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President's Message
From our Chapter President, DENISE ABADIE
ALA President's Message 2021
I wish to welcome everyone to the New Orleans Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA). Our chapter is all about education and comradery. Please visit our website where you will find information about our chapter, our members and our calendar of events.
I look back at how the last 12 months have been and how our lives have changed, not just personally but professionally. COVID took a lot from us, in-person meetings, happy hours, luncheons, our retreat. I look back and think, “How did we get here and what are we going to do now?” I know one thing we all need to do and that is to see each other live and in-person, “Face-To-Face!”
Whether our new normal consists of a mask and being 6 feet apart, we can do that and still be Face-To-Face. Zoom allowed us to be Face-To-Face all last year but not in the way we were all used to. It created a new comfort zone for each of us. Going forward, our new comfort zone will be whatever YOU need to do to feel safe, to feel that you are still an integral part of our organization, to feel that you belong. We will work together to keep us unified as an organization and to keep everyone informed of all meetings, events and conferences.
The new Board of Directors and the outgoing Board will be meeting Face-To-Face on April 14th to transition the leadership of our Chapter. Please join me in welcoming the new Board:
2021-2022 Board of Directors
President Denise Abadie
President-Elect Ginnie Blake
Past-President Daniel Simpson
Treasurer Scott DeRouen
Secretary Kasey Courtney
At-Large Dan Chapman
At-Large Patricia Christovich
I am looking forward to working with the new Board and new Committee Chairs and members. To all of you who are willing to volunteer and be a part of something fun and exciting, reach out to me any time. I am quite certain I can help you find a place.
April 16th will be our half-day virtual seminar. If you have not already registered, please do. Debbie Foster will be giving us all guidance on how to be better leaders and how to navigate through our changing workplaces. It will be an exciting event. Happy Hour starts at 4:15pm.
May 6th will be our Chapter’s annual installation luncheon at Ruth’s Chris in Metairie. Please join us. This will be our first Face-To-Face meeting since February 2020.
There are so many important parts of our Chapter - not just the members but our Business Partners. Without our Business Partners, we would not be able to have our educational lunches or seminars. I ask you all to give them your patronage and come out to the Expo in June. Our 2021 BP Expo will be held at Mardi Gras World on June 10th. I hope to see many of you there! Our Expo will be our 2nd Face-To-Face gather.
The 2021 National Conference will be held October 3rd thru the 6th in Austin, Texas. Please watch for registration information if you are interested in attending. Yes, it will be Face-To-Face.
I want to thank Daniel Simpson for serving as our President during one of the most challenging years. I certainly would not be moving forward in this organization without his guidance. The entire 2020-2021 Board did everything they could do despite our not being Face-To-Face.
In looking through various historical ALA President letters, I noted that some President’s had a motto. As you may have guessed, I do too: Face-To-Face! We can do this regardless of how close or how far our Face-To-Face turns out to be.
Denise S. Abadie
President, New Orleans Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators
504-589-0022
