First - The Good News - It was a Big Success
The first in-person Plenary since 2018 was a big success, with representative from all but two County and District Law Associations in attendance - and with many Associations sending 2 to 4 attendees (Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Treasurers, Librarians).
If you check out the website, you will note that many, many topics were formally presented and discussed, including Legal Aid Updates, LSO Updates (including upcoming Bencher Elections), FOLA Road Ahead Update (Strategic Plan, Bencher Elections & Paralegals), LiRN Updates, Association / Library Accounting, IEDA(s) in Practice Session, ONCA Update from CLEO, Non-Dues Revenue Generation, and Membership Recruitment & Retention. Copies of the Speakers Attachments and Presentations are also available on the FOLA website.
There were also presentations by Plenary Sponsors, XChange Docs, ACL5 Automated Civil Litigation, LawPro, Clio, Lawyers Financial, CPD Online, & LEAP.
Then a Cautionary Tale - The 2023 Bencher Elections
There was also an interesting (albeit highly controversial) dinner speaker at the Wednesday night welcome dinner, Bencher Joseph (Joe) Groia. His presentation was titled "Joe's Believe it or Not! - 10 Amazing Things about the LSO!! - Truth is Stranger than Fiction!!!.” He spoke passionately about 10 topics, about the Law Society, including the fables "Wine Cellar" (it did exist, but doesn't now - the collection was auctioned off). One of the things that Joe spoke most passionately about was the upcoming 2023 Bencher Elections.
Joe is worried about low voter turnout, member apathy, and he is most worried about the current development of special interest groups, seeking election on the basis of their shared interests and agendas.
One of the most troubling developments, mentioned by Joe, and many others during the rest of the plenary, are groups whose primary objective is to drastically reduce memberships fees, without any regard for or care about how that defunding would affect small, rural Associations, their Libraries and the resources made available to their members.
Joe characterized these interest group efforts as the development a political party system within the Law Society. Here is a link to an article Joe submitted to Canadian Lawyer magazine, detailing his fears and views on the subject.
While there were people who dismissed Joe's views on the politicization of the Law Society outright, it was my observation that there were far more who agreed with him in principal, sharing in his belief that this would prove damaging to the entire fabric and makeup of the LSO, by fostering the ability for special interest groups to gain majority control over and fundamentally and detrimentally change the policies and objectives of the LSO - most likely to the overall detriment of small and rural Law Associations like the Bruce Law Association.
Let that sink in . . .
If ever there was a time when it is important to "get out the vote" and to "vote strategically" - the spring 2023 Bencher Elections is that time.
Regardless of what your personal beliefs are, it will be crucial for our members to carefully study the platforms of the individuals seeking election, to make sure that they do not form part of or support these emerging political parties that primarily seek to lower fees - which will no doubt have the effect of defunding County and District Law Association Libraries, Resources and other programs that keep our rural members on a more level playing field with our large-firm urban colleagues.
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