Since my last message to you, several significant events have occurred in regard to our organization. Firstly, the Board of Directors authorized the hiring of Marsha Stacey as executive director. As you know, Marsha has been in charge of our brief bank. The Board believed it a logical progression for the maturation of our organization to have an executive director to be responsible for the administrative details of our organization. When our organization began, the records were kept in the offices of members of the Board of Directors. These records would be transferred from one board member to another when new officers were elected. The Board believed that having a person responsible for the day-to-day operations of our organization would provide the necessary continuity to maintain our organization as individual members of the Board of Directors change. We are very happy to have Marsha as our executive director.

     After assuming her new role as executive director, Marsha attended a meeting of the executive directors of other state organizations in Chicago (at the expense of DRI). It was a very worthwhile meeting for Marsha and was very timely.

     In addition to hiring Marsha, your Board has authorized the sending a member survey which you should have received by the time you receive this Newsletter. The Board would like some direction from you, as members, as to what are the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and where the course should be charted for the future. Hopefully, we will have a better idea as to what to do serving you as our members to maintain the viability of our organization.

     In my opinion, in order to maintain the vitality of the organization, we need to have younger lawyers involved in our organization. As a result, I have requested, and the Board has approved, changes to our bylaws to require younger lawyers to be on the Board of Directors and our standing committees. Thus, at our annual meeting when we elect members we will have a board position for a young lawyer.

     At our next meeting of the Board of Directors, we will be reviewing the members' survey and developing a more organized agenda for the annual meeting and a proposed budget.

     Finally, this Newsletter will be the last Newsletter to be prepared by the USD Law School. I want to extend my appreciation to Dean Barry Vickery and Roger Baron for their support and help in developing the Newsletter. Our organization is grateful to the USD Law School, especially Roger Baron, for his efforts in maintaining the Newsletter during the last several years. Depending on the results of the membership survey, we may reformat the newsletter to an electronic form and change its contents.

     I look forward to seeing all of you at the annual meeting in June at the State Bar Convention which is scheduled for June 22^nd at 11:30 a.m. The place has not yet been determined. I want to thank you for this last year. It has been a pleasure working for you and with the other members of the Board of Directors. We have had many Board meetings this year. I want to thank the Board members for being available to work through the many issues we have had this past year.