KATHY SIECKMAN, PP, PLS-SC, ACP, 2015 NALS OF PHOENIX PRESIDENT

Welcome to the NALS of Phoenix President’s Blog! What a whirlwind we have had for the last couple of months! After a terrific installation and great educational programs, our 2015 Officers are hard at work. For the first installment of the President’s Blog, I’m sharing my incoming President’s speech from our Awards and Appreciation night. Many thanks to everyone who came and who continues to volunteer, attend, and dream with the rest of us.

Teamwork, Making the Dream Work

Do you have a dream about how NALS of Phoenix should look? What we should do in the legal community? What we should do for our members? So do I. At the NALS Conference in Houston, I had shared the general idea of my theme for the year with my best friends who were in charge of the amazing program this evening. The keynote speaker there spoke the phrase that has become my theme for this next year and Kerie and I looked at each other, knowing that was the heart of the message I want to impart to you. So how can teamwork make OUR dream work?

To use Dr. Martin Luther King’s most memorable line “I HAVE A DREAM.” My dream is that NALS of Phoenix is a household name in our legal community, that attorneys and administrators and staff all understand the value of membership, certification, education, and networking for legal support staff and encourage and support that in their own firms. Through teamwork in promoting and marketing our events, members talking about what we’re doing and inviting others to our meetings, and reporting on what is going on and what they are excited about, we can make NALS of Phoenix known in our community.

I HAVE A DREAM that our members are excited about our educational programs, our monthly meetings, our Court Observance programs, our golf tournaments (shameless plug for the event coming up next September!) and the extra seminars we may be able to provide if we get our team of members to support it. Through teamwork in inviting attorneys in your own firm to speak, through attending as many educational events as you can, even when you don’t think it relates to your specific job functions, through inviting others to attend just one educational program, we can let the firms of Phoenix know that we have quality education at a price they will not find in Phoenix. We are the best deal in town.

I HAVE A DREAM that certification becomes the norm because attorneys and administrators understand the value to their firms and to their staff in the certification process. Through teamwork in using your certification designation at your firm, studying for and sitting for the exam that is best for you, encouraging others to study for and sit for the exam, proctoring the exam, or meeting the examinees for lunch on exam day to encourage them, we will make it desirable to become certified.

I HAVE A DREAM that every firm in Phoenix wants their staff to be members of NALS because they understand the value of membership, the value of education on all topics, not just what each member is doing now, the value of networking and sharing ideas, new methods of performing our tasks, how to work with software, and how to work with people. We do that through teamwork in sharing tidbits that you learn by talking to others at your table at NALS meetings, by sharing the material you receive in our education sessions, by keeping track of the hours of CLE you receive in your membership dues showing the value of those hours to your employers.

I HAVE A DREAM that every member of NALS of Phoenix loves being a member and participates in our many activities. From volunteering for a one time committee, to volunteering on a year long committee, to attending and participating in our meetings and events, to donating door prizes or raffle prizes for our meetings and events, to sharing meeting notices and talking about the activities of NALS of Phoenix, each of you will make a huge difference in how many dreams we can reach. Through teamwork in actually participating and not just attending, in helping in one discrete task, in volunteering for one committee or one event, you will show others that you are getting something from your membership in NALS.

None of us can do any job alone, we need our bosses (not standing over us, but supporting us like all of our bosses here tonight). We need our administrators. We need our coworkers. We need our vendors. We need our fellow members. We need our board. Each of us has a place on this NALS of Phoenix team and each of us has a responsibility to the team. Even though I don’t really understand sports, I understand the need for andimportance of a team. One person cannot perform every function every time for every success. It takes a group of people – a team – to accomplish those successes.

Babe Ruth said it best when he said “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” Won’t you all be part of this amazing NALS of Phoenix team and join me in the dreams that we can make a success?

No Comments Yet.

Leave your comments