The Oklahoma Bar Journal September 2022

had suddenly changed to, at times, almost zero personal interactions. Another significant thing I learned during my years in edu cation is that people who truly care usually are the most impactful educators. When I submitted my plan to our elected leadership and CLE Department to provide significantly more no-cost and low-cost CLE during this time, I encountered people who truly cared about our members. This compassion was also demonstrated by our sections, committees and numerous volunteer speakers who stepped up to produce high-quality CLE. We had to do some work arounds to ensure MCLE credit was recorded and reported in the Zoom and BlueJeans programs, but it all worked out. Another thing I learned while working in educa tion is that smart people who care can do just about anything, some times without having perfect tools and resources. However, the most important thing I learned during my time in education is that it’s all about the learners. It seems I never left my time in education law, I just got to work with a different set of laws and learners. Lucky me.

factors, often tolerate much less sitting and listening. However, some adults need different accom modations. Online learning is perfect in many instances. If one needs more frequent breaks or to space the viewing time, attending a prerecorded program has great benefits. Live programs with chat features offer some interactive par ticipation; however, none of these are replacements for the social and other attributes of in-person learn ing. Hopefully, we are moving to a better mix of online and in-person learning opportunities. I am proud of the fact that the OBA was well-positioned to offer all the online learning opportu nities we did during the worst of the pandemic. Two years prior to the pandemic, we petitioned the Oklahoma Supreme Court to allow members to get all their annual CLE hours online if they wished. When the pandemic hit, we didn’t need to seek a rule change as many other states had to consider. Also, in the last year and a half, we provided well over one million dollars in free CLE to ensure that our members, who may have been struggling during the pandemic, had one less thing to worry about. We tried to provide programming that was relevant to not only the legal issues that presented themselves but also information on dealing with the emotional and psycho logical impact of a world that

To contact Executive Director Williams, email him at johnw@okbar.org.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL