson B. Fordham student writing competition the Section will be sponsoring, the activities of the NIMLO/ABA Federalism Committee (we will continue working closely with NIMLO but without their use of the ABA nomenclature in the Committee's title), nominations for the Margaret Brent Award and the Thurgood Marshall Award, as well as reviewing ABA legislative and governmental priorities and providing Section input on them. Sandra Van de Walle Testimony The Section's Executive Committee, joined by other Section members in attendance, was pleased and proud to attend a hearing conducted by the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession. Our Section's Delegate, Carol Dinkins, had the honor of introducing Sandra Van de Walle, Council Member, who testified to the commission concerning the status of women in various New York public sector law departments, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Sandra's testimony was riveting and we were exceedingly proud of her message and the manner in which she delivered it. A summary of her testimony appears on page 12 of this Newsletter, so I won't repeat it here. Key West, Here We Come! The next item on our Section's agenda is the Key West Spring Meeting. At that time we will have various committee meetings, as well as a meeting of the entire Governing Council. All Section members are invited to attend each of these meetings, including the meeting of the Section's Governing Council. See you in Key West! James Baird is Chair of the Section and practices law with Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, IL.