June 2014 - Greater Chicago Chapter

BOARD MEETING MINUTES
June 24, 2014 2014-2015 Chapter Board Attendees
Officers and Directors Present:
James Beavers
John Podbielski
Susan Burdett
Susan Gerovasil
Deborah O’Donnell
Advisors Present:
Scott Popp
Absent:
Jose Cheesman
Nancy Nelson
Marie Coffee
Jane Klenck
Travis Larson (via phone)
Betsy Kopczynski
Randi Kohn
Sheri Stone
Larry Fujara
Deborah Kuchta
Kim Hull-Wyrwas
Julie McCormack
Courtney Landon
Mary Lynn Wilson
Ony Beverly
The meeting was called to order at 12:07 p.m. by President James Beavers.
A.
APPROVAL OF BOARD MINUTES. After a motion was made to approve, and a
second to the motion, the May 2014 Board Meeting Minutes were unanimously
approved.
B.
APPROVAL OF THE FINANCIAL REPORT FOR THE PERIOD ENDING
MAY31 , 2014. Susan Gerovasil reported on the April 2014 Financials. After a motion
was made to approve, and a second to the motion, the Financial Report for the period was
unanimously approved.
C.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS.
1.
New Mid-Size Firm Director – Sheri Stone was welcomed to the board as the new
Mid-Size firm director replacing Jane Brinkworth.
2. Law firm Leaders Breakfast – Travis Larson reported that there ended up being 96
registrants. We are still waiting for the bill from the Union League Club. The only
out-of-pocket expense should be the speaker’s fee. The speaker, David Freeman, was
a success. Many people contacted him after his speech.
3. Large Firm Meetings – For discussion is the idea of holding a seminar or
educational event for the Secretarial Managers that meet as part of the Large Firm
meetings. This item is tabled until the next meeting due to the absence of Courtney
Landon.
D.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Approval of outside accountant bid for GCC tax work – Susan Gerovasil
presented a bid from the accounting firm of Green Dubin to handle the preparation of
the tax work for the Greater Chicago Chapter of ALA. The bid came in at $750.00.
This is a firm that already does non-profit work and they are available to assist the
chapter. After some discussion, a motion was made to approve the expenditure and
hire this accounting firm. It was seconded and approved unanimously.
2. Business of Law Community service initiative – Jim Beavers asked for suggestions
from the board for charitable events to present to the Region 3 representative to
consider when the conference is held in September in Chicago. There were several
suggestions for worthy causes. Julie McCormack will liaison with Night Ministry
organization to get more information. Jim Beavers will look into helping the food
pantry of the Greater Chicago Food Depository and present these options to the
Region 3 representative.
3. Phase 2 of website project – Deb O’Donnell introduced the board to the second
phase of the website project. This will begin to automate the collection of
membership data and keeps it in one place. Renewals and applications will be done
electronically also allowing members to pay their dues via Event Brite. Members will
have the ability to self manage their information. She hopes to have it tested, up and
ready to go by December, 2014. The cost is expected to be $21,000.00 which is
under budget.
4. Community Service Initiative for GCC – There was some discussion along with
ideas for the Region 3 Conference initiatives. The balance of discussion is tabled
until the next meeting due to the absence of Marie Coffee.
E.
Upcoming Events
1. Members Only Gold Business Partners Event – (07/15/14)
2. First Meeting of the Member Outplacement committee – (07/09/14)
F.
Director Reports
1. Membership Director (Jane Klenck) –
2014 New Members
To date (May 24, 2014), the Chapter has gained 15 NEW (to ALA and/or the Chapter) members:
Joshua Dugan
Cesar Fernandez
Regional HR Manager
Office Manager
Daniel Campione
Firm Accountant
Mary Gibbard
Linda Rotter
Arlene Sopata
Secretarial Manager
Supervisor: Secretarial
Services
Executive Director &
C.O.O.
Accounting Manager
Katherine Davis
Julie Van Eck
HR Assistant
Firm Administrator
Donna L. Peterson
Susan Thompson
Laura Whittemore
Office Manger
Director of HR
Financial Reporting
Ronaldo Borger
Ellen J. Condron
Chief HR Officer
HR Manager
Christine Ridder
Manager of HR
Meredith Mendes
Bryan Cave LLP (1200 Attorneys)
Rusin Maciorowski & Friedman, Ltd.
(33 Attorneys)
Hall, Prangle & Schoonveld, LLC
(45 Attorneys)
Dentons (120 Attorneys)
Dentons (120 Attorneys)
Jenner & Block LLP (450 Attorneys)
Foran Glennon Palandech Ponzi &
Rudloff PC (54 Attorneys)
Berger Schatz (37 Attorneys)
Mahoney, Silverman & Cross, LLC
(15 Attorneys)
Henderson & Lyman (12 Attorneys)
Arnstein & Lehr LLP (90 Attorneys)
Mgr. Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
(600+ Attorneys)
Seyfarth Shaw LLP (800 Attorneys)
Rakoczy Molino Mazzochi Siwik LLP
(44 Attorneys)
Franczek Radelet P.C. (55 Attorneys)
To date, we have lost one new member who applied for membership with us, but who never
renewed with National. Therefore, I have had to deactivate his membership:
Hector Sierra
Chief Operating Officer
Knell O’Connor Danielewicz (13 Attys)
Three additional members have either left their positions, moved, or retired and have
also been deactivated from our roster:
Susan Leis
Legal Administrator
Cinthia LeGrand
Mercedes E. Vega
Dir. of Office Admin.
