Paralegal Potpourri: Celebrating Members, Our 20th Anniversary, Annual Meeting & More

Past Paralegal Division Chairs Virginia Burrows, Annette Phelps, Grace Ward and Karen Mendorg attended the PD Annual Meeting in Pinehurst

May is an exciting month at the Bar Center. Hopefully you’ve seen the various announcements about May being Member Appreciation Month where, “Members come first at the NCBA, and this year we wanted to do a little extra to express our gratitude, so we’re kicking off our first-ever Member Appreciation Month.” Check out the blog post on May Member Benefits for more details.

The Paralegal Division agrees 100 percent that members come first!  For years, May has always been the time for members to gather and attend our Annual Meeting and CPE. This year’s Annual Meeting was made extra special by celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Paralegal Division! We celebrated May 3-4, 2018 in Pinehurst with a Thursday evening reception followed by a 6-hour CPE seminar and lunch Annual Meeting on Friday! The CPE Committee did an outstanding job with the course offerings and speakers!

Happy 20th Anniversary Paralegal Division

Attendees mingled and enjoyed a lovely reception on the Front Porch at the Pinehurst Resort which included a beautiful (and delicious) cake in honor of the occasion. On display was a poster highlighting the many achievements of the Division over the past 20 years. Thanks to Tina Dadio for creating this awesome memento!

Annual Meeting Summary

Paralegal Division Chair Debbie Harris presided over the Annual Meeting held during lunch on May 4. Division business items were presented and voted on by the Paralegal Division general membership. One yearly agenda item is the approval of Council Member, Treasurer and Secretary nominations. This year, the membership approved the nominations for four new Council Members: Allison Yezek, Rachel Royal, S. M. Kernodle, and Tina Thacker for three-year terms ending in 2021 and a one-year term ending in 2020 for Jill Lacey-Perras.

The membership also approved the Executive Leadership Nominations for Treasurer, Shawana Almendarez, and for Secretary, Shelby Tyson. Debbie announced Tina Dadio as the Division’s incoming Vice Chair and Leslie Pegram as the Division’s incoming Chair.  Leslie and Tina’s roles were appointed by NCBA President-Elect Jacqueline Grant.  All Executive terms begin on July 1, 2018 and end June 30, 2019.

Debbie also recognized our Committee Chairs and Section Liaisons for their service, as well as thanked outgoing council members Alicia Mitchell-Mercer, Linda Wetherbee and Shawana Almendarez whose three-year terms ends on June 30, 2018.

Paralegal Division Chair Debbie Harris presents Felicia Atkinson of Pitt Community College with the Paralegal Division Student Scholarship Award.

Once the business items were concluded, Debbie announced the Paralegal Division Student Scholarship winner Felicia Atkinson of Pitt Community College.  Stephanie Crosby, Awards Committee Member, introduced Bill Pollock (attorney, Ragsdale Liggett) to announce the winner of the 2018 Distinguished Paralegal Award.

Distinguished Paralegal Award Winner Sarah White accepts her award from Awards Committee member Stephanie Crosby. Attorneys Bill Pollock (left) and David Liggett were on hand to present.

Bill, along with David Liggett, surprised Sarah White (Ragsdale Liggett) by coming to Pinehurst to announce and present her with the award. The Paralegal Division will again recognize and honor Sarah with the award on Thursday, June 21 at the NCBA Awards Dinner in Wilmington along with other NCBA award winners. Inclusion of the Distinguished Paralegal Award at the NCBA awards dinner is a very important step in continual action to share the importance of the Paralegal Division to the association and to our membership.

You’ll be able to read more about both winners in upcoming blogs, so stay tuned!

Immediate Past Chair Annette Phelps presents a plaque to Chair Debbie Harris thanking her for her year of service.

And last, but not least, before our Annual Meeting was adjourned, Immediate Past Chair Annette Phelps presented a plaque to Debbie thanking her for her service as Chair this year!

Recognizing Our Student Members

The Paralegal Division includes approximately 200 student members. Kimberly Johnson, who chaired the Student Relations Committee, reached out to paralegal schools across the state and requested pictures highlighting student members. Thank you to the programs who sent in pictures and a larger thanks to all paralegal programs and students who are members. If you have graduated this spring or are graduating this summer, congratulations! We encourage recent graduates and soon-to-be grads to convert their memberships (starting July 1, 2018) to regular memberships.

The Paralegal Division serves paralegal programs and students across the state.

Reminder to renew your membership!

Your membership for the current year expires June 30, so don’t forget to renew today!

The Paralegal Division Council and NCBA Membership Department would like to thank each of you for your membership.  We continually strive to make your membership experience top notch with stellar CPE programs and webinars, pro bono opportunities, networking opportunities and more!