OFFICER'S REPORTS
Greetings fellow WDALA members, and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve as the WDALA First Vice President for the year 2015-2016.
As you know, WDALA had no First Vice President for 2014-2015. According to the current WDALA Bylaws, the First Vice President is the chairman of the committee on education, which is responsible for planning the fall and spring seminars. Somehow, over the past few years, I think more and more responsibility for the seminars has landed on the shoulders of the First Vice President, and the position has been less and less appealing to members.
I totally get it – we are busy people. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I am “going” from the moment I awaken in the morning until way too late every night, when I fall into bed exhausted from another day. I hardly know the meaning of words like “leisure,” or “relax.” It seems there is no way to squeeze out time for anything else. And yet, my membership in WDALA since 2002 has been very rewarding, and I am thankful the organization exists. I don’t want to see it languish, and I want new members to be able to find what I have found – a network of great people who care about their jobs, and each other, and the profession. WDALA has given me several opportunities in the form of jobs, including my current one, and the chance to attend NALA Conventions and meet paralegals all over the country and see the profession in a
different light. If we (including ME!) don’t each take a responsibility for keeping it going by doing service in various ways, it will not continue to be what it has been for me, and new members won’t experience what I have experienced.
My biggest fear in taking this position is not doing a good job and letting the members down, but this is where you all come in. I initially agreed to be a candidate for this position if WDALA would update its Bylaws so that the First Vice President shares the responsibility for seminars with others. However, I learned the Bylaws are already set up in this manner and we just need to follow them. The past two seminars were planned entirely by informal “committees” in Minot (for spring 2015) and Bismarck (for fall 2015), and they went beautifully. This is how I envision it working in 2016, with no one person taking on an enormous responsibility, but each member of the education committee taking one piece of it and making each one manageable. If you get a call from me, or from WDALA President Melissa Hamilton, asking if you are interested in being on the committee (or in serving WDALA in any other way), please consider answering with a “Yes.” We can’t do it without you! When we get to the end of 2016 and I am looking back on the 2016 Spring and Fall seminars, I hope I will be able to say I truly enjoyed this position and would gladly do it again.
Thank you for all you do, and to those who have already agreed to serve WDALA in various capacities. See you at the next seminar!
"We can't do it
without you!"
Afton J. Basden, CP
WDALA First Vice President