State & Local News Vol. 20, No. 4, Summer 1997 Legally Speaking By John Copelan Time flies! It hardly seems like my first year as editor of the State & Local Law News is coming to an end. This year saw the implementation of several changes to the newsletter in response to suggestions from the readers in our recent Section membership survey. We will continue to listen to comments and continue to respond to your suggestions in the upcoming year. To this end, I am pleased to announce that for the first time, we will have a permanent binder to catalogue and store future issues of the News. These new binders will be available on a complimentary basis at the Annual Meeting in San Francisco for those who register to attend and will also be available for purchase in the next issue of the News. Along with this new catalogue binder, we will also publish a cumulative index in the next issue of the News to assist our readers in locating featured articles. I have just returned from an Officer's Retreat and Planning Conference led by incoming Chair Fred Leonhardt and I believe some exciting changes regarding the newsletter may be in the offing for the upcoming year. One idea we are studying is increasing the number of issues from four to six. Your feedback on other issues in the survey were very helpful to us, so I would appreciate your comments on this proposed change. Plans are also underway for an additional column to be added next year entitled "Recent Developments," which should provide informative updates on recent case law and leading edge developments. Peter Buchsbaum has agreed to head up this effort as an assistant editor for next year and will need your input on recent developments to make this new effort a success in keeping our members updated. With this issue, we are inaugurating a new theme program suggested by Section Secretary Sholem Friedman wherein committees within the Section have the opportunity to sponsor an issue of the News. This newsletter is the first of a series of four issues devoted to themes based upon the sponsoring committee. Articles within sponsored issues of the News are provided by the Committee and based on the Committee's theme. Our thanks to the Land Use and Zoning Committee for stepping out and sponsoring this issue. The next three issues will be devoted to: Fall 1997 Environmental Committee; Winter 1997 Finance and Operations Committee; and Spring 1998 Transportation Law Committee. If you want to write on one of the themes, contact the Committee Chairs as soon as possible. In closing, I would like to thank my assistant editor, Maite Azcoitia, and Rick Bright, staff editor, for all their fine work on this year's newsletter. I look forward to working with them and Peter next year. Keep sending us your comments, topics for discussion, and proposed articles via Internet e-mail or snail mail. See you in San Francisco at the Annual Meeting. Over & Out in Fort Lauderdale State & Local Law News home page | Current Table of Contents