Legal Administrator
O’Keefe, Lyons & Hynes, LLC
(Retired April 10th.)
Epstein Becker & Greene (Moved to NY)
Forest County Potawatomi Community
Legal Department (Left their employ.)
We also have three members whom ALA National has indicated have never paid their
National dues for 2014. I have reached out to these people and am waiting for their responses. I
have warned them that if they do not re-join National, we will have to remove them from our
roster. They are Theresa Daniel of Perkins Coie, Patricia Perez of Neal Gerber & Eisenberg, and
Maja Rzepka of Richard F. Mallen & Associates.
Membership Statistics:
To date, (5/23/14) 302 (or 93%) of our Chapter members have renewed. We had 331 members at
the end of 2013.
Our current member total, including retired and life-long members, is 320. Twenty-two members
from last year did not renew and have been removed from the database and from the website and
the Listservs. At the moment, our membership statistics are as follows.
Of our 2013-2014 Members:
302 Members – Renewed
6 Members – Retired/Lifetime Members
1 Member – Not Yet Renewed (But swears he will!)
22 Members – Did Not Renew (Retired/Unemployed/Moved Away/Not Interested)
331 (Members at the end of 2013)
Our 2014-2015 Membership Statistics are:
302 Renewed Members
1 Member Still Waiting to Renew
6 Retired/Lifetime Members
15 New Members
-4 Moved/Retired/etc.
320 Members
Membership Activities
I am in the process of putting together a list of firms which do not currently have ALA members
in order to reach out to them. I have also requested an updated list of Illinois Independent
members who belong to ALA National, but not to the Greater Chicago Chapter, and I will reach
out to those people as well.
2. Professional Development Director (Travis Larson) –
Past Recap:
June 4, 2014 – Law Firm Leader Event – Developing an Ownership Mindset: Speaker David
Freeman of Freeman Consulting
- The event was very well attended and well received.
- 96 people registered / 84 attended (37 Guests, 38 Members, 8 Business Partners)
Scholarship Winners :
 Nancy Nelson (Specialty Conference)
 Ana Parada (Specialty Conference)
 Stephanie Sorkel (National Conference)
 Michelle Schadler (National Conference)
Speaker Drawing:
 Randi Kohn
Future Events:
July 15 – BiMonthly – Standard Club: HR; Speaker - Yvette A. Heintzelman; Sponsor (none);
Ony Beverly is point person
August 12 – Brown Bag – TBD: Topic; Speaker; Sponsor (?); Board
September 16 – BiMonthly – TBD: Topic; Speaker; Sponsor (?); Board
October ? – Brown Bag – TBD: Topic; Speaker; Sponsor (?); Board
November 18, BiMonthly – TBD: Topic; Speaker; Sponsor (?); Board
December ? – Brown Bag – TBD: Topic; Speaker; Sponsor (?); Board. If possible do not
hold in December due to holiday, yr end, etc.
January 20, 2015, BiMonthly – TBD: Topic; Speaker; Sponsor (?); Board
3. Newsletter Director (Mary Lynn Wilson) –
The May/June newsletter (2014 Annual Conference) is on schedule and will be delivered by the
end of June.
The July/August issue is on Technology and articles will be due by July 25.
4. Business Partner Relations Director (Betsy Amaya Kopczynski) –
Our next event is the Members Only Gold Sponsor Soiree at Roof at the Wit on Tuesday, July
15. We currently have 1Platinum, 3 Gold, 8 Silver, and 40 Bronze sponsors. We have collected
$197,500 in sponsorships. I am expecting to secure 3 more Bronze sponsors within the next few
weeks, which would bring the total collected to $205,300.
5. Communications/Website Director (Nancy Nelson) – No Report.
6. Small Firm Director (Randi Kohn –
The Small Firm Meeting was hosted by Diane Maxwell at Lawrence Kamin Saunders &
Uhlenhop. Topics included copier recommendations, flex-time options, staff reviews and job
descriptions. We had 8 attendees. Several cancellations were made earlier in the day.
A special late afternoon Small Firm Meeting was held at FVD on Tuesday, June 17. We were
graced with the presence of Jim Beavers who shared with the group some of the key topics
covered at the ALA National Conference. We also discussed office issues including fax
machines, DMS software and brainstormed a dilemma regarding a delicate personnel issue.
The meeting ran about 90 minutes and we had 10 attendees. Several members who were
scheduled to attend had to cancel that same day.
7. Mid-size Firm Director - (Sheri Stone ) – No Report.
8. Large Firm Director - (Courtney Landon) – No Report.
9. Survey Director (Larry Fujara) – No Report.
10. CLM Director (Jose Cheesman) – No Report.
11. Community Relations Director (Marie Coffee) – No Report.
12. Past President/Historian (Deborah O’Donnell) - No Report.
13. Special Events Director (Deborah Kuchta) – No Report.
G.
Next meeting –
July 29, 2014 - noon
Randi Kohn
Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn Ltd.
55 West Monroe Street, Suite 2300
Chicago, IL 60603
312-701-6839
[email protected]
Items of Information Attached
Draft Minutes of the June 24, 2014 meeting
Financial Report for May 31, 2014
Meeting adjourned at 12:39 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by,
Susan Burdett

Download Report