One of the strengths of our Association is the differences of its members. Individuals come from firms of varying sizes or are solo practitioners. They work in different parts of the County or in nearby areas such as Baltimore City. They specialize in different types of law. They consist of men and women of all ages and backgrounds. There is also minority participation, but not nearly enough in my view given the size of the BCBA and the increasing number of minorities who live in Baltimore County. One of the things I wanted to do during my term was to encourage minority groups to join the BCBA. Although our Association does well to attract new admittees to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County following their admission ceremony, we have not been too successful in attracting practicing minority lawyers who may be members of specialty bar associations. In January, with the help of Lois Fenner McBride and the invitation of my friend, Ron Cherry, I was invited to speak at a meeting of the Monumental City Bar Association. Ron is the current President of Monumental. I was warmly received by the members present and allowed to make a “pitch” to them about joining our Association. If nothing else, I wanted to dispel any possible misperceptions about the membership criteria of the BCBA. Several believed that the BCBA had geographical or practice limitations. I informed them that essentially all such limitations on membership were eliminated. It does not matter where one lives or practices. As long as he or she is a lawyer in good standing with the Court of Appeals, they are welcome. As of this writing, I do not know whether my sales skills will produce any new members, but I was encouraged at any rate and will continue my efforts in this regard.

As you may remember from my October Message, this is the time when all of you should start thinking about committee assignments for next year. Enclosed in this month’s Advocate you will find a Committee Preference Form which will ask you to indicate the committees on which you want to serve and your order of preference. With that information, our incoming President, Nip Jenkins, and President-Elect, Steve Nolan, will get together and make up the actual committees. To make sure that you get the committee(s) you want, please return the form as soon as possible.

Last month in Annapolis, the BCBA hosted a Legislative Luncheon for the Baltimore County Delegation. It was a very good day for our Association and allowed those of us who attended to “fly the flag” and show our elected officials that our Association is interested in what is going on during the legislative session. In times past, the population of the Maryland House and Senate was mostly made up of lawyers. That has dramatically changed over the years. I understand that at the present time, less than 15 percent of the Legislature are lawyers. As a large bar group, I believe that it is important for them to have the opportunity of meeting the leadership and interested members of our Association in an informal setting such as our luncheon. There was no agenda, no speeches, no one had to be “on.” The senators and delegates who attended were very gracious and spent a good amount of time with us despite their hectic schedules. I thank John Gontrum for making the arrangements for us in Annapolis and for serving as the BCBA “whip.” He personally visited the offices of many of the legislators and reminded them that the event was on as planned and to stop by and see us. For more on the day, please see Bob Lidston’s article on the Legislative Luncheon.

I want to thank all of you who attended this year’s Bar Banquet. I was lucky with cooperative weather. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, so good that I couldn’t get many to sit down for dinner! With the Raven’s Superbowl victory only the day before, if I had thought of it, I could have secured order by bringing a boombox and threatening to play Who Let the Dogs Out till everyone took their seat! It would have worked with me. Nip, I advise you to think of some loud and grating thing you can do next year to get and keep everyone’s attention! Seriously, one of the things I mentioned to the assemblage that is worth repeating is the fact that the last time Baltimore had a championship football team was thirty years ago, 1971. Our president at that time was Bayard Williams, a fine lawyer and gentlemen. Unfortunately, Bayard was not at the Bar Banquet this year. Just recently, Bayard contacted me and asked if I would be interested in any of his old BCBA files. Otherwise, he intended to dispose of them. I told him that I would review them. I am glad that I did. His files included membership and committee assignment lists going back to the early 1960s. This kind of information has been long lost in the Bar Office. We were glad to receive this information for archival purposes - to show that there is a rich tradition of lawyers who have given their time to the BCBA, past, present and future. To me, many of the names on the lists were familiar, some personally, others who have become BCBA legends. I suspect that publishing one of the lists in a future issue of the Advocate would be of interest to many of you, particularly the older members who were active in the BCBA during those times. Thanks, Bayard, for your continued contributions to and interest in our Association.

Remember, there are many events coming up in the next few weeks and months. Judge Howe’s retirement dinner is March 28 at the Holiday Inn Select. Law Day is Tuesday, May 1. Susan Reimer, a regular columnist for the Baltimore Sun, will be the speaker at the Law Day breakfast, again at the Holiday Inn Select. We will also sponsor noontime ceremonies in the plaza at the County Courts Building. I hope to see many of you there.

I wish everyone and their families a healthy (or healthier) rest of Winter. Spring is right around the corner!