by Kelly Tait
Greetings! As you can see below, there’s a lot going on in our organization.
The Board is continuing efforts to create positive growth in both NASJE’s membership and financial security. We’re happy to let you know there’s an opportunity for NASJE to get small donations at no cost to you if you shop on Amazon.com. The AmazonSmile program was developed as a way for Amazon to support their customers’ favorite charitable organizations. 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 .5% of the purchase price to NASJE (at no cost to you). For this to happen, you do need to sign on to Amazon via smile.amazon.com each time you shop. For more information on the program, go to https://smile.amazon.com/about.
We are doing a membership drive this summer, so please help spread the word about NASJE and encourage more people who are involved in judicial branch education to become members. They can visit this website or you can contact Membership and Mentor Committee chair (and President-Elect) Margaret Allen at if you would like an electronic copy of NASJE’s flyer and membership application for distribution.
Registration is OPEN for our Annual Conference which will be in Seattle, Washington, on October 4-7, 2015. It is going to be an excellent conference! See this site for session descriptions and the registration form. I encourage you to sign up soon; the rooms at conference location, the Sheraton Seattle Hotel, are filling quickly. If you find that rooms are unavailable there for your preferred dates, we have arranged a comparable rate with a hotel nearby, the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
There will be regional meetings (web/telephonic) in all regions in the next few months, as well as regional meetings during the Annual Conference. Contact your regional director if you have questions about or input for the meetings: Midwestern Region: Tony Simones – ; Northeastern Region: Joan Bishop – ; Southeastern Region: Dan Rettig – ; and Western Region: Joseph Sawyer – . [If you’re not sure which region you’re in, go to the drop-down menu About NASJE” then click on “Regions.”]
The ad hoc Strategic Planning Committee is off and running, developing a plan to help shape NASJE’s efforts beyond this, our fortieth year. If you’re interested in being on the committee or just have input for it, contact committee chair Lee Ann Barnhardt at .
All current NASJE members should have received a packet in the mail with a hard copy of our newly released Diversity, Fairness, and Access Curriculum Design. Again, many thanks to our hard working Education and Curriculum Committee, chaired by Caroline Kirkpatrick (NASJE Vice President) and Jeff Schrade (NASJE Treasurer), for their efforts on this! If you didn’t receive the new curriculum design, please contact me, and I’ll make sure you get your copy. All twelve of NASJE’s excellent curriculum designs are also available on this website under the pull-down menu “Resources” > “Curriculum Designs.”
These are just some of the many benefits of being a NASJE member. I invite your ideas on what else we can do to improve your NASJE experience!