Winter 2017 SBAND Gavel | Page 4

SBAND PRESIDENT

FUTURE FOCUS

IMPLEMENTING SBAND’ S STRATEGIC PLAN

CHARLES DEMAKIS SBAND President

It has been an interesting and exciting first six months as the State Bar Association( SBAND) president. My main focus as your president was to evaluate where SBAND had been, where we are now, and where we are going in the future. In October, the Board of Governors( BOG) completed a two-day strategic planning session coordinated by a facilitator from ALPS. The strategic plan was approved by the BOG at our November meeting. That session was tremendously valuable in identifying how SBAND can best serve our members and gave us an opportunity to reflect on our past, identify our current strengths and weaknesses, and formulate a plan to grow and improve our organization and services to our members.

I have attended a number of conferences and sessions since taking this position, and it has been very enlightening to meet and learn from other bar associations and their leaders as to how their organizations operate and the challenges they face. I have learned we have a dedicated staff and a very wellrun organization that is providing excellent services and benefits to our members.

We recently had our annual“ coffee” meeting with the Supreme Court, and it was a very fruitful and beneficial meeting. There are a number of issues in the legislative session that affect the judicial system and the profession. We have an excellent relationship with our Supreme Court, and our meeting and discussion with the court proved to be evidence of that.

With the legislative session in full swing,

SBAND has been very busy reviewing legislation as it is proposed and identifying matters of relevance to the association and our members. The session is a busy time for the association staff and the BOG as we work closely with the Legislative Committee to identify those issues and take the official position of SBAND.

As I look forward to the last six months of my term, I am focused on implementing our strategic plan, as well as working on reviewing and strengthening our committees and sections. As always, I encourage any of you wishing to serve on a committee or section to contact the SBAND office or me directly, as we are always looking for members who are willing to lend their expertise and leadership to the association and its sections.

Call for CLE Speakers

SBAND and the North Dakota CLE Commission sponsor seminars and programs throughout the year in all sorts of formats, including live, webinars and IVNs.

We want to know about SBAND members who have ideas for topics or who are interested in being a presenter.

Contact Carrie Molander at carrie @ sband. org.

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