Well, it is Friday afternoon and I just came up from the annual meeting of the NALA members.  This has been a very interesting and informative trip.
 
Yesterday's afternoon session was the Affiliates Meeting.  The Alabama Association of Paralegals gave a presentation on Growing Your Membership which was not only very informative but contained some very creative ideas.  Some of the suggestions presented for increasing membership were "meet and greets" held either before work or after work and on a Tuesday or a Thursday.  Venues suggested to hold the meet and greet were law firms, college campuses or vendors offices, targeting working paralegals, former members, college students, lawyers, judges and their clerks, corporations, state agencies (i.e., Motor Vehicle, State Attorney).  Suggestions for advertising our seminars were with the County Bar Association, State Bar Association, local television and radio station websites under their Public Service sections.
 
During the question and answer period, the Mississippi Paralegal Association discussed how it increased its membership by utilizing all of the "personal" mediums  (i.e., Facebook, twitter, etc.) to promote its association.  They flooded the electronic media sites 3 or 4 times a week; simulcast its month CLE luncheons and provided its CLE on line.   Using this method, they increased their membership by 22 percent this year.
 
The second presentation, Developing Leaders Within Your Association, was presented by the Northwest Florida Paralegal Association.  This is a project that we really need to institute.  I will be bringing this handout back as well.  Their program encouraged its members to participate in an on-line leadership program.  Again, this was a very motivating presentation.  All of the training is conducted on the web.  All members of the association were required to obtain a "gmail" address.  Web conferencing, blogs, and pod casts were utilized during the training.  All of the sites they utilized were free to both the organization and its members.  Check out, www.affiliateexchange.blogspot.com. 
 
I attended the legal analysis workshop this morning pesented by Virginia Koerselman Newman (author of the CLA Review Manual).  At the conclusion of the class, we were discussing the new book and I mentioned that we presented 10 week reviews (the longest I found any other association did it was 4 weeks) and that one of the tools we used was www.quizlet.com.  I mentioned that when I took the review class I was told about the site and input various sections to practice testing.  I also mentioned that other students had followed our lead and have other sections in.  I want to let all of you who have participated in the CLA Review classes and input data in other sections into the "quizlet" site.  All of the associations represented know about the site and plan on using it.  Thank all of you that have input there.
 
Other news is that October is the release date for the revised CLA Review Manual - hooray!!!!!  We should pre-order so that we get a 25% discount on the cost. 
 
Signing out from Jacksonville.

Linda Nottestad, CP, FRP

NALA Liaison for SFPA

The 35th NALA Convention offically started this morning with keynote speaker Dan Bean.  He discussed the legal community within the Jacksonville community and how it has grown since he moved here in 1997.  He discussed the change in climate as it has affected paralegals within that community.

We broke into individual sessions.  I am taking the Essential Skills Tract because I wanted to be more effective as a presenter  in our CLA review programs.  Karen Sanders-West, ACP, JD, was the speaker on the "American Legal System:  Part I" section.  She was very knowledgeable and had some interesting tid-bits about the history of our legal system.

At the luncheon, various NALA past Presidents discussed how NALA has evolved during the last 35 years.  The new CPs and ACPs were introduced.  I found it interesting to note that no mention was paid of the fact that it broke away from the "other" organization, although the "other" organization was mentioned in passing.  The implementation of the testing program was discussed.  NALA currently has over 16,000 certified paralegals in the U.S.

The various original founding members talked about the early meetings with representatives of the American Bar Association and how its representatives did not believe that paralegals should have the right to govern itself - that only attorneys should have that right.  Boy, a lot has changed since those early talks.

Linda Nottestad,

NALA Liaison for SFPA

SFPA has the honor of administering two scholarship funds which were independently established by the families of Sandra L. Keith, and Marisa Maugeri, to commemorate their work as paralegals in the Miami community after thier lives were cut short by tragic circumstances.  Each year, SFPA sponsors a writing contest for paralegal studies students to award the scholarships that honor the lives of these two paralegals.  The winners of the writing contest are awarded either the Sandra L. Keith Memorial Scholarship (First Prize) or the Marisa Maugeri Memorial Scholarship (Second Prize). 

This year we had the most entries the board members could remember in recent years, and it was difficult to pick winners from so many excellent entries.  We want to thank all the participants for their submissions, as we know there was a lot of time and effort put into the crafting of the entries.

The SFPA Board of Directors was pleased to announce the winners at our Annual Meeting on March 23, 2010.  In addition to the scholarships, each winner is provided a year's student membership in the South Florida Paralegal Association.  The hyperlinks on the contestant's names is a link to the winning entries.

The Sandra L. Keith Memorial Scholarship was awarded to:Yaima Gonzalez

The Marisa Maugeri Memorial Scholarship was awarded to: Jessica Giraldo 

Congratulations to the winners!  The SFPA Board of Directors hopes that we will have this high level of participation next year again.

SFPA hosted a charity Thanksgiving Dinner for the Women and Children's Center of the Miami Rescue Mission on November 19, 2009.   We had a fabulous response from our paralegal community donating goods, making monetary donations which purchased day-to-day necessities such as baby formula, and/or their valuable time in making this event a total success.