President’s Page, 0118 ALBJ, 79 The Alabama Lawyer 8 (2018)
| Author | Augusta S. Dowd, J. |
| Position | Vol. 79 1 Pg. 8 |
Augusta S. Dowd, J.
Evidence of the Changing Times
In my first "President's Page," I wrote about some of the exciting plans for this year: • A commitment that Executive Director Phillip McCallum and I, along with others in leadership, would take to the highways and backroads of our great state to meet, greet, listen to and break bread with our members;
• An invitation to join us as we took some of the Board of Bar Commissioners' meetings on the road;
• A pledge to work toward our bar's becoming a more engaged and relevant body; and
• An assurance to you that I would guide our bar as well as I knew how during this time of transition and through the continued challenges our profession faces.
In short, I told you that "The Times They Are a-Changin'" at your Alabama State Bar. At this halfway mark in my presidency, I thought it appropriate to check in and see how we are doing in executing the plans I first shared with you back in September. Since we're all lawyers here, let me share with you some hard evidence of the changing times at the ASB.
The commitment that both Phillip and I have to improving relationships and communication between and among all segments of our bar has resulted in the development of a tour we are calling the "State of the Bar.'The concept arose out of the belief that the state bar needed to do a better job of educating our members not only about the great benefits of bar membership but also as to issues of particular interest to our profession. So, with that lofty goal in mind, Phillip and I hit the road.
Our first soft rollout of the new"State of the Bar" was with our friends and colleagues of the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association with a maximum capacity crowd. As best I could tell, no one fell asleep during our presentation! Since our time in Tuscaloosa, we have ventured all over the state refining our message. Our"State of the Bar"address has now been presented to numerous constituencies, including the Mobile, Houston/Henry, Lauderdale/Franklin/Colbert, Etowah, Washington/Choctaw/Clarke and Monroe/Conecuh bar associations.
We are also taking two of our Board of Bar Commissioners' meetings out of their traditional Montgomery space in the hope of making our commission meetings more accessible to our members in other parts of the state. On October 13, the University of...
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