President's Message
by Mort Brinchmann
The best thing LLOPS does is bring librarians together. The Program Committee has charted another stellar year, kicking off with its series of management programs. That almost gets us to spring’s professional development workshop – Kerry Fitz-Gerald and Barbara Holt have agreed to co-chair the PDC this year and are looking for a few good members to join.
Let’s do more than that. I will be leaning on the Social Committee to get us out more this year and pushing for another Big Lebowski night at the Garage. You should also join the LLOPS team for the KCBA 5K run/walk(most likely the first Sunday in March). Come run/walk circles around the lawyers while supporting KCBA’s Neighborhood Legal Clinics. Fair notice to those of you who insist on training for these things.
Has LLOPS ever had a mentoring program? Feel free to contact me if you might like a mentor, and we’ll figure something out.
I also hope we can make a big dent in the next month on the Washington State entries to be included in the National Inventory of Legal Materials. It goes faster if you do it with a friend; I recommend a law librarian!
The board has been considering some committee consolidation to encourage interaction and eliminate overlap. The biggest change is a new “mega committee” (the “Media Committee” until we find something good) which would handle LLOPSCited, the Website, Social Media and Marketing. We are also pondering the fate of our “temporary special committees”: Social would become a regular committee and Community Outreach discontinued. Community Outreach ideas would still be solicited from members and considered by the board; responsibility for selecting and implementing Holiday Party giving would go to the Social Committee. We also discussed aligning the Discussion List with the Membership Committee and the Salary Survey with Employment. Please make your concerns or suggestions known, and let us know if you would like to be part of the decision process.
Finally, I’ll take this chance to reprise LLOPS – Brush With Greatness™? – Some of you may remember when Letterman had audience members relate fun interactions with celebrities (before the show’s writers ruined it by adding fictionalized endings). We did this when I was Program Chair – I led off with a story about sitting with my brother in a totally empty theatre when Larry Bird and friend take the two seats directly in front of us. Tim immediately bested me with a restaurant encounter with the daughter(s) of then nominee John Kerry only the week before. What’s your brush? (bonus points for a library theme; points deducted if pictures were taken).
Themocracy
When I was in college in Cincinnati I was friends with a DJ from the now defunct radio station out of Oxford, 97X. One night we went to a Red Hot Chili Peppers show and afterward we ended up going out to dinner with the band. I went through the salad bar line with Flea. I saw Flea again about 10 years later in the Malibu Country Mart parking lot in Malibu, CA. For some reason he didn’t remember me.
Last summer I went to NY with my youngest daughter, Sara, to visit the eldest daughter. As Sara and I were wondering about one morning, we stopped in a small restaurant to have breakfast. We were the only ones there except for a threesome across the aisle from us discussing a movie deal. One of the gentlemen looked very familiar but it wasn’t until he stood up that I recognized him as Spike Lee. He had on his regular uniform of a baseball hat and long tee-shirt.