President's Message
by Deborah Badigian  

FINALLY, IT IS OFFICIAL. Our name change from San Joaquin Association of Legal Assistants to FRESNO PARALEGAL ASSOCIATION has been approved by the State of California. And now the real work begins in changing all of our documentation, website, logos, accounts, etc., to our new name.

Speaking of a new logo, if you have any suggestions and/or art work you would like to be considered for the logo, please contact me or send your copy to me and I shall present it to the Board for consideration. At this point, I have just revised the old logo with our new name but feel we may want to update our look as well. Let me hear from you with any suggestions.

As a precautionary measure to ensure that inappropriate changes have not been made to our Bylaws, CAPA requests that we submit the changes to them for review and we will be performing this task within the next several weeks.

I would like to take a minute to thank the new Board and you, the members, for wanting to move our association forward in a positive manner and continue to grow with the changes in our profession. As you are well aware, it is imperative that we do so. Again, if there are any comments or suggestions you would like to present, you know my number!

I cannot believe this year is in the second half already but the summer heat sure tells me otherwise. In this issue, there are several events scheduled for Paralegals which can provide you with both educational requirements/ MCLE and recreation (at the beach). I again encourage you to attend one or as many events as you can as I do not think we can have enough education nor friends with whom we can share our experiences with.

This is the first issue of our Newsletter being sent to our membership in PDF form and if you have any problems receiving and/or viewing any of the material, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can correct the problem.

As it is now a lot less costly and more effective to send the Newsletter by e-mail, we have changed the Newsletter output to every other month to keep you apprised of what is happening in our organization and community. The next edition will be sent out on approximately October 1, 2004 and if you have any articles you would like to submit to our readers, please send or email them to me for insertion.

Don't forget to calendar our next General Membership Meeting which is scheduled for September 15, 2004, at the Smuggler's Four Points Sheraton at Blackstone and Dakota at 5:30 p.m. We are currently in the process of confirming arrangements with a speaker. Please join us for a sumptuous dinner and great opportunity to meet your fellow members as well as learn something new. Enjoy your summer.

I hope to see you all at both the Seminar and our Holiday Social.