Last updated July, 2018
Greetings from your new San Francisco Legal Professionals Association President.
While you have not heard from me since our installation in April, I have been very busy along with your Board of Directors, planning and organizing a variety of things designed to improve the operation of organization and hopefully increase the interest of our Active Members consisting of legal secretaries, paralegals, and law firm staff who work in San Francisco. Here is a rough overview of the things we have in store for you this year.
We have two members who are new to the Board that will be contributing to our Association. First is our new Advertising and Marketing Chair, Leon Thomas, Jr. Leon is researching and preparing new rate sheets for advertising on our website and updating rate sheets for advertising in our bulletin called Hearsay. This will be a new source of income to offset operating costs and help pay expenses for all members interested in attending and LSI conference in the future.
Our other new Board Member is Rica Ureta who will be providing updates to legal procedures using a tab on our website designated solely for this purpose. Rica will also invite a representative for the California Judicial Council to present new court procedures to our members in January 2019.
We have a new appointed officer called Website Editor. We are fortunate to have Sally Mendez in this role who brings with her over a decade of experience as our Bulletin Editor. She has already “beefed up” our website and started to transform it into what I envision as our Go-To Place for all things SFLPA. This new and improved website will multi-task like we do, by making it easier for our Board Members to post their planned events and take in RSVP’s. We can also apply for membership online (with a credit card), find out what’s coming up at a quick glance on our new general calendar, and get answers to questions concerning upcoming events, new legal procedures, and much more.
There is also a password protected Members Only section that contains our soon to be revised bylaws, a current member contact list, a place to learn about and apply for Chapter Achievement Points, and other member only related items. The Career Advancement tab (formerly “Employment”) will have current job postings that come directly from Legal Administrators in San Francisco law firms looking for qualified attorney support staff. Soon this section will contain informative material for creating your resume, a counseling hotline, and up-to-date tips on interviewing for a new job. The Event section will keep you apprised of the details of all future planned activity as it becomes available. There is even a photo gallery with pictures of those who attend our events taken by our talented photographer and Historian (and Day-In-Court Committee Chair), Lillian Wong. Speaking of, “Hey Lillian! When are we going to have our private tour of San Francisco Superior Court? – oh, right, I should look on our website.
Our first Member Meeting of the fiscal year will be held on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. It will be a dinner meeting and for the first time ever, our Members will not be charged for their dinner. This is because our meeting is being sponsored by a local vendor called Litivate. They will give us a brief presentation that evening to introduce you to their company and the services they have to offer.
I urge all of the Active members who come to our meeting to show their appreciation by giving Litivate at least one try when the opportunity presents itself. It is in this way I hope to establish a new kind of interaction between our Association and the great variety of vendors who will show their support in this way. But in order for this relationship to continue, our members need to reciprocate by showing their patronage, in this case, to Litivate.
That evening we also have a malpractice attorney scheduled who will give us some insight into this area of law. Thanks go out to Governor Chris Flores for this guest speaker. This will be proceeded by our meeting. Incidentally, non-members are always welcome to our member meetings at $25.00 per person.
PLEASE NOTE: Our member meetings will start being held every other month instead of quarterly beginning with our July 24, meeting followed by September 11, 2018, November 13, 2018, and the second Tuesday in January 2019 and February 2019 followed by our installation in April 2019. Please refer to our general calendar on our website for details of all upcoming events. Also, Members are required to register to attend our Member Dinner Meetings on our website for an accurate headcount for the caterers.
I am still trying to fill some committee chairs that are vital to our meetings, fund raising events, and our bulletin. Former Education Chair and current Active Member Michelle Vigil, is filling in pro tem as our Bulletin Editor while I find a permanent editor. Our first issue for the fiscal year will be out by Monday, July 9. Michelle has been working very hard to collect articles and photos for the Hearsay issue titled “Meet your Board Members.” It will also be posted on our Internet along with previous Hearsay publications.
I am also trying to fill the Program Committee Chair which is responsible for planning our member meetings, our annual Holiday party, a Special Guest Speaker night, and our annual installation of officers in April. It would be nice to have two members co-chair this opening but at this point one will do.
Finally, I also need to fill the Ways and Means Committee Chair which is currently being handled pro tem by our Treasurer, Sheryl Warr. Aside from the great deal of work Scheryl already handles as our Treasurer, she has managed to put together a Paint Night fundraiser which promises to be a lot of fun for all who attend. Please promote all of our fundraisers by getting your co-workers, friends, and family to come to events like Paint Night, the proceeds of which are earmarked for new things that directly benefit our members – Such as covering the costs for our members who are interested in attending an LSI conference. We are also raising money necessary to host a Quarterly LSI Conference for the first time in over twelve years. Larry McGrew and I are co-chairing this grand event which will take place in November 2019 at the Hilton near Chinatown, but that’s a whole other ball of wax to be addressed in my next State of the Association.
The education programs everyone has come to enjoy and look forward to – like our Brown Bags and our annual Legal Secretary Training Course – will continue to be headed up by Education Committee Chair Francie Skaggs. Francie will also be hosting an evening seminar called Cracking the Code with her co-host, Scott Herndon, on July 17. Check out the flyer and sign up on – you got it – our website.
Last but not least, our Vice President and Membership Committee Chair, May Sene, is continuing the drive to recruit new members from law firms throughout San Francisco’s business district. May is very dedicated to our Membership keeping your best interest at heart in everything she does for our Association.
So, while you have not heard from me since becoming President in April, it’s not because I have been sitting on my hands waiting for a train to come along. I am the train! And it’s full steam ahead for those of you who are interested in keeping on track.
All aboard!
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Take pride in your work and make a difference.
A professional Association is defined by Wikipedia as a non-profit organization seeking to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals engaged in that profession, and the public interest.
Drive traffic to your Website. A website is the digital marketing hub. It is also especially important for engaging the general public. If you want to influence new members, you will want to get them to your homepage where you can convert them.
Pay attention to what members are saying to your organization as well as about the organization.
Carol Romo
President – 2018-2019