The new conference dates are October 10-13, 2021. The conference will be primarily in person, and we will follow all CDC protocols. Speaking for myself and our Board of Directors, I can assure each of you that the safety of our members during the conference is as important as the event itself!
The National Association for Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers has been producing monthly webinars since April 2020. Subjects have included “The Power of Civility, Decency, and Humility in Leading Courts” and “Preparing for 2021: Key Questions Court Leadership Teams Should Be Asking”.
As I reflect upon the past and present years in my role as NASJE’s President, I think of the adage, “we may all be in the same storm, but we do not all have the same boat.” This may be a novel concept for some, but for us it’s very much how we weather the storms we face daily. Some navigate ocean liners or captain luxury yachts; others row boats or paddle life rafts, while a few of us make dangerous passage in a leaky “Father’s Day,” but despite our differences we somehow all manage to navigate perilous waters. Just when blue skies and smooth sailing seemed to be in our future, COVID-19 created the perfect storm and challenged our navigational skills.
The judicial education world has lost a giant. Judge Peggy Fulton Hora, a global leader in the field of judicial education and a pioneering leader in the development of Drug Treatment Courts, passed away on Saturday, October 31, 2020. As the first woman judge in South Alameda County (California), Judge Hora led the effort to establish the second Drug Treatment Court in the USA. She was one of the founding members of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) in 1994. In 1999, she co-authored a landmark article published in the Notre Dame Law Journal, “Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Drug Treatment Court Movement: Revolutionizing the Criminal Justice System’s Response to Drug Abuse and Crime in America.”
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NASJE’s Education and Curriculum Committee, is excited to offer a November Zoominar! The event will be held Friday, November 6, 2020, @ 2:00 Eastern. For this Zoominar, Juli Edwards-McDaniel and Allison Gallo will host a discussion on the topic of “Is There Anybody Out There?: Tips for Engaging a Virtual Audience”.
The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic exposed an interesting truth about planning and delivering educational events: we sometimes take the process for granted. Judicial educators often focus their creative talents and energies on updating and refining the training itself, while defaulting to established templates and procedures when it comes to registration, setup, and other logistics. Earlier this year, the default plan went away for the Education Services Division at the Arizona Supreme Court, so here is what we did to meet the need for leadership training. Educators and faculty involved in the Arizona ICM program tell the story through their own words.
The day after the passing of Congressman John Robert Lewis I read his posthumous letter, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation,” a call to action during this moment of racial turbulence. In this moment there is much we can do to address racial inequities starting by educating ourselves and others. I believe diversity expert Eddie Moore Jr.’s 21-Day Racial Equity Habit- Building Challenge, now adapted by the American Bar Association, can improve our knowledge about the relationship between race, power, privilege, white supremacy, oppression and the justice system.
The Sedona Conference is pleased to announce the publication of The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation: Resources for the Judiciary, Third Edition (“Judicial Resources”). This publication, available free for individual download, provides state and federal trial judges with a comprehensive but easy-to-follow guide to eDiscovery case management. Readers may obtain their free copy of the Judicial Resources at the The Sedona Conference website.
A recording of the NASJE Zoominar “Delivering Training & Education During a Pandemic”, which originally aired on July 30, is now available on the NASJE Members Only page.
If your educational agency is like mine, you have worked on developing an online presence for several years, but the educational quality likely has been lagging behind your live offerings. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided the silver lining of a “jump-start” for enhancing, or in some cases developing, an online educational program that is sufficient to address the needs and desires of clientele. For a successful online educational program, the three keys to success are Interactivity, Accessibility, and Accountability.
The Texas Municipal Courts Education Center partnered with the Center for Court Innovation and Emily LaGratta (now of LaGratta Consulting LLC) to develop the “Texas Municipal Courts Face of Justice” project to advance the conversation around how courts can implement procedural justice. The project examined two often-hidden touchpoints that many courts have with the public: first, court websites, and second, courthouse walls. Each presents opportunity for court leadership to prioritize fairness and ensure that the court’s messaging to the court users and the public at large are consistent with the messages delivered by the professionals who work there.
Since its founding in 2005, the mission of the Judicial College has been to provide “education and training to judicial branch personnel to develop the abilities and values necessary to provide justice.” In the nearly four years that I have been in my role, I’ve consistently encountered a similar dedication to learning and fairness expressed by our clients: the judges, magistrates, clerks, and other court officials of North Carolina.
In a few long months, I feel like all the things I’ve generally relied on as certainties are, well, uncertain. As an educator, what can we say right now? Who are we? We are flying turbulent skies, in an old plane, over enemy territory, at night, upside down, and the flight manual just fell out the window. That’s what it FEELS like, right?
As I entered my office today, having been telecommuting since March 13, 2020, I fully expected to find my office plants yearning for water and on the brink of decay, if not fully returned to the dirt in which they rested. What I saw, however, astonished me! On my conference table sat the Poinsettia plant that I purchased from my daughter’s school fundraiser 3 years ago, which seems to be thriving.
Dr. Jan Bouch is pleased to announce that the Justice Coaching Center has received accreditation from the International Coach Federation for its 60-hour Resiliency Coach Training Program.
NASJE President Janice Calvi issued a special announcement recently, whereby the 2020 NASJE Annual Conference is postponed for one year due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.