by Samuel L. Braunstein, President

As another chapter in the history of our association begins, I again thank you for giving me the opportunity to assist in the leadership of our organization for the forthcoming year. We are fortunate to have had Richard Cerrato as our Immediate Past President and I know that we all commend him for the excellent work he has done on behalf of the GBBA, especially over the past year.

During this next year, I will be requesting your assistance and guidance in several areas, with particular regard to: increasing the positive visibility of the GBBA in our community; revitalization of our association’s website; increasing individual and group participation in our various committees; assisting in the improvement in our continuing legal education programs, including the introduction of teleconference presentations where appropriate; increasing individual and committee level participation in article presentations for our News Brief; and, of course, our “social events”.

Over the next few weeks, please start “taking a look” at our website to see the changes as they occur. We hope that over the next several months, it will become more and more of a useful tool to our membership through several features which we hope to be able to put to work – including “web pages” for each of our committees which will be used on a regular basis as an active communication tool – as well as for general dissemination to our membership, such as the new GBBA Standard Form Real Estate Contract, which I understand is being finalized by our Real Estate Committee…soon to be available.

I encourage each of you to actively seek out potential new members for our association during the coming months. It only takes a couple of phone calls and sincere invitations to people, in most instances, to get their interest and after a brief introduction to what and who we are and what we have to offer, the sale is usually made. For those in larger firms, why not ask a partner or an associate who is not yet affiliated with GBBA? For us in smaller firms, just looking around in court or thumbing through the yellow pages (real or on the internet) usually turns up a name or two worth exploring. Please remember that we do offer a great deal and the price is right – there are not many places where you can get the “bang for your buck” as right here at the GBBA.