by Kelly Tait
Fall greetings! Hopefully you enjoyed our summer of webinars. My thanks to the Western Region, the Midwestern Region, the Education Committee, and the National Judicial College for their creativity, organization, and support on the webinars! There are more to come—we will have regularly featured webinars throughout the year. Also see below for two that are scheduled in the next few weeks as part of the lead-up to our Annual Conference in Seattle in October.
But a drumroll first … the NASJE Board and the ad hoc Strategic Planning Committee are very happy to present a final draft of NASJE’s 2015-2020 Strategic Plan (PDF) for comments from NASJE members. It’s a forward-looking document that will help guide our efforts for the next five years. Many thanks to everyone involved in getting the plan to this point; kudos to Lee Ann Barnhardt (ND) in particular for her leadership as chair of the committee.
We would love your feedback on the plan before it is finalized! There are a couple of different ways for you to comment on it (these of course are in addition to the opportunities we’ve provided over the past year and a half for input on various aspects of the plan). One is to attend any portion of the webcast we’ve arranged on Wednesday, September 23. We’ve planned a two hour “open house” webcast for members to discuss the plan, ask questions of many of the people directly involved in the development of it, and provide comments. The webcast will be on 9/23 from 12:00-2:00 PM PDT/ 1:00-3:00 PM MDT/ 2:00-4:00 PM CDT/ 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT. Please see the article on the strategic plan to register for the webcast.
You can also email your comments about the strategic plan to me directly at – please email them by Friday, September 25, at 5:00 PM PDT if you’d like them considered before the plan is finalized.
On another topic, we are excited to have a pre-conference webcast with Dr. James Loewen, a sociologist and author of Sundown Towns and Lies My Teacher Told Me, to help set the stage for the Experiential Learning Opportunity he will be leading in Seattle at our Annual Conference. The webinar is Thursday, October 1, at 12:00 Pacific/3:00 Eastern. All members are welcome to participate in the webinar even if you won’t be able to attend the conference. Information on how to join the webinar has been emailed to members and will be emailed again in advance of the webinar. (If you don’t receive it, please let me know.)
I do hope you will be joining us in Seattle for our Annual Conference on October 4-7, which is being held in conjunction with the American Judges Association and the State of Washington AOC. There are numerous high-quality education sessions being offered, and networking opportunities as well. (You can still register.) If you’re unable to attend, we will be highlighting many of the plenary sessions on this website following the conference.
I will wrap up my term as NASJE President on October 7 — it has been a privilege and a pleasure! We are in good hands with both the current and incoming Board members. I urge you to consider becoming more involved in the leadership of our vibrant organization.
Warm regards,
Kelly Tait, NASJE President
P.S. Remember that you can help NASJE get small donations at no cost to you if you shop on Amazon.com through the AmazonSmile program. To sign up for this program, go to smile.amazon.com then to the drop-down menu “Your Account.” Click on “Change Your Charity,” then under “Pick your own charitable organization” choose “National Association of State Judicial Educators C/O CJER.” Amazon will then donate a half of a percent of the purchase price to NASJE (at no cost to you). For this to happen, be sure sign on to Amazon via smile.amazon.com each time you