I’m not sure why I’m drawn so often to implicit bias sessions, but I seem to gravitate to them often at conferences. I found the recent NASJE Annual Conference session on the topic, taught by NASJE members Dana Bartocci of Minnesota, Cyrana Mott of Illinois, Jennifer Juhler of Iowa, and Joseph Sawyer of the National Judicial College, to be very impactful. What follows is my personal reaction to the session. I won’t try to recreate the entire session or to re-teach it but just highlight the parts that touched me and continue to stay with me.
Category: Annual Conference
The Humanity of Litigants
At the recent 2018 NASJE Annual Conference in Austin, Judge Edward Spillane delivered a session on the humanity of litigants. Judge Spillane is the Presiding Judge for the College Station Municipal Court in Texas. He started his session by explaining that change in a court’s treatment of litigant too often occurs as a result of an unexpected, often catastrophic, series of events such as those in Ferguson, Missouri.
NASJE Conference Mobile App
Download NASJE 2018 ANNUAL CONFERENCE, the new NASJE conference app for your mobile device. See the Member Area for details.
Regional meetings provide networking opportunity
When the clock hits 5 on the first day of the Annual Conference in Austin, don’t forget to stop by your Regional Meeting before mixing it up at the evening social. Members of the four NASJE Regions gather each year to strengthen the networks in their region and share resources. The four regions are the Midwestern, Northeastern, Southeastern and Western.
Judge Ed Spillane to Speak on The Humanity of Litigants at NASJE 2018
Judge Ed Spillane will be presenting a class on The Humanity of Litigants at the 2018 NASJE Annual Conference. Spillane is the Presiding Municipal Judge for College Station, a position he has held since May 2002. Judge Spillane received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his law degree from the University of Chicago. He is an active leader in the Texas judiciary, currently representing Texas municipal courts as a member of the Texas Judicial Council, the policy-making body for the state judiciary.
The history behind the Hotel Van Zandt: politics and music
As we move closer to the 2018 NASJE Conference in Austin, I want to share a little a Texas history. The conference hotel – The Hotel Van Zandt – is named after the Van Zandt family – specifically Isaac Van Zandt, an early Texas politician, and his great-great-grandson Townes Van Zandt, a singer songwriter with a long history of addiction and mental health issues.
Dynamic Leadership Speaker to Close Austin Conference
The 2018 NASJE Austin conference’s theme is Developing Educational Leaders for Today’s Courts and Beyond and our closing plenary session on Wednesday, August 29, will focus on our individual leadership skills as judicial educators. Karen Walrond, a sought-out keynote speaker on topics such as self-empowerment, creativity and innovation, will present Individuality, Courage and Values: The Foundations of Leadership. The course will cover how courage is the prerequisite and amplifier of all leadership development and culture change work and the role that vulnerability and inclusion play in creating a culture of innovation.
Conflict Resolution Expert to Address NASJE Conference
If there is any concept that judicial educators can understand, it is the idea of power inequity. We spend much of our time trying to influence powerful people over whom we have very little authority. However, that does not relieve us of responsibility for succeeding in our efforts. Austin counselor Kimberly Key will address the matter of power inequity in her plenary presentation to NASJE.
Documentary film producer and director to join NASJE conference
The documentary film Tomlinson Hill is the story of white and black America as seen through the small Texas town of Marlin located about 100 miles from Austin. The film takes its name from a former Texas slave plantation that was once located in this region. It is also the last name of two descendants from Tomlinson Hill—one black, Loreane Tomlinson, and one white, Chris Tomlinson. Both are featured in the film. In fact, Chris Tomlinson is the film’s producer. The film was directed by Lisa Kaselak.
NASJE 2018 Conference Registration
Howdy y’all! Registration is now open for NASJE’s Annual Conference, which will be held in Austin, Texas, on August 26-29, 2018. The 2018 Conference’s theme is “Developing Educational Leaders for Today’s Courts and Beyond”. We are excited to offer courses…
2018 NASJE Annual Conference
Join us for NASJE’s 2018 Conference! Polish up your cowboy boots, dust off your 10-gallon hats, and reserve August 26-29, 2018, for a Lone Star State welcome to NASJE’s 2018 Annual Conference to be held in exciting downtown Austin, Texas.…
Head and Heart: Working for Justice through Experiential Learning
Data gets to your head, but stories grip your heart and your emotions. For their experiential learning session at the 2017 NASJE Annual Conference in Charleston, NASJE educators visited the Mother Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church down the street from the conference hotel, where Dylann Roof shot and killed nine members of the congregation on June 17, 2015 during a bible study.
Facilitating 101 by Stephanie Hemmert: Practice Makes Perfect
The final morning of the NASJE conference in Charleston, South Carolina began with the choice of one of three different breakout sessions. I chose to attend Facilitating 101 presented by Stephanie Hemmert of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC. She began the session by drawing input from many in the audience, who shared various reasons why they wanted to facilitate classes, discussions and meetings. She then went on to explain that our purpose for the class was to practice our facilitating skills with the whole group.
NASJE Conference Attendees: Know Before You Go!
If you are attending the NASJE Annual Conference December 3-6 in Charleston, be sure to read up on events happening in town before, during and after the conference! Also be sure to consult the December conference guide. Read about some of the exciting conference sessions offered at the conference and prepare for Tuesday’s experiential learning event on the 2017 Conference page. You’ll want to be in the know so you can take full advantage of everything the conference and the city have to offer.
Register and Reserve Your Room Now for Rescheduled Conference!
Your NAJSE Conference Committee and Board have been hard at work resolving details for the NASJE Annual Conference now scheduled for December 3-6, 2017. The good news is that those of you who registered for September and who still plan to attend don’t need to do a thing. Your registration and fees are applied to the new dates.
New attendees must register.
If you responded to the survey sent out to all members and indicated you needed to cancel or transfer your registration, you also don’t need to do anything, your account will be taken care of. If you haven’t yet completed your survey, please do so.
Here is everything you need to know about the rescheduled conference!
2017 Annual Conference Update
The 2017 NASJE Annual Conference has been rescheduled for December 3-6, 2017. We are fortunate to have been offered alternate dates at the same hotel after the September conference dates became unworkable due to Hurricane Irma. We are grateful to the staff at the Francis Marion hotel who worked hard to accommodate us and ensure a positive outcome for all concerned despite the storm.
Conference Spotlight: The Alchemy of “Moonlight”
In a kind of cinematic alchemy, Moonlight makes viewers’ hearts beat right along with the protagonist’s in a world that is both intrinsically American and foreign to many. The movie drops us deeply into three stages of Chiron’s life—as a ten year old trying to outrun bullies in his impoverished Miami neighborhood, as an adolescent quivering at the possibility of a first kiss, and as a hyper-muscled, achingly lonely adult.