Organizations matter. The NCWBA board just recently met in Kansas to hold our annual board retreat. I am not only excited for all the program planning that we were able to accomplish, but it was also a personal pleasure for me to introduce the board to my home city, Topeka, and have them tour the Brown v Board of Education National Historic Site. We are happy to report that we initiated our first GOOD Guys - Guys Overcoming Obstacles to Diversity program to a wider audience. Often the program is done within the legal community. We can now say that we found it also very adaptable to entire communities. The Topeka mayor, the chamber president, and one of the county commissioners gave the introductions and welcome. We had many city and county departments represented, local charities and even two local high schools brought students to the event. The keynote was presented by board member, Teresa Beck, who would be glad to share her materials. We used a local steering committee of community leaders to choose local panelists, the moderator and the questions to be asked. Not only can lawyers impact the legal profession for women, we can also impact our entire communities and we encourage you to do so.  

PROGRAM OFFERING

We hope you will join us on Wednesday, November 28 for a free 40-minute webinar on Food from the Bar. This is a child-feeding program which promotes friendly competition among law firms and legal organizations to raise funds, donate food and volunteer at local Feeding America-affiliated food banks. This webinar is intended for anyone who is interested in starting a program or learning how to make an existing program even more effective. Click here to learn more.

TIP FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

Ask members what they can offer to your organization. We often survey asking how the organization can serve its members when actually the members want to serve the organization and its purpose. What most members want in an organization is friends, good information and an opportunity to use their skills to make the world a better place. The organizations I feel most connected to are the ones that I have used to teach CLE, work beside other women in a service project or serve on their board. Your membership is your hidden treasure chest for engaging programs, deep connections and impactful service.    

TIP FOR YOU

From the book, Women Rainmakers' Best Marketing Tips by the ABA Law Practice Section, which gives over 150 different practical tips, I particularly liked the general introduction tip when processing information. Use the RAM principle . "Some suggestions may not be appropriate for you, and those you will reject . Others will fit your personal style, and these you will accept . Another group will not be exactly right but the tips will work once you modify them." In a day and age where information overload is so prevalent it is nice to have just three options for review. My personal favorite is modify - I love to accept and tweak information, processes and programs. 

CHALLENGE

Send us examples of membership surveys your organization has used. We definitely can learn from each other's surveys and their results.   

To learn how to put on a GOOD Guys program of your own, see our toolkit. To read about our October 12 GOOD Guys program in Topeka, pictured below, click here.

As of September 1,  Anne C. Martin is Chancery Court Judge of Davidson County Chancery Court, Part II.(Nashville, TN). Anne served as NCWBA president for the 1998-1999 term, making her one of the youngest presidents in NCWBA history.

Click here to see a campaign video profiling Judge Martin.

When you are asked to make a speech or a comment referencing the status of women lawyers and judges, don't rely on old numbers! One frequently cited source is NAWL's annual survey on the Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms. The 2018 survey is now out! We've made it easy for you to cite to current numbers by gathering statistics of various types and from various sources on the Statistics page of the Resources section of our website.

The Portuguese Association of Women in Legal Careers is hosting a Women's Human Rights Summit in conjunction with the XXIII Congress of the International Federation of Women of Legal Careers. The Summit will be held at the Lisbon University Law School. Click here for more information. 

At a vigil in Portland, Oregon mourning those killed at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Rabbi Rachel Joseph said "If we're going to change anything, it comes through face-to-face communication." This kind of communication is just what is envisioned by the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (IILP) as it enters its 10th year.

"Talk Into Action" aims to foster increased conversation between individuals who typically wouldn't be discussing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession to do so in an open, non-pressured, respectful, and civil manner, in the hope of stimulating positive individual action that will move the legal profession toward its diversity and inclusion goals. It is premised on the recognition that all too often diversity discussions, programs, and conferences are little more than echo chambers, preaching to the diversity and inclusion choir. By encouraging conversation and discussion about diversity and inclusion between individuals who do not normally discuss it, and who have different experiences with it, we believe we can broaden participants' thoughts and views on diversity and inclusion so that they translate into new, different, and increased actions that advance diversity and inclusion efforts. 

The IILP describes "Talk Into Action" this way: Individuals are encouraged to invite someone whose diversity is different from theirs - a different gender, race/ethnicity, ability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, etc. - to join them for coffee, lunch, or just a meeting for at least one hour. During that hour they are encouraged to discuss diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. For those who want it, we have some general topics and questions that can be used to get the conversation started. Afterward, we'd like the two participants to snap a selfie together and either post it tagging IILP or they can send it to IILP and we'll post it for them. Full instructions will be made available to participants. We'll have more information soon. In the meantime, you may contact Jenna Meyers at IILP for more information.

In 1869, Arabella Babb Mansfield was admitted to the Iowa Bar after passing the bar exam with high marks and successfully challenging Iowa's restriction that only males over the age of 21 were eligible for bar admission, making her the first woman to be admitted to a state bar. This means that in 2019, we will celebrate 150 years of women lawyers in the United States! To commemorate this landmark, the NCWBA is joining with Faircount Media Group to create a publication that our member organizations will be able to share with their own membership in hard copy or by electronic link. We hope to have articles recounting the history and significant milestones of your women's bar group, information about important women lawyer "firsts" from your region, and other articles which capture and preserve the significant history of women lawyers in the United States and Canada. The publication will be introduced at our 2019 Women's Bar Leadership Summit in San Francisco, with a submission deadline in Spring 2019. Articles may be up to a maximum of about 3000 words in length. High-quality photos are also welcome. Submissions are subject to editing and space limitations. Many groups have history committees or have already written their histories, so they have a good starting point for creating articles that explain their histories to a national audience. If you don't already have these resources, now would be a great time to start gathering materials! Let us know what questions you have. We look forward to learning more about the history of women lawyers, both individually and collectively. For research materials, see our history pages.