President's Message
by Deborah Badigian  

Happy New Year to all and I hope your desires and expectations are met during the New Year!

To start off the New Year, the Board of the Fresno Paralegal Association held the Planning Meeting on January 8th at my home.  The meeting was quite inspiring as our attendees exuded extremely positive expectations for our organization; and I believe we will have quite a productive year ahead of us.

We began by outlining our goals for the year and setting-up committees to handle the various activities.  One of the main goals for this next year is to promote our organization.  We would like to educate the legal community of our existence and of the services and benefits we can provide.  We will be sending a promotional letter along with an FPA “Rolodex” card to the law firms within the Greater Fresno area.  In addition, we will try to expand our presence in the community by being a more visible organization.

We also would like to see more of our membership elevate their status in the legal community by becoming a CLA.  Donna Johnston has taken on the task of trying to arrange to have the examination take place here in Fresno as it would save both time and money if we can have the examination here.  As one would need a significant period of time to prepare for the examination, we are tentatively looking at the beginning of 2006 as a possible time frame.

We will hopefully again be working with Fresno City College in presenting an educational event in conjunction with looking at the feasibility of possibly hosting the event at the Fresno Zoo.  This would be an excellent opportunity to invite the legal community to come see what we are about as well as bring our families together.  We will also be setting up another educational event in the fall (with details to follow) in addition to our quarterly general membership meetings.

The start of the new year is also the start of FPA’s new fiscal year, which means it is time to pay our dues again.  Enclosed with this newsletter is a copy of the FPA application which I would ask you return along with your remittance.  Please keep us updated with any changes you make, especially regarding your email address.  Since we are primarily communicating by email to our members, it is imperative that we have your current and correct email address.  While you are completing the application, I would ask you to review the committees/interests section of the application and let us know what area(s) you would be interested in.  Again, I am asking you to become more involved in FPA.

As well, you are all welcomed to attend the Board of Directors meetings which are held once a month.  Last year, the Board held the monthly Board meetings from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 pm at Denny’s (Herndon and Blackstone), which may have prevented you from attending.  As most of you are very busy during the day and your employer may not allow you to take a long lunch hour, we will be arranging to have the Board meetings at different times and locations to better enable you to attend.  The first meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 10, 2005 at the CalTrans building in Manchester Center (enter through the main door located at the northeast corner of the building).  If you are able, please come to the meeting and share your viewpoints.  We are only as strong as our members!

I am looking forward to working with the new Board this year and serving as your President.  If you need would like to contact me, please email me at BadigianPhoto@earthlink.net, or telephone me at 431.2762.

Deborah Badigian, President
Fresno Paralegal Association