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24 Brief [i] (1994-1995)

handle is hein.journals/tbrief24 and id is 1 raw text is: Hugh E. Reynolds Jr. THE VIEW FROM THE CHAIR My association with TIPS goes back at least thirty years. I can testify to that because there is a picture of the Fidel- ity and Surety Committee's annual meeting in New York in January 1963, and I'm in it. For so many of the years that I was active on the Fidelity and Surety Committee, I knew little and cared less about what TIPS was doing. Gradually, however, I came to realize the importance of TIPS to my practice and to other attorneys who do what I do. For six years, I have worked in the leadership of TIPS: first as a Council Member, then as Section Vice-Chair, then as Chair-Elect. I come to the Chair believing that I know what most of our members do in their day-to-day activities because I have done the same things myself for over forty years. I also think I know what it takes to run a TIPS committee because I have done that, too. But when the reins of TIPS were handed to me, I came to the realization that I may know a great deal, but how much I really understand is another matter. Moreover, I have asked myself, how much more is there to learn? There is a temptation to adopt all of the past procedures and activities and to employ the same people who im- plemented those procedures and ac- tivities. In that way it might be possi- ble to make improvements, or so one believes. This is a difficult temptation to resist, considering the problems that have occupied the leadership of TIPS in recent years, including finan- cial restrictions, static membership numbers, difficulty in programming (arising partly from the protracted di- alogue as to whether the ABA's pro- fessional education department would merge with the American Law Institute), and difficulties in determin- ing how to expand the membership and the leadership role of underrepre- sented groups in TIPS whose practices make them a logical part of the TIPS family. Of course, these problems must be seen as opportunities. Financial re- strictions cause you to look much more carefully at what you do with your money. Trying to devise a better way to provide publications and CLE programming forces you to concen- trate on a reasonable cost-benefit anal- ysis. You would especially try to re- duce the cost to TIPS members who wish to take advantage of these op- portunities. Recognizing that membership num- bers are static forces you to examine what you are doing to better serve your members so this trend does not continue. Attempting to provide for greater participation by groups such as solo practitioners causes you to ex- amine how you can best serve those groups. In the process, you meet new friends with new ideas. TIPS leadership has done much to understand these problems and to im- prove operations to better serve our members. The Finance Committee has restrained our expenditures so as to concentrate our efforts on those as- pects of TIPS's operations that are most important to our membership, such as publications and educational programs. The TIPS Solo and Small Firm Practitioners Task Force has been installed as a Special Standing Com- mittee. Under the dynamic leadership of John Beyer, the group is working to make TIPS more interesting and more accessible to solo and small firm practitioners. TIPS is a natural home for all of these individuals who, as part of their practice, handle cases in the tort, insurance, and related fields. As members of TIPS, you should be aware of these practical problems that the leadership must face. How tempt- ing it would be simply to work on these same problems! One could strive for improvement and consider this an adequate effort from the Chair. Of course, I do intend to work on these problems. The leadership of TIPS in- tends to work on these problems. To a large measure, each of you can help resolve these problems so that we are able to provide the best publications and more quality legal education pro- grams. It is, however, very important that the incoming TIPS leadership stand back and ask, Can we do more? For example, we need to devise a way to give those members of the TIPS family who want to get together with their fellow TIPS members from through- out the country more opportunities to do so. The Annual Meeting simply doesn't provide enough opportunity for such collegiality. TIPS has tried to use the Spring Meeting as a combined business meet- ing for the leadership and CLE pro- gram for members on the theory that this would foster such collegiality. This dual-purpose meeting has been going on now for almost ten years, but frankly, it hasn't worked as planned. The numbers of attendees at the Spring CLE program have been rela- tively small. The fact that the program goes on in conjunction with the busi- ness meeting means that the time re- quired for both lengthens. The most important cost factor for any lawyer attending a meeting or a program is time out of the office. It is our responsibility when offering such programs to schedule them to mini- mize the time out of the office and maximize savings. We also have heard constantly from members that we must attempt to organize functions where the hotel and meal costs are manageable. While we wrestle with resolving these problems, the reality of past Spring Meetings has compelled me to decide that there will be no formal CLE program at the 1995 Spring Meet- ing. I am hopeful, however, that at the 1995 Midwinter Meeting and the Spring Meeting, a large number of (Continued on page 38)

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