Leading by example.

• Author: Johnson, Kelly Overstreet
• Position: Florida Bar Membership Outreach Committee - President's Page

As Bar president, I want to ensure that our members feel welcome and included in the many activities of The Florida Bar, and in order to improve the Bar's communication with all members, I appointed a Membership Outreach Committee to communicate with our membership and encourage participation in Bar programs and committees from lawyers representing diverse backgrounds, viewpoints, and areas of practice. This committee, chaired by President-elect Alan Bookman, met in early October to review how The Florida Bar membership can reflect the state's diverse population by 2014.

Despite past outreach efforts, many of our lawyers still choose not to participate in Florida Bar service. If it is by choice, that decision is certainly understandable as we all have a limited amount of time and must prioritize how we want to spend it. However, lack of participation should not be due to a perception that The Florida Bar is a "closed shop" or not welcoming of new ideas and people from varied backgrounds, because that is not true.

We are fortunate to live in a state with a rich cultural population and our legal profession should reflect that diversity. In April, former Bar President Miles McGrane and I participated in a symposium to develop a plan to improve the Bar's communication with minority groups and to encourage their involvement in sections and committees of The Florida Bar and its Board of Governors.

At the October Membership Outreach Committee meeting, Alan Bookman presented the symposium's recommendations pertaining to the judiciary, law schools, and the legal profession for discussion. One of the suggestions from committee members prevailed: two-way communication.

National Bar Association Florida Chapter President Ben Crump agreed that both sides (the Bar leadership and minority members) need to improve their dialogue.

Alan Bookman and I are carrying out that suggestion by attending as many speciality bar functions as we can to show our commitment to reach out to all segments of the legal community in our state.

When I made my committee appointments earlier this year, I put a minority on every committee that I could...