Tag: president

by Kelly Tait

“What do you want your legacy to be?” I started getting this rather intimidating question during my year as NASJE’s president-elect. It made me feel each time as if someone had just said “You’re It!” in a game of tag … and it made me think.

Upon much reflection, including participating in a “planning to plan” Board meeting facilitated by Karen Thorson last February, I refined my answer: I want my time as president to be about growth and development, in the most positive senses—healthy growth of membership, enhancement of value to existing members, and development of NASJE’s presence in justice system education.

Obviously, achieving these goals will require input and effort from all of us. I’m asking for your help on them.

We’re already in the process of making positive changes, starting with some adjustments to our website. The Board decided to combine the two separate committees in charge of NASJE News and the website into one: the Communications Committee. The streamlined approach should help us develop and maintain a more consistent NASJE “brand.” We also will have much more frequent updates to the newsletter portion of the website.

We’ve responded to feedback from the general membership saying that the existing Members Only site was not optimal in terms of access and use. So, we’ve created a new Members Only site linked to this webpage which has been designed to change that. NASJE members will be emailed the password for the new Members Only site in the near future. Among other things, survey results from our online poll of NASJE members about our vision, mission, and values will be available there.

Related to this survey and to the plenary session “Judicial Educators as Change Leaders” at the 2014 Annual Conference, we are gearing up on the continuation of our strategic planning process. NASJE members who are interested in being particularly instrumental in this effort should join the Strategic Planning Subcommittee–please contact me (ktconsulting@aol.com) if you’re interested. There are other committees you also should consider being involved in; for a list of NASJE’s committees go to the pull-down menu (on the upper left on this website): “About NASJE” > “Committees.”

Thanks to the dedication and efforts of NASJE members, these committees continue to make a difference. A great example of this is the work the Education and Curriculum Committee has done in conjunction with the Diversity, Fairness, and Access Committee to finalize a draft of the Diversity, Fairness, and Access Curriculum Design for approval by the Board. That curriculum design will be available shortly.

Don’t forget about the premium NASJE resources already at your fingertips — curriculum designs for the other eleven core competencies continue to be available on this website. Go to the pull-down menu (above): “Resources” > “Curriculum Designs.”

Another NASJE committee that has been quite active this fall is the Membership and Mentor Committee. This committee, along with the Board, has made it a goal to have NASJE members from every state and every key national organization/provider. We’d appreciate your assistance in identifying people who would be positive additions to NASJE.

Save the date: Our Annual Conference Committee is already hard at work on the 2015 Annual Conference, which will be in gorgeous Seattle, Washington, on October 4-7, 2015. Note the date—it’s later in the year than usual for us because it is a collaborative conference. Look for updates about the conference on this website.

NASJE’s influence has been felt in relation to other organizations, as well. NASJE members stepped up to provide input from the educational perspective on the National Association for Court Management’s core competencies (“The Core”). In the final version, Educational Development is listed as a core competency. Many thanks to all NASJE members who provided input to help achieve this and to enhance our working relationship with NACM. The final update of NACM’s core competencies is now available at http://nacmcore.org/.

Regional Directors will be planning regional meetings (mostly webinars) soon. Feel free to contact your Regional Director for more information (contact information is listed in the pull-down menu “About NASJE” > “NASJE Board”).

As you can tell, NASJE has opportunities to be involved in many ways; as a volunteer organization, we need a lot of member engagement to realize our potential. This profession is special in that our positive impact can have a ripple effect, influencing not only the people with whom we have direct contact, but also the many other people whose lives are impacted by anyone our education and programs have touched.

The entire NASJE Board wholeheartedly welcomes your input and participation! Help us make a difference. Please contact me at ktconsulting@aol.com with ideas, questions, and comments.

We all need to answer this question: What do you want your legacy to be?

by Jill Goski

Recently, while hanging a plaque with a paraphrased Margaret Mead quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people can make a difference, in fact, it is the only thing that ever has,” I reflected on how central this concept has been in building NASJE as a professional organization. I’ve always been amazed at how much NASJE as a small professional organization accomplishes. However, until I joined the Board, much of the work and contributions were invisible and I didn’t realize what it takes to sustain NASJE and keep it flourishing into the future. My hope is that through a periodic update from the President, the work of the Board and efforts of NASJE members will be more visible. This update provides only a sample of the tremendous contributions over the past few months.

