August 2003
Summer Daze
by Jan Michels, WSBA Executive Director
My favorite “Far Side” cartoon features two dairy cows in a couch-potato position in front of a television. A phone on the table where they’ve propped their “feet” is ringing wildly. “Well, there it goes again,” one says to the other. “And we just sit here without opposable thumbs.”
I think of WSBA staff as the opposable thumbs of the Association. Ideas, wishes, projects, services—all need our “grip,” our version of prehensile facility, to help bring members’ and the board’s desires to fruition. That’s 120 pairs of make-it-happen opposable thumbs. So let me tell you about all this energy.
As a baseline, you should know that the ratio of WSBA staff, at 120 persons, to members is 1:195, about average for comparable bar associations and a ratio that has held pretty steady over the last 10 years.
Who Are We?
WSBA staff is about 60 percent professional—accountants, therapists, lawyers, program directors, and technologists. Our support personnel include paralegals, investigators, bookkeepers, Service Center representatives, production-service employees, and administrative staff. We are widely diverse in heritage, race, interests, and age. We are an unusual 70 percent female. We like each other, and we like working here. At a recent all-staff meeting led by Chief Disciplinary Counsel Joy McLean, we talked about why we work here. Mostly we heard each other say we like supporting the rule of law, we like the work, and we like having and living with agreed communication norms and values.
And we have fun. We walk off to lunch in the most unlikely pairings and groupings; we celebrate birthdays; we celebrated, with the governors, the WSBA’s 70th anniversary on June 8; and we toast each other’s achievements. At times we also share each other’s grief. I think we work hard; our timesheets show that on average we clock the work hours of more than 140 equivalent staff.
With more than 30 program units, including Access to Justice, discipline, the Practice of Law Board, the Law Office Management Assistance Program, Bar News, and the ethics line, we depend on our commonality of interest in assuring the public of an ethical profession, and in serving our members.
Who Are We as People?
Our work slows down somewhat in July and August—we’re between license-fee and bar-year cycles; committee work lessens as our volunteers focus more on family activities. We spend down our vacation hours and rest up for September, when the pace will quicken again. Recently I asked a few staff members to give me snapshots of their summer plans.
Robert Levinson, information technology director, plans to hop down to Davis, California, for a few days, where among other pastimes, he will cycle through fields, swim in the community pool, and sit under an olive tree with a stack of books.
Steve Carroll, one of the voices on the WSBA Service Center line, is celebrating the pleasure of the imminent arrival of his and his wife’s first child. He has also just moved into a new home, which he (naively) looks forward to remodeling. Rather than taking time off this summer, he’s saving his vacation hours for parenting time after his baby arrives. Steve recently tracked down a signed photograph of San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (one of new President-elect Ron Ward’s inspirations) to present to Ron. When I asked him what had inspired him to do it, he replied, with typical humility, that he wanted to return to Ron the respect Ron always shows for staff.
Mark Sideman, CLE director, reports that it has been a big year for WSBA CLE in that the department has recommitted itself to serving WSBA members and sections. He’ll write about it in the next few months (marketing just happens with Mark). As for Mark himself, he is an avid diver and has recently returned from seven days of cave-diving training in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico (site of the IMAX film “Amazing Caves”). Upon returning, Mark was then fortunate enough to participate as surface support for a National Geographic film project with the Seattle Aquarium on six-gill shark research. Very tentatively the film is scheduled for unveiling this fall.
Toni Doane, sections liaison, says she’s not taking a lump time of vacation but will instead treat herself to three-day weekends by taking Mondays off all summer. She plans to rescue her garden of flowers, shrubs, and herbs, which suffered through the Vashon Island caterpillar infestation this June. Since we’ve all enjoyed the bounty of her rosemary bouquets and flower arrangements, we love her plans!
Barbara Harper, lawyer services director, says her husband, Pete, and she are planning a trip to New Hampshire in July. “It’s a little too early for the fall leaves, but we plan to enjoy hiking and antiquing with our daughter and her husband, who is beginning his first year of residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.”
Candace Barbieri, human resources coordinator, whose daughter and two grandchildren recently moved out and emptied the “nest,” says she’s going to recarpet the house and get reacquainted with her husband of 27 years. Here she flashed a bemused smile as she noticed that 27 years is a lifetime to some of the WSBA staff she has recently ushered in.
After Disciplinary Counsel Christine Gray, Jean McElroy, and Linda Eide worked many long, hard hours this spring preparing for and conducting two separate two-week disciplinary hearings in Moses Lake, they were ready for a break. Chris Gray did it right, spending a week at a spa in the Southwest. Native Seattleite Jean McElroy plans one of those non-vacation vacations where she and her husband, Mike, will move from their longtime home in Everett to take up residence in her childhood home in Wedgwood. She and Mike are using their vacations to move! Linda Eide had a more relaxing idea, and flew to California with her son to purchase a friend’s convertible, then vacationed while driving back along the coast to Seattle.
Bob Welden, general counsel, plans to attend his high-school reunion (dare I say it is his 40th?), after going to a reunion of staff members from Camp Omache, the Boy Scout camp where he worked during high school and college (campfire director, rifle-range director, chaplain—can you believe it?).
After 27 years as Pacific Northwesterners, Director of Finance and Administration Pat Dieken and her family have purchased a home in the Valley of the Sun (i.e., Phoenix). Pat has enjoyed house-hunting and exploring the new environs this summer. She plans to leave behind the lawnmower, tire chains, and four-wheel drive in exchange for pool-maintenance equipment, a convertible, and books on desert gardening.
Peter Lee, web programmer, at first called his summer boring, but then admitted to seven weddings of family and friends, a summer project of restoring his vintage ’65 Vespa to running condition, and training with friends for an Arthritis Foundation event in Ireland.
Gail Stone, legislative programs director, will mark the summer clearing her house of 20 years of three generations of detritus, and will follow the clearing out with a major remodel. This “fun” will make returning to work the real vacation.
Me? l plan to reach my summer goal of 2,000 miles on my bicycle. Barring goathead1 flats, crashes, and running out of ibuprofen, I should hit the fall ready to sit down (on a soft cushion) for a new board of governors and new challenges.
Enjoy your summer . . . whatever it holds!
Note:
1. Goatheads are burrs spawned by vine-like shrubbery that grows close to the ground. The actual burrs are similar to small, round marbles with quarter-inch spikes protruding from them. When they dry out and split, the two remaining spikes resemble a goat’s horns, hence the name.
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