PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
ENGAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP
From President Saylor’s Annual Meeting Address
“
By Jacquelyn H. Saylor
The Saylor Law Firm
“I am so proud of the
Atlanta Bar for its past
accomplishments and am
immensely excited for this
year. Thank you in advance
for your engagement and
your leadership.”
T
o all Atlanta Bar Association Members, future members,
judges, sponsors and guests -- I’m very excited and
humbled to be here today as the new Atlanta Bar
President and CEO, as our by-laws state. There’s a saying
former bar presidents have, “There’s the year you plan and
the year you have.” It’s a great risk to take this position
in front of all of you and to assume the responsibility of
this role. I am going to talk to you today about THE RISKS
OF ENGAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP. On risk, William
Faulkner said, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you
have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
The mission of the Atlanta Bar Association is “to promote
professionalism and the fair administration of justice in our
community and to provide programs and benefits which serve
our diverse membership.”
I know some of you are doing controversial and not so
controversial pro bono work and I applaud you. If the Atlanta
4 THE ATLANTA LAWYER
June/July 2014
Bar asks for your help to provide for the fair administration
of justice, I hope you will step forward, even if you do not
practice criminal law or have never been in a court room.
You don’t have to be the perfect fit or to have the exact bar
experience to volunteer and get involved. As stated earlier,
part of the Atlanta Bar’s mission is to provide programs;
while the “Big Bar” traditionally holds three to four bar wide
programs a year, it is the Sections that provide a wide variety
of programs on a consistent basis. Additionally, our programs
are to serve our diverse membership. Women are part of that
diverse membership and make up approximately a third of
our membership.
I hope we can provide programs and opportunities for women
that will cause more women to know that The Atlanta Bar
provides a different sort of opportunity to grow and network
and influence others that cannot be gained elsewhere. Stay
involved with those terrific affinity groups that I’ve been a
member of and supported; bring us your experience, and join
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