2010-11 Self-Nomination: Executive Board

[SL Bar Assn]

Use this thread to self-nominate for Executive Board.

Nominations close July 9, midnight PDT. Candidates are invited to speak at the July 10 general meeting.

Elections will open after the July 10 meeting, and the new officers will take office at the August meeting.

Per our Non-profit 501c3 status, all board members must disclose "real life" identities.

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Executive Board (three members at large): The Executive Board consists of the President. the President Elect (during the portion of the year that the office exists), the Vice Presidents, all former Presidents, and three elected members.
The formal role of the Executive Board is to set the agenda for meetings and make administrative decisions on proposals that need not go before the entire membership.

[Tamiko]

Hello all! I'd like to return to the Executive board and start to implement some ideas that I have in terms of building our relationship with the in-world community. I'd like to see us host events more regularly and if there's no interest from the membership in organizing events ourselves, then we, either individually or as a group, should participate in more events either as sponsors or promoters at the very least. There are lots of worthy events taking place in world and we should be in attendance at the most notable. I think that the membership would benefit not only from seeing what the world has to offer, but also from learning how to navigate and involve themselves in the social aspects of the environment. Does that sound like all I want to do is party?? ;)

[J P Tangen]

I would be honored to serve on the Board of Directors. My contribution would undoubtedly be from a rather different perspective than that of anyone else. I probably am the oldest member of the group, I do not work in the field of IP and I live way way way far away in Alaska; however, I do beleive that virtual reality is a tool with huge potential. For instance, while much or the SLBA conversation relates to presentations and meetings in SL that are convenient but mere substitutes for meetings in RL, in remote locations RL meetings are sometimes "virtually" impossible. In Alaska, court proceedings are commonly conducted by conference call, because commuting to the physical location of the court may be precluded by weather and the non-availability of transportation. (The vast majority of Alaska is not on the road system.) Having selected court proceedings conducted in a SL kind of forum, I think, would be a huge step toward the better administration of justice. One area that I perceive to be deficient at the moment is the reality that a very large number of lawyers are probably involved and interested in SL, but are not active in the SLBA becase they think it is for IP attorneys and/or they have not been actively solicited to participate. Perhaps the greatest thing we have to offer as an association for now is the creditable CLE courses we make available. Since almost every lawyer in the US needs CLE credits and since Cat is doing such a great job with them, it seems to me that we ought to be able to find out way into RL bar association journals highlighting that opportunity. In brief, my vision, for better or for worse, is that we should consider developing a much broader base, not just for the benefit of the group of even SL but for a much larger constituency.

[Agenda Faromet]

Well, Geri finally talked me into it.

I would like to nominate myself for a position on the Executive Board. I believe, like Tamiko, that the SL Bar Association should be more involved in the SL community at large -- for the most part, we are very insular, but we would benefit from greater collaboration with other SL groups. We have recently started holding monthly coffee chats, and those are going very well in terms of allowing us to get to know one another; however, we could do more to get to know the rest of Second Life. We could participate in other ongoing SL events (such as the recent Operation Squeegee, or the Relay For Life events, or other such functions), which would both encourage involvement among SLBA members and get our name out. We could offer educational events (/not/ offering legal advice, just taking advantage of the medium to educate) on subjects such as intellectual property and copybotting to content designers who are struggling with exactly those issues on a regular basis. We have the ability to become a powerful voice in the virtual world; we simply need to motivate and /do/ it.

For those who don't know me, I'm a third-year law student (and that's worth taking into account when voting: I will be studying for the bar next summer). I've been on SL since 2007, back in the days when gambling was allowed and they actually had banks. I'm a proactive self-starter and problem-solver, but terrible at giving "elect me" speeches, so I'm stopping now.