To support the goal of increased communication across our membership, I have been working with Joseph Sawyer, Website and Technology Committee Chair, John Newell, Newsletter Committee Chair, and Board Committee Liaisons, Kelly Tait and Mary Kennedy, to reconfigure and update the NASJE Website for easier access and expanded resources. Although it is a work in progress, Joseph and John have done wonders so please take a look around the site! Earlier this year, the Board created a central repository for NASJE documents and resources, which will provide better organization, continuity and accessibility of NASJE records, reports and related materials. Additionally, at the April meeting, the NASJE Board approved launching a NASJE LinkedIn Group as another opportunity for NASJE members to connect, network and share information and resources. Jeff Schrade, NASJE Treasurer-Elect, was instrumental in keeping us current by providing the research and foundation for both the central document repository and creation of the Linked In Group. All NASJE members should have received an invitation from Jeff to join the group or you may do so by clicking here.

In November, the International Organization for Judicial Training (IOJT) held their conference in the U.S. for the first time. Approximately fifteen NASJE members attended the conference in Washington, D.C. and Caroline Kirkpatrick led the group in hosting a NASJE Information Table at the IOJT Knowledge Fair. This provided an excellent opportunity to meet and network with many international colleagues. There was great interest in our organization and resources resulting in 12 new international NASJE members. Our model curricula on topics essential to judicial educators were of particular interest. Hats off to the Curriculum Committee for their fabulous work on these resources!

While 19 of these curricula have been designed and developed, the Board decided to invest the remaining resources from the SJI Curriculum Grant in the design of the curriculum for the Diversity, Fairness, and Access competency, which was approved by the NASJE membership in at the 2013 Annual Conference in Little Rock last summer. The Curriculum Committee and contractor Karen Thorson are working with the Diversity, Fairness and Access committee to review and finalize this curriculum. This will complete the curriculum designs for all current Judicial Branch Educator Competencies, which is an incredible accomplishment! Congratulations to the committee chairs who helped lead this effort, originally Christy Tull and currently Jeff Schrade and Caroline Kirkpatrick, and to the entire Curriculum Committee. And expression of appreciation would not be complete without acknowledging the State Justice Institute for funding this important work!

The NASJE Board held our Mid-Year meeting in late February. We dedicated an additional day to planning for NASJE’s future since our bylaws require the Board to review the NASJE Strategic Plan every three years. The current Board set the stage for planning by reviewing NASJE’s current Strategic Plan dated 2003 as well as NASJE’s strategic planning history (See NASJE News article: “Looking Back to Look Forward”.) The Board discussed what is changing around us that could impact or influence our planning and reviewed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In planning for the future of a professional membership organization, the Board recognized that it is essential to involve the membership throughout the process. Since providing meaningful membership engagement in the planning process will likely span the term of more than one NASJE President, I have been working with President-elect Kelly Tait and Vice President Margaret Allen as a team to ensure this planning is sustained through their terms of office and ultimately implemented.

Early ways that members can become involved in the planning include completion of a survey regarding NASJE’s vision, mission and values, which will be sent to you soon. While the Board has done some initial work in drafting a vision, mission and a list of values, the drafts provide only a starting point for the important reactions and input from the membership. Additional information and opportunities for involvement will be available at the Annual Conference particularly in a session regarding change leadership.

The Education Committee, under the leadership of Lee Ann Barnhardt and Anne Jordan, has been working diligently and creatively in planning the 2014 Conference that will be held August 3-6 in Chicago, Illinois. The theme for the conference is “Perceptions of Justice: Improving Public Trust and Confidence through Judicial Branch Education.” Pre-conference sessions on Sunday, August 3rd will be expanded this year to include not only one on Fundamentals of Our Profession but also an advanced curriculum on Governance. In addition to the session on change leadership, conference highlights will include sessions on implicit bias, the Holocaust Museum, globalization in judicial education, trends in judicial branch education, as well as using films and literature in educational programs and networking opportunities. The conference will be held at the Westin Michigan Avenue hotel, a location central to many Chicago points of interest. Join us Monday evening for our social event and an opportunity to explore Navy Pier. Consider supplementing the Wednesday educational session on using the principles of improvisation in navigating through pressures of our profession by arranging to attend a program on Tuesday evening at Second City.

Additionally, the Annual Conference marks the beginning of a new program year and several opportunities to get involved in NASJE. You recently heard from Marty Sullivan, Chair of the Nominating Committee, about four vacancies on the Board for the next year that will be filled through elections at the Annual Business Meeting. Committees will be launching their work in August for the subsequent year and always welcome new and continuing members. Please consider how you would like to be involved in the coming year and feel free to contact committee chairs or Board members if you would like to discuss possibilities. We hope to see you in Chicago in August! The educational programming is inspiring and the venue and networking should serve to augment the experience and learning!