Members:

For those of you who do not know, Misty Ewegan has decided to step down as President to focus on recovering from her ongoing health issues.  She will remain a member of the Executive Board in her role as Immediate Past President.  Please join me in thanking her for her service to the Inn and wishing her well in her recovery.  As a result of her resignation, I have become President of the Inn a year early, with Bob Bricmont assuming the position as President-elect.  The remaining board members include Treasurer Bonnie Saltzman, Secretary Hon. Kandace Gerdes, and Historian James (Rufus) Garts, in addition to our Membership Chairs, Hon. Alfred Harrell and Heidi Kutcher, and Mentoring Committee Chair, Tessa Becker.

Our September meeting will be held on September 17 at the University Club.  As announced previously, we do not have a program scheduled for our September meeting, but instead plan to use the time during that meeting to plan the year’s presentations and discuss a theme to connect the year’s presentations together.  During the recent Master’s meeting, we discussed several ideas for a theme, and ultimately decided to propose a theme that revolves around the word “satisfaction.”  Thanks to long-time member Rickey Fitzsimmons for being the brainchild behind this theme.

In terms of the mechanics for putting together this year’s presentations, the Masters would like to continue the process from last year, in which our Student and Associate Barrister members were tasked with organizing and leading the presentations.  However, some of the Masters observed that it may be more useful as a mentoring tool if Barristers and Masters to provide more hands-on guidance and assistance this year.  That is a topic on which will encourage additional discussion at the September meeting.

As for the theme itself, the Masters agreed that “satisfaction” is a theme that provides a wealth of flexibility while still being focused enough to ensure continuity between presentations and to ensure that we stay focused on the core principles of the Inns of Court.  The Masters were also very keen on ensuring that this year’s theme focuses on the positives, rather than the negatives of the practice of law, so we would like to avoid all references to a certain Rolling Stones song that happens to use the word satisfaction in the title.

Aside from those constraints, we encourage each pupilage group to think creatively about a program that deals in some way with how members or attorneys and judges in general gain satisfaction in their lives.  This could mean aspects of an attorneys’ practice that generates satisfaction, or ways in which we supplement our practices with other civic, volunteer, or personal activities that give meaning to our professional and personal lives.

Our goals for the September meeting will be to 1) discuss and refine the overall theme and the mechanics for how each group will organize its program, consistent with our goal of providing mentoring to younger lawyers and students; 2) decide on the program schedule and determine which Pupilage Group will be presenting each month; and 3) start to define the program for each Pupilage Group.

If you are unable to attend the September program, please feel free to send your comments and ideas to other members.  On a related note, I regret that I will not be able to attend the September meeting due to required travel for an out-of-state hearing the following day. Bob Bricmont and Heidi Kutcher will be leading the discussion.  I hope to see all of you during the October meeting.

A couple of final general notes:

1) We encourage everyone to fill out a mentorship form, which is available on the Inn website: www.rhonebrackett.org. Also be sure to check the website regularly for updates about Inn activities.

2) Please be on the lookout for your Pingg meeting invitations in advance of each meeting. If you don’t receive the invitation, be sure to check your spam box. If you still can’t find the invitation, please contact rhonebrackett@gmail.com and ask to have your contact information updated.

Best regards,

Paul Karlsgodt