PLANC Meeting
Wednesday, November 15, 2000
Town & Country Resort
San Diego, California
I.
Call to Order– Neal
II Introductions
Neal (Chair), Crane
(Chair-Elect/WAPLA), Riley (Treasurer), Polinard (PLANC Points), Homer (PLANC
Points), Brandt (LSAC), Webb (LSAC Services and Programs), Rowsam (NALP), Harrington (NAPLA), Wright (NAPLA),
Poland (SAPLA), Wilson(SAPLA), Mecozzi(MAPLA), Wrigley(MAPLA), Robbins(SWAPLA),
Gregory (SWAPLA),Sommerness (WAPLA), Wright (PCAPLA), Kopitzke (PCAPLA),
Schilling (Conference Chair), Batchelor (Conference Treasurer/Registrar)
III Secretary’s Report–Crane
March 2000 minutes being copied; to be
distributed
IV Treasurer’s Report–Riley
Income $2885.90; Debits $6634.34;
money market and checking accounts have $20,853.95; discussion about what to do
about negative shortfall $16,000-$18,000 over four years; seed money from
conference will support conference costs but will not cover expenses incurred
for PLANC operations; need to plan for an increase in income; possibility of
creating a PLANC product discusses, is on agenda later in meeting; conference
subsidization; raising dues or product that we could sell to others; think
about by Philadelphia meeting; APLA’s will receive funds from receipts from
national conference; suggestion made to increase dues $1000 per APLA;
counter-suggestion to gradually increase dues to $1000 over a period of years;
the need to make decisions about financial health of organization underscored
V Conference Report–Schilling
Registrants: 285 PLA, 180 law school
reps, 8 vendors, 5 commercial, 26 others (non-profits and others); total=499;
budget based on 500; MAPLA: 59, NAPLA: 77, PCAPLA: 30, SAPLA: 54, SWAPLA: 37, WAPLA: 25
SCHEDULE:
Thursday:
exhibits to be set up at 8 AM; no
assignments of tables; conference breaks in same place; registration 8 AM–6 PM;
same person from Orlando conference will help in registration– Sue Green
Pre-Conference Program: Newcomers
Workshop; California Exposure; APLA Leadership Workshop
Easels with signs outside of doors
Plenary Session 4:15 PM California
Room (theater-style room, holds 500)
Group Reception: 6-7 PM Terrace
Pavillion and Pool-side
Heaters around area since it’s chilly;
Dinner and Speaker: Rennard Strickland in Town and Country Ballroom
Friday
Registration 8 AM--3 PM Atlas Foyer
2 APLA breakfasts: MAPLA/PCAPLA
Group breakfast in Town and Country
9:45 AM Concurrent Sessions
11:45 AM Group Lunch and Speaker:
Peter Irons
UCSD Bookstore signing for Irons
publications at 11 AM and after lunch
Break–sponsored by Midwest Alliance
Association
Cruise
340 reservations so far
Everyone to meet outside of Convention
Center 5:30 PM; 9 busses have been reserved
Dinner supposed to start at 6:00 PM;
Fee for dinner pays for busses
Saturday
APLA breakfasts for other four APLA’s
to be held in Royal Palm Rooms
Continental breakfast to be served for
law reps
Program: 9-10 AM Future of PLA
11:45 AM Lunch and Speaker– Judge Mary
Schroeder
There will be floor mikes for
questions from the audience
Post-Conference Law School Tours:
1:30 PM Bus to Cal Western/USD/Thomas
Jefferson
Reception at Cal Western
Drop people off at 4:40 PM
Conference Registration process:
Receipts to be provided for each registrant; name tags and holders in
bag; tickets for cruise
On-site registration for cruise
Financial Status:
$135,000 on hand
$5,000 more coming from vendors
$70-75K hotel bill; $35K here
Conferon here to help us keep from
overspending
Cruise to cost $26-$28K
Expect to have $30K-$35K left over
Should cover seed money for 2004
national conference + operating budget
Some expenses went way over, some are
under estimates
Honoria $500
Singer $2K
contingency $2K
profit from Florida conference was
$34K
AV expenses
last minute shipping costs not figured
in yet
VI Conference Manual
Tabled; to be written before next
meeting
VII PLANC Points–Polinard
sent unintentionally by bulk mail
around 10/1/00; just arriving now at different schools
VIII LSAC–Brandt
1) forum attendance is up; 2)
confusion about LSAC phone service and timing of application items (Master
Report, etc and Letters of Recommendation) sent to law schools; suggestion to
have a reference in LSDAS section of Registration Book about letter service;
questions about uniformity in the way law schools are retrieving information;
explanation of all the options that are
available to law schools in retrieving information; fluid nature of school’s
choices discussed–schools can change preferences at will; suggestion to use Book
of Lists as a place to explain to students the nature of LSDAS; questions
about the best way to reassure candidates about their files; LSAC web site may
be best site to use to disseminate information about service; 3) new agreement
between LSAC and the ABA to publish one book instead of two– Approved Law Schools
and the Official Guide to US Law Schools; format will include two pages per law
school–one with ABA information, one with LSAC information; book will be free;
sold at cost; to be small and light; Benefits: law schools only will do one
survey instead of both the LSAC and the ABA surveys; book will be distributed
in the spring by LSAC; contact either organizations, bookstores, coordinating
PLA’s, on the web site; due in the fall; LSAC will be publisher; 4) 2nd
meeting of recruitment calendar; money allocated for it from LSAC board; goal
is to create a clearinghouse for information in order to correlate events
within regions
IX NALP–Rowsam
