President's Message
| Publication year | 2008 |
| Pages | 04 |
| Citation | Vol. 77 No. 6 Pg. 04 |
From the President
Linda S. Parks
Year in Review
Thank you for allowing me to serve as president this past year. It has been fun.
My last column. Let me say that again. My last column. Whew!
Actually, I have enjoyed it. Material has not been hard to come by. In addition, it has been fun to hear from people who actually read the stuff, some of whom even agreed with what I said. But it's almost time to ease into the past president role, and I look forward to that as well.
I started my presidency talking to you about the importance of the Kansas Bar Association (KBA), and the need for all of us to reach out to the young or solo lawyers to encourage their participation. If I had a theme for my presidency, I think that was it. After all, "... the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack." And through tremendous effort by our executive director, Jeff Alderman, and his staff, as well as a terrific Membership Committee, headed by the always energetic Bob Hiller, we have surpassed 7,000 members for the first time in KBA history. Pretty impressive. We still need to work on mentoring and bringing people into and along in the Association, but we also deserve a pat on the back for the work we have already done.
In addition to membership, we have addressed other issues throughout the year.
— We rebuilt our building. Yes, by the time you read this column, the KBA Headquarters will be complete. Members of the KBA and the Kansas Bar Foundation (KBF) from across the state worked very hard to raise the money necessary to refurbish our building. And members of the KBA and KBF from across the state came through with significant donations. The grand reopening of the building will be during our KBA Annual Meeting in Topeka this year, and it should be quite a bash. Of course, it's not too late to give — and to buy a brick.
— We worked to protect the independence of our judiciary. Each year it seems there is a small but vocal group that attacks of our system to appoint appellate court judges and justices. They seek to subject our system to the influence of special interests, politics, big business, and big money. We worked to get KBA representatives and other interested parties to address the Kansas Legislature and, at least for this year, our system is safe.
— We established a committee to work toward the...
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