President's Message
by Charlene Bullock  

It has been an exciting, rewarding, and busy two years since I was elected President of SJALA. It is with mixed emotions that I pass the gavel to SJALA’s next president for 2004. I cannot say thank you enough to all of the people who worked tirelessly side by side with me over those two years to move our profession forward, to advance our association’s mission statement, and to assist paralegals in one of the top professions in the country.

To the non-paralegal staff of our sustaining member, Appleby & Co., who have come out each year to cut up vegetables, mix salads, serve food, and whatever else the Fresno County Bar Association needed to make its annual Big Bar Picnic a success - Sharon Tovar, Mary Fleming, Eryn Gardner, Brenda Rocha, Alice Higman, Marty, and anyone I have missed - thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you also to all the members who worked tirelessly in the drink area to assist members of the Bar in one of their family events of the year.

To Appleby & Co. for its support and contributions and for its financial support of the CAPA 2004 Leadership Conference, thank you so much. Without sustaining members such as yourself, SJALA could not survive. The time given by your employees to make our association even better and prouder in the community has meant so much to our members.

To American Data Med for its financial support and contribution to the 2004 CAPA Leadership Conference, it is vendors such as yourself that allow our conferences to be successful and keep the cost to a minium to allow more paralegals to attend and gain knowledge to advance their associations when they return home with renewed and refreshed ideas.

To the tireless effort of Larry Kirlin, a non-paralegal, who worked hours and hours to gather and calculate information for SJALA’s 2003 salary survey, thank you Larry for offering and then taking the time from your extremely busy schedule to assist our members in such valuable information. We could not have done this without you. Thank you for your support and attendance at our meetings.

To the Board of Directors that has served with me, who have been there at every moment to pitch in and help with whatever was needed from them, to support me in the personal rough times and pick up the void, I will never be able to thank you enough. Thank you Pam Buchnoff, Carol O’Neil, Holly Silver, Michael Flanagan, Deborah Badigian, and M. Diedre Wilton. Thank you also to Lisa Madden, Fern, and all of you who attended board meetings, worked on committees, and pitched in to be membership chair, newsletter editor, and all our other committees.

Thank you Sharon Tovar, another non-paralegal, for attending our board meetings, our membership meetings, and for your great handling of our newsletter with the assistance of Brenda Rocha, and Eryn Gardner. You stepped into a huge job in compiling and preparing the newsletter. It has looked fantastic. You go above and beyond what any of us could do.

And to Dave and Cameron at Valley Document Solutions for printing the newsletter for the past two years at no cost to SJALA, there are not enough words to express our appreciation and gratitude at such a great contribution to the association. Thank you very much.

I am pleased to present your new officers for the 2004 year as follows:

• President Deborah Badigian of Yohman, Parker, Kern & Nard
• Vice President Donna Johnston of McCormick, Barstow, Sheppard, Wayte & Carruth, LLP
• Secretary Lisa Quiroz of Cornwell & Sample
• Treasurer Marilyn Martin-Calkins of Auchard & Stewart
• NALA Representative Michael Flanagan, CLA
• Board Member at Large Lisa Madden of Yohman, Parker, Kern & Nard
• CAPA Primary Charlene Bullock, McCormick, Barstow, Sheppard, Wayte & Carruth, LLP

Please let your new board members know your special interests and sign up for the various committees which need your expertise and time. It is such a good and warm feeling to share time and knowledge with those of your profession for the good of all in the legal community.

Again, thank you so much to everyone for allowing me to serve two great years as your president. I look forward to continued efforts to advance SJALA in the community, in the paralegal programs, and to those paralegals in Fresno County who are not members of the association. Apply!!! Join!!! Get Involved!!! Thank you.