Hello to blogging!

I decided to start blogging to get thoughts on "paper" and hopefully get people as excited about NALS of Arizona as I am. We had our educational conference this weekend. For those of you who missed it, you missed a lot. In addition to the fabulous legal education (who would have thought you could learn so much about social security?), on Friday, Jessica Yingling gave us lots of great ideas about marketing NALS to potential young members and on Saturday, Tara Hughes and Amy Nash gave us specific ideas about marketing NALS online. Tara and Amy both know that as members of my own chapter (NALS of Phoenix), I often refer to them as the "young uns." That is one benefit of age, people are a little more lenient with your weirdness. I have tons of respect for all of our young uns. In this "get it now and don't make me work for it" world, they are all interested in their profession and in learning as much and networking as much as they can. They come to meetings and conferences, they learn, they teach, they lead -- they participate. They are the best! Our "young uns" are our future. We need to target them, not only so we can help them choose and embrace our career, but so they can teach us the things that they know.

I'm looking forward to the NALS Leadership Conference in Tulsa -- which I found out this past weekend is less than two weeks away. I guess I need a calendar that shows the whole year on one page so I don't think things are another whole month away because I can't see them! We always come away from Tulsa pumped up and ready to get everyone else excited about NALS! I love the feeling! Not to mention seeing so many friends I've made through the years. I can't wait. If you haven't ever been, plan to attend in 2009. It is an experience that can't be beat.

I'm excited about my year as President of NALS of Arizona, although I worry that I will forget to do things and delay doing things that are important - but I have lots of support, lots of great ideas, and lots of people in NALS of Arizona who are excited too and will help keep me in line! My goal for next year is FUN! We will have it, we will promote it, and we will still get things done. I will need lots of help and ask any of my NALS of Arizona members who are interested in having fun this year to let me know.