Iowa Association of Legal Assistants
Board Meeting
September 26, 2009
Clarion Hotel, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
9:00 a.m.
President Rhonda Henning called the meeting to order at 9:15; Secretary Karen Martens to take
attendance and minutes.
Rhonda Henning, President
Jacque Wilbur, Ethics Chair
Melissa Wickerath, ACP, First VP – Seminar
Patty Nearmyer, Public Relations Liaison
Nikki Thompson, Region 1 Director
Laurie Boullyt, Region 3 Director
Rosie Starr, Audit Committee Chair
Denise Wall, CP, Region 6 Director – Technology & Placement Chair
Sherrie Darnielle, 2nd VP – Membership
Bethany Hempel, Region 5 Director
Mark Brooks , Bar Liaison & New Laws and Legislation Chair
Karen Martens, CP, Secretary & Elections and Nominations Chair
Introduction of Board Members
Treasurer’s Report: Discussion held. Approval tabled until next meeting.
Approval of minutes of July 29, 2009 Meeting – Discussion held. Changes were made and approved:
Denise moved to approve minutes as changed, seconded by Mark. Minutes approved with changes.
Old Business:
a. Membership Drive Update: discussion held. Three disc out there with the brochures – President,
2ND VP and PR Liaison.
b. 2010 Seminar Update: discussion held - ISBA will be at Honeycreek the August 5th through the 7th.
Looking in to finding a time and place for our meeting and if we are going to have a spring and fall
seminar. We need someone to host the seminar(s). We are looking at Council Bluffs or Dubuque or
a place more central as in Ft Dodge, Ames, Marshalltown, Okoboji. Would like to collaborate with
other associations such as the Iowa State Bar Association, Iowa Association of Justice, Corporate
Council, Iowa County Attorney’s Association, and Iowa Defense Counsel Association then we only
have to do one seminar along with the mid-year meeting. Do hour lunch and learns with an
attorneys as speakers to give us the CLE credits we need to have a year.
c. 2009 Fall Seminar Summary: discussion held. Good attendance, great speakers. Good comments
about the speakers. Overall it went well.
d. NALA – Continuing Legal Education Credit Submission: discussion held. We should have one person
on the board to submit the credits to NALA and it should be the NALA Liason and the 1st VP. If each
Regions has 1 regular monthly meeting with an attorney as the speaker they don’t have to submit to
NALA for approval ahead of time. Each Region will need to send a synopsis of the meeting to
Marilyn Harms to submit to NALA.
e. Iowa Lawyer advertising: discussion held – Do we need to change our IALA advertisement. Check
out pricing for ABA Journal. Check out other law magazines to advertise. A suggestion was made to
maybe writing an article to be published instead of an advertisement. We will look into small county
and city papers to put an article in not an advertisement.
d. Go to Meeting Renewal: Bethany Hempel moved to renew the Go To Meeting, seconded by Patty
Nearmyer. Approved.
New Business:
a:
Open Board Positions: Regions 4, 7, and 8 Directors
Rhonda asked for approval of the following chairs: Jacque Wilbur as Ethics Chair; Rosie Star as
Audit Committee Chair; Denise Wall, CP as Technical and Placement Chair; Peggy Patters and Jill
Jamieson as Scholarship Committee; Jill Freed, CLA as IA Lakes College School Liaison; Christie
Hoeft as Kaplan University – Mason City School Liaison; Sue Wilkinson as Kirkwood Community
College Liaison; Rhonda Henning as Western Iowa Tech Community College School Liaison,
Bethany Hempel moved to approve, seconded by Melissa Wickerath. Approved.
Discussion held regarding merging the New Laws and Legislation Chair and Bar Liaison as one.
Rhonda appointed Jacque as Historian.
Need Liaisons for DMACC, Kaplan University – Davenport, Iowa Western Community College –
Council Bluffs.
Need Original Notice Editor – Rhonda Henning will do it for now.
b:
Paralegal Regulation with the state: discussion held. We need to work on getting a consensus
from the general members. We decided on a timeline of six months for this before we go to the
next step.
c:
Directives: discussion held regarding revamping the directives. Rhonda will work on these and
then she will send them to each of us for input and then to the Board for approval.
e:
Institute of Paralegal Education on webcasts and telephone seminars: IPE wants to team with us
for webinars or telephone seminars for a discount. Discussion held.
f:
Legal Assistant Today/Paralegal Today v. Know – magazine for membership renewals.
Discussion held. Patty Nearmyer moved to stay with LAT/Paralegal Today for one more year,
seconded by Bethany Hempel. Approved.
j:
School Mentoring- discussion held regarding mentoring a paralegal student at all of the schools
that have a face to face program.
k:
Social Networking: discussion held
l:
Iowa Work Compensation Symposium: discussion held
m:
Re-file with Secretary of State with an amended listing of officers: discussion held
Other Business:
IALA doing charity work maybe at the state or region level: discussion held.
Mark Brooks moved to adjourn, seconded by Bethany Hempel.
Meeting adjourned at 12:07