Minutes of the Meeting of
ATTENDANCE
Members present were:
Arthur Birdsall (PBA), Elizabeth Kramer (PBA), Susan Kenny (Monroe), Don Morgan
(Dauphin), Jessica Engel(Lycoming), Barbara Kittrell (Berks), Shelly Lawson
(Colburn),), Barry Simpson (PBA), Fran O’Rourke (PBA), Sue Miller, CLE board,
Katey Buggy, CLE board, Marianne Canning (Lehigh). Stacey Thomas (PBI), Heather
Martin (Bucks), Susan Kost (Schuylkill), Evelyn Sullivan (Lancaster), Jean Bednarski
(York), Kathy Sabol (Washington), Bruce Fleischer(Centre), Wendy Hoffman
(Chester) , Roger Meilton (PBI), Richard McCoy (PBI), Diane Krivoniak (Westmoreland), Becky
Morganthal (Cumberland) and Mary Beth Leeson (Northampton).
TREASURER’s
REPORT/Minutes
Minutes from the August
2005 business meeting in
REPORTS
PRESIDENTS COMMENTS
Upcoming Dates
¨
PBA Mid Year
¨
PABE program
is Thursday on Diversity in Law Firms. Panel: Ev Sullivan, Kathy Sabol, Sam
Cooper, Diane Krivoniak
CCBL March 2 -4 2006
Sponsorships from local
bars will again be solicited however the exact dollar amount has not yet been
determined. New PABE president will set that along with the CCBL committee.
LIAISON REPORT
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Nevin Mindlin, PBA
Legislative Coordinator was not present. President Paul reported that both ACBA
and Montgomery Bar have hired their own lobbyist to deal with the issues of
sales tax and legal journal advertising.
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
PUBLIC IMAGE
President Paul provided
summary of the Public Image campaign.
¨
PBA is
budgeting money to produce commercials and will make them available for local
bar associations to “buy” air time for these commercials.
¨
President
Paul reported on the efforts of Montgomery County Bar to use the public image
campaign provided by the PBA: printed posters at cost of $1.50 per poster and
displayed at local libraries, courthouse, law firms, grocery stores.
¨
Both Phila
and
¨
Recent PBA PR
survey indicates that individuals feel that it is the local county bar that
needs to take responsibility to improve image of lawyers.
¨
PBA budgeted
$78,000 for PR campaign
¨
President
Paul encouraged bar executives to encourage their local bar to join in this
public image campaign.
ANNUAL MEETING
Attendance is down at the
PBA annual meetings. PBA leadership’s goal is to increase the attendance at the
2006 PBA annual meeting in Hershey in June.
Agreed to ask PBA
Director Simpson to distribute report on the PBA survey to the bar execs via
listserve.
PBA SURVEY
Over 16,000 surveys
emailed/faxed to PBA members with 4,255 respondents which is 25.3% return.
Results can be shared with PABE through the listserve.
PBI scored very high in
member satisfaction.
67% satisfaction with
PBA.
President Paul’s
recommendation that the CCBL and PBA officers be copied with all PABE minutes.
PBA President Carlucci
President Carlucci joined
the PABE meeting and shared comments on his presidency thus far. He commented
about organized bar and thanked all who support the PBA, including the bar
executives. President Carlucci expressed his interest in being invited to local
bar events.
CCBL
CCBL agenda will be
available at House of Delegates meeting along with award applications.
PBI
Director Meilton reported
that the PBI had an operating surplus of $100,000.
¨
Also reported
that Lexis is offering a 3 hour free cle as is litigation software company.
¨
PBI materials
are available for purchase and use by local bar CLE programs.
¨
Attendance at
PBI seminars has dropped off in areas outside of the
PBF
Heard report that the PBF
fundraiser event for the evening to be held at micro-brewery.
Dues check off is single
largest fundraiser for the foundation.
Campaign to have more
members of the house of delegates to be members of the foundation.
Grant allocations
recently awarded to PBA from PBF.
Thursday evening
reception at CCBL will be sponsored by WBF.
