The Oklahoma Bar Journal January 2024

F rom the P resident

a completely different experience for students and teachers.” 3 I hope you are able to attend the Annual Meeting this year, which is scheduled for July 9-12 in Norman. If you are unable to attend, I strongly encourage you to attend another professional activ ity in person. You may get a lot more out of it than a virtual event. The second goal for 2024 is a new strategic plan for the OBA. The last full strategic plan was adopted in 2005 and updated in 2010. It is time for the OBA to revisit its medium- and long-term plans. The OBA has been working toward a new strate gic plan for a while. For example, in 2022, under Jim Hicks’ leadership, we conducted a thorough survey of the membership. Now is the time to put pen to paper. The third goal is a member dues raise. It has been 20 years since the OBA last increased its dues in 2004. At that time, it was anticipated that the increase would suffice for five to seven years (or 2011). Thanks to the great stewardship of OBA staff leaders like John Morris Williams and Craig Combs, the OBA was able to stretch the need for an increase more than a decade longer than was originally anticipated. According to online inflation cal culators, $275 in 2004 would equate to approximately $445 in 2023. To be clear, I am not proposing that size of an increase. The Board of Governors will look at projections and make a decision based on quantitative infor mation. But, like your lives and busi nesses, the OBA is not immune from inflation. We must retain talented employees, pay vendors and maintain a beautiful (but aging) building. Additionally, we must plan for the future. As set out above, the OBA has more members over the

age of 80 than under 30. As such, the OBA is going to have to do more with less going forward and grow other sources of revenue, like CLE. However, we are looking at a physical cliff in the coming years. I believe it is necessary to get in front of the issue now rather than wait for it to crash on the organization like a tsunami. It is a privilege to practice law in this state. That privilege has respon sibilities, such as paying OBA dues to help administer, advance and regulate the practice of law. When I talk to other bar presidents around the country and discuss the need to raise dues, the reaction is often met with, “I don’t want to do that in my year as president,” with the conno tation being that they will receive a number of attorney complaints. I respond that as leaders, we must do what we believe is necessary. More importantly, I have faith in Oklahoma attorneys. I have faith that they value their profession and want to uphold the high standards of practice in Oklahoma. These are just some of the high lights of the ongoing issues for the OBA. Please visit the OBA or contact one of the members of the Board of Governors to learn how you can be more involved in your profession. I look forward to a great year in 2024. With your help, we will try to accomplish these goals and meet the responsibilities of the OBA as set out by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. 1. https://bit.ly/418DskI. 2. Cellini, Stephani Riegg: “How does virtual learning impact students in higher education?” The Brookings Institution, available at https://bit.ly/47KfQp0. 3. P. Photopoulos, C. Tsonos, I. Stavrakas and D. Triantis: “Remote and In-Person Learning: Utility Versus Social Experience. SN Comput Sci . 2023;4(2):1–13. PubMed Central https://bit.ly/4a73I30. ENDNOTES

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We are making physical improve ments to the main entrance of the Oklahoma Bar Center so that it is more accessible to those with dis abilities. Our CLE Department pro duces and licenses quality content to keep our members current on legal developments and best practices. This year, I have set out three main goals to accomplish. First is a robust and meaningful Annual Meeting. Accordingly, we have moved the meeting from November to July to be held in conjunction with the Oklahoma Judicial Conference, and we are promoting a business casual event to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome. This modification means that state court dockets will be clear, so there should be fewer conflicts. Also, joint events between the bar and the judiciary should assist the collegial ity and professionalism of everyone involved in the administration of justice. I thank the Supreme Court and the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference for helping make this change possible. While remote learning opportu nities for CLEs are important, it is essential that professionals meet in person to discuss legal issues and share experiences. We learn more and develop better relationships when we meet in person. According to the Brookings Institution, studies find “that online instruction resulted in lower student performance relative to in-person instruction.” 2 Affected stu dents reported difficulty concentrat ing on work and “felt less connected to both their peers and instructors relative to their in-person peers.” Another article, published in the National Library of Medicine, found that “without the face-to-face compo nent, learning and teaching became

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL