As I sit on the beach at Maalea Bay, Maui, it has given me pause to reflect on my upcoming retirement as Executive Director of the DCBA. It is a perfect Maui morning, blue sky, warm breezes and sun-kissed water. It is very easy to daydream, when you are in paradise! What is retirement going to be like? Will I enjoy retirement Can I envision myself in the ideal life of a retiree So many memories.......
After eighteen years, I have many recollections of a career that has served me well. During my tenure, it has been my privilege to serve, maintain and sustain 18 presidents, 325 board members, l,044 committee chairs and vice chairs. I have witnessed the membership double in size and the bar office move into their own building more than a century after its founding. Approximately, 2,808 meetings later, my position as the executive director has come to closure. I send the DuPage County Bar Association on to a new beginning.
As your bar executive, I have supported each and every one of you in the pursuit of providing the legal community a forum for its ideals. I know the importance of legal education and how to accomplish the logistics of providing accessibility to affordable programs offered by the association. Through leadership roles and committee participation, there has always been the opportunity for growth and relationships. The principles, practices and techniques of the profession are an integral part of what a bar association is all about. It is those opportunities that have enhanced the members, the community, the profession and the association as a whole, an organization to be proud of. Recognition of DCBA’s accomplishments have been noted by many other organizations. As a winner of numerous state and national awards, the DuPage County Bar Association is a model that other associations look to as the standard to be envied. I am particularly gratified to have been a part of this organization’s success.
The DCBA sponsors sports events, social activities, seminars, Judges’ Nite shows and community projects. The twenty-nine standing committees meet on a regular basis with case law updates, and notable speakers who share their expertise with the membership. The relationship of the bench and bar is special. The bar leadership meets with the presiding judges of the various divisions and the chief judge on a quarterly basis. I, personally, have been involved as the secretary of the Ray Graham Association for People with Disabilities, co-founder of "Lawyers Lend A Hand", a volunteer group who meet on a monthly basis to do community service projects. I have also been a coordinator of the Juvenile Diversion Program and a Calvary Church fellowship leader. All of these worthy projects involved the time and talent of the members and myself. We were all willing to dedicate ourselves to these causes.
As my career with the bar association nears its’ end, I realize how fortunate I was to meet and have the pleasure to know people like Attorney General, Jim Ryan, Henry Hyde, Scott Turow, Illinois Supreme Court Justices, Tom Moran, John Nickels and Bob Thomas and each and every member of the DCBA. I take with me eighteen years of memories that I will treasure always, and hopefully, friendships that will last a lifetime!
Soon, I will start a new chapter in my life. I feel a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction of a job well done. It has been my pleasure to serve as the Executive Director of a premier bar association, I will miss you all. However, I won’t be far away and you may see me in the courthouse in my new capacity as a Jury Commissioner for DuPage County. My appointment by the full circuit judges of the 18th Judicial Circuit was confirmed on May 28, 2001.
Eddie