PBA INCOMING LEADERSHIP
President Elect Horoho
and Vice President Susko commented on the importance of working with bar execs
and welcomed suggestions from bar execs as they prepare for their years as PBA
president.
OLD BUSINESS
PABE website –
Jessica and Fran have secured the domain name for PABE:
www.pabe.info, and are ready for the
logo which has been submitted by Liz Price.
UNCLAIMED PROPERTY
Corrina Wilson, VP of
Operations, Pennsylvania Newspaper Association/Mid-Atlantic Association gave an
update on the publication of unclaimed property in local law journals.
¨
There has
been a delay in the release of the
information from the state treasury. Treasurer Casey has stated that his office
disagreed with the legal requirement of publishing the unclaimed property in
the law journals but has agreed to do so because he feels that it is “the right
thing to do.”
¨
Currently the
state treasury has not entered into a contract, but the Pa Newspaper
Association feels that this will move forward with publication likely to take
place in April 2006. Publication may take place in February at the earliest,
with publication schedule as such: Bucks,
¨
Final list is
250,000-275,000 names and is quite a bit smaller than previously thought. Ms.
Wilson indicated that her organization will help all journals with
publication including satisfying the
specs and the actual printing.
¨
Ms. Wilson
indicated that the mid-Atlantic organization will issue checks to law journals
but she did not know the specifics about how or when the payment would be
received.
NEW BUSINESS
SCHOLARSHIP POLICY
Susan Kenney submitted a
draft of the PABE scholarship policy.
Membership discussed and
agreed to amend the document with language to include:
¨
PABE
president scholarship for mid-year and annual for one half the cost.
¨
Officers to
review and vote upon by scholarship with the president abstaining is he/she
applies.
NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chair of Nominating Committee, Art Birdsall submitted 2006-07 slate of
candidates:
¨
Becky
Morganthel, President
¨
Diane
Krivoniak, Vice President
¨
Susan Kenney,
Secretary
¨
David Blaner,
Treasurer
Mr. Birdsall
congratulated President Paul for two great years of service to the organization
as PABE president.
Motion: Mr. Birdsall
moved to accept the slate of officers as submitted by committee. Motion seconded by Mrs. Paul and motion
carried.
KATRINA CONTRIBUTIONS
Discussion on PABE help
to the lawyers/bar associations in
¨
Heard report
that NABE is providing the funding for
transportation and living expenses to send David Blaner to help develop a
business plan to get bar associations in the
¨
Learned that
there is displacement of bar association and 2/3 of lawyers displaced. Supreme
court of
MOTION: Ev moved to make
contribution of up to $1000 to the New Orleans Bar Association after
Motion retracted.
MOTION: Mrs. Krivoniak
moved to send a check for $1000 to New Orleans Bar Association for that
organization to use as they see fit. Second by Ms. Sabol. Motion carried.
10-7
CCBL
MOTION: Ms. Martin moved
to send a PABE check for $1000 to the PBA for sponsorship dollars towards the
operating costs of CCBL . Second by Mr. Morgan. Motion carried.
NABE
Ev Sullivan gave update
on NABE and thanked the bar execs for their support.
June 2005 NABE is
sponsoring its first ever small bar conference for bar executives at a cost of
$75. Will be held on a Saturday and a Sunday in
Heard news that Carolyn
Seibert had recent major jaw surgery and
will be out of work for some time. Agreed to share her home address via
listserve for bar execs to send get well wishes.
PBA
Barry Simpson shared news
that PBA will increase dues in 2007.
InCite contract is up for
renewal. Feedback on InCite has been terrific.
HB1906
Sales tax scheduled for
vote on Tuesday.
Amendment that legal
journals is to stay in the publication requirement is to be proposed.
Suggestion that perhaps PLS Director Milkis might be interested in joining this
argument in support of the legal journal publication.
Agreed that Conference of
legal journals president and president of PABE should send letters on behalf of
both organizations about the importance of legal journals.
No further business,
meeting adjourned at
Submitted by Diane
Krivoniak, Secretary