handout provided; 1) written report
from Jobs and JD’s; 39K grads; 37k+ reported; 90.3% employed; median salary
50K; Gunderson effect:? (Call Gina about what this means); small law-firm
choices; small-mid size firms–salaries stabilized; some city packages: 160K;
raising salaries not enough to keep people in law firms; 2) new survey with new
methodologies; 3) 10-15% who go to huge law firms; 4) law students managing
debt poorly; debt management needs to be part of PLA; more private law schools
than public; 60%: 70K in debt earning between $40-70K; some have $200K
(counting consumer debt and student debt); TAG says people already in debt by
the time they get to law school; no idea of debt at graduation; possibility of
having Access Group rep at PLANC meetings to keep us informed; How to counsel students to manage their dept;
law schools doing credit checks and debt may have impact on admission; 5)7800
between NY and CA; self-initiate jobs; 6) attrition–Beyond the Bidding Wars
(15-year retrospective) NALP publication; $195/$135 member rate; 7) 5th
year out grads leaving law; accepting jobs for money/leaving jobs for quality of
life; billable are 2300/year; family issues/financial issues/productivity
issues/morale issues at firms; some 1st years are making more than
federal clearks/judges; encourages lateral as a 1st year in a large
firm; is this market sustainable? Last
time the market looked like this was in the late ‘80s, then the ‘90s happened;
mid-sized firms hurt; most people still go to firms of 2-10 (28.6%);
X ABA Report
No one present to report; Chuck Goldner, Dean
of the University of Arkansas, Little Rock is new chair of committee; next ABA
meeting in January in San Francisco
XI Elections–Neal
Positions up for election in March in
Philadelphia: Chair-Elect; Treasurer; PLANC Points co-editor; ABA Rep; ABA rep
needs to go to January ABA meetingin San Francisco; preference expressed to
have an attorney go to annual meeting; attorneys currently on PLANC are
Harrington, Kopitzke, Wright, Poland, and Sommerness; question of necessity
of paying ABA dues discussed; not
necessary to be a paying member of the ABA to be the representative from PLANC;
Sommerness appointed to position
XII APLA Reports
NAPLA: (Harrington)joint NAPLA/SAPLA
conference meeting in Williamsburg, VA; new approach; emphasis on practice;
College of William & Mary great; gala in Jamestown; second edition of PLA
handbook available for conference; new chapters; $10/each
WAPLA: (Crane) innovations in PLA in region;
$500; presenting their innovations at Fall 2001 conference in Albuquerque, NM
SAPLA: (Poland)Rick Poland, new president;
joint conference with NAPLA; held in SAPLA region; Williamsburg $95/night
hotel; $30/night/dorm; Book of Lists given to every PLA at this
conference; SAPLA PLA handbook being delivered to SAPLA members tomorrow
MAPLA: (Mecozzi) Mariella Mecozzi, new
president; MAPLA Profiles–Ava Preacher, editor; will be ready within short
time; electronic version of MAPLA
Profiles; regional conference to be in September 2001 with Chicago Forum
9/14-15/01; Holiday Inn Chicago City Center $151/night;
PCAPLA: (Wright) web-site www.pcapla.com
review with membership
SWAPLA: (Robbins) meeting in Houston with
Houston Forum; PLA desk at Dallas Forum was successful; Misconduct noted at
Texas Tech University; they are requiring a deposit by 1/17 which is before the
agreed date of 4/1 (˝ is returned if notified by 5/1); nothing has been done
about issue; TTU dean reported to Don Gregory that UT was doing the same thing;
Wilson, Kopitzke, Harrington appointed in March 2000 to follow-up; Florida
Costal doing the same thing;
XIII Recruitment Calendar–Brandt
Need for another meeting discussed;
funds allocated for meeting; coordinate both LSAC and PLANC meetings in Spring
2001; create a template for APLA’s to use to coordinate flow of travel;
potential date for meeting: early in 2001, perhaps late January
XIV PLANC Executive Board Meetings
Discussion tabled
XV PLANC Finances
Increased dues from APLA’s and
potential PLANC product discussed; discussion of financial shortfalls to come;
Poland made a motion to raise the APLA dues to $500 for the year 2001-2002;
Sommerness seconded; Harrington expressed reticence to vote before speaking to
NAPLA; increased dues discussion led to discussion about role of PLANC, how its
paid for, how the conference is paid for; need to reimburse APLA’s with excess
conference funds discussed; motion tabled– Sommerness agrees; motion for Jim to
prepare a narrative explaining why PLANC needs an increase in dues
XVI Old Business
Motion– Wilson– to change the name of
PLANC documents from “Statement of Purpose” to “By-Laws”; vote held; passed
unanimously; suggestion to change the name on the web site
XVII New Business
Questions asked about PLANC
procedures; introductions of PLANC members repeated; suggestion that training is needed for new members
of PLANC in order to fully participate; SAPLA books will be distributed to
conference attendees; next PLANC meeting: March 3-5, 2001 in Philadelphia;
presidents of APLA’s invited to dinner tonight to meet minority PLA’s in
HACU/HBCU workshop; SWAPLA issued invitation to PLANC to visit SWAPLA
Conference in 2002; discussion of place/date for fall 2001 meeting; decided
that PLANC will go to Williamsburg in June for 2001 fall meeting; motion by
Sommerness; seconded by Harrington; discussion; suggestion made to meet early
in 2002; vote unanimous
XVIII Adjournment– 4:35 PM