Home Highlights of House Meetings

The New York State Bar Association House of Delegates held its quarterly meeting on November 5, 2011, in Albany, New York.  The House of Delegates is a decision-making and policymaking body of the Association that is composed of 297 members.

Highlights of the November meeting:

• The Committee on Membership reported that all sections have developed diversity plans and are now working on implementation in response to President Vincent E. Doyle’s Section Diversity Challenge, which encourages sections to increase diversity in their membership.
  
• The House voted on whether to subscribe to proposed bylaws amendments relating to adding two members-at-large from sections and one member-at-large from the Young Lawyers Section to the Executive Committee.  The proposed amendments did not receive the required number of subscriptions to permit their consideration at the Association’s Annual Meeting in January 2012, so plans were made (consistent with prior practice) to afford an opportunity to absent House members to subscribe by mail.
  
• The Criminal Justice Section presented an informational report recommending that New York State adopt a statute governing the “sealing” of criminal records.  The section plans to continue working on the report prior to presenting a final version for consideration at the January 2012 House meeting.
  
• President Doyle introduced the new eLAP website, which provides an online lawyer assistance program and resources.  Patricia Spataro, Director of the Lawyer Assistance Program, provided a demonstration of eLAP.  (The eLAP website can be accessed at www.nysba.org/elap, using access code “NYLAP.”)
  
• The Lawyer Assistance Committee presented a mock intervention to demonstrate how colleagues can assist a lawyer in crisis.
  
• The House approved the Association budget for 2012.  The budget projects a surplus for the year.