SBAND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
MEETING AN
IMPORTANT MILESTONE
AND PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
TONY J. WEILER
SBAND Executive Director
Milestone. Your association now has more
than 3,000 members! On Oct. 4, the official
number of licensed North Dakota lawyers
stood at 3,001. That is quite a milestone. It
represents the largest number of members
SBAND has ever had, and a far cry more
than the 1,900 in 2007. We appreciate that
each member has different ideas about the
association, and what we can and should do
for you, and we work each day with that in
mind. More numbers create more options,
but also more responsibilities for the staff at
SBAND and our leadership.
Strategic Planning. With that in mind, your
Board of Governors recently concluded a
two-day strategic planning session where it
analyzed all we do well at SBAND, what we
can do better, and what we might look like in
the future. This two-year strategic plan was
developed by the leadership of SBAND to
address the future of the state bar. SBAND
leadership believed it to be an appropriate
time to convene a facilitated strategic
planning retreat to assess the current state
of the organization, discuss emerging issues
affecting the legal community, establish
strategic direction, develop an action plan,
and assign who will do what by when to
ensure a comprehensive plan is in place to
define future success.
The retreat was facilitated by ALPS
Executive Vice President Chris Newbold.
Newbold was selected based on his
experience working with lawyers and
law-related organizations that are intent
on realizing their organizational potential.
The retreat was preceded by 18 pre-retreat
interviews with current SBAND board
members, SBAND staff, and the immediate
past-president.
Three broad strategic goals were identified
by the Board of Governors during the
retreat. The first will be to increase member
engagement; second, to enhance relevancy to
members; and third, to serve as an access to
justice leaders. We look forward to working
toward these goals over the next several years,
and I plan to keep you updated and give you
an idea of what we can do to reach these
goals.
a tight ship as well and run the association
in a very fiscally conservative and frugal
manner. If you ever have questions on the
budget, please let me know.
Along with drafting the budget, we
prepare the “Keller insert” each member
of the association will receive with their
2017 License Fee Statement. The optional
deduction is calculated using our audited
2015 financials (in line with U.S. Supreme
Court case law) and anticipating the
number of licensed attorneys in 2017. The
“Keller insert” in your license fee statement
will explain more on how we arrive at each
member’s possible deduction. Once again, if
you have any questions, please don’t hesitate
to contact me.
Budget. In the fall of each year, the staff and I
begin work on the budget for the upcoming
year. We analyze all of our income, expenses,
and the current budget to plan for the
operation