Colorado Bar Association President's Message to Members
| Publication year | 1996 |
| Pages | 23 |
| Citation | Vol. 25 No. 7 Pg. 23 |
1996, July, Pg. 23. Colorado Bar Association President's Message to Members
In my first year criminal law class, Professor Sowle zeroed in on me for what seemed the umpteenth time. Rather than let him once again demonstrate to my classmates that his intellectual bouts with me were the mismatch of the twentieth century, I resolved simply to beg off this particular morning by responding with what some had used effectively in other classes: "Sorry, sir, I'm unprepared today." Even when I offered up this default, Sowle couldn't resist the urge to inflict further professorial pain on the uninitiated: "That's quite all right, Mr. Cortez. Sometimes I find the uninformed mind quite refreshing." That terror-inducing remark presaged one of the longest hours of my law school education, where my classmates and I confirmed it's no fun to engage in the battle of wits unarmed. It is true in scouting, and it is true in life: Be Prepared.
In most organizations and in public life, a person assuming leadership has previously informed (or warned) the membership or constituency of the new leader's vision of what is to be accomplished during the upcoming tenure, with some blueprint for how the program is to be carried out. But the process of becoming CBA president, unlike many state bars, mercifully involves neither campaigning nor the manufacture of platforms.
Instead, during a year of something of an apprenticeship as president-elect, my predecessors and I had the opportunity to watch, listen, think and learn about the profession to which we have devoted our working lives. In short, we had a year to prepare. From a period of reflection emanates the agenda to which the new president intends to adhere; most of it is created by events and evolution, a little by the president's individualized take on the priorities at the time.
Two events, one beginning and one recently completed, serendipitously helped my planning process. First, 1997 marks the centennial year for the Colorado Bar Association, an historic event indeed, and a time for organizational retrospection and introspection. Second, the CBA recently completed a fairly extensive survey of its membership. Although the results contain no earth-shattering revelations, they are...
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