More than most years we can share the confusing and disorienting sentiments expressed by Japanese poet and haiku master Kobayashi Issa when he authored “What a strange thing! To be alive beneath cherry blossoms.” One message Kobayashi conveyed was that the natural world around us continues no matter how we may feel or think. The need for awareness of the full 360-degree circle drawn around each of one of us has increased due to the continuing public health challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are less fond of cosmology, you may find yourself more closely aligned to the views expressed by the master poet from Chile, Pablo Neruda, who intoned a famous line. “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” So after we remind ourselves once again of the need to move forward, we can then lean on a point of wisdom from one of Russia’s great novelists, Leo Tolstoy. He viewed Spring as a time for action like our area farmers. “Spring is the time of plans and projects.” The Peoria County Bar Association has taken that lesson to heart and mind and acted on it throughout this time span. When you check the www.peoriabar.org website you will find many items to help you plan the next phases of your practice and office management. Now is the time to start using what the PCBA provides as resources to plan and complete your Spring office and practice organization projects.
First, the PCBA online directory contains data you can quickly download on the counsel whom you may regularly contact as part of your practice. There is no need for you to struggle finding contact data when your paper and digital PCBA directories have almost all the contact data that your office needs. Second, you will find CLE resources from the past and present. The CLE resources keep expanding and are all superb in quality. For example, the Brown Bag seminars have all been top-notch in quality and filled with practical data and tips for all PCBA members. If you missed any, go to the PCBA website and find out what you can still learn. Third, you will find a digital calendar with upcoming PCBA events and meetings of many types. Your review of the PCBA calendar will have the likely side-effect of you reaching out to contact your fellow colleagues and the PCBA office. That is a good thing for you and your stationary and portable offices.
Finally, I want to thank the dozens of attorneys who took my calls. While each call covered a variety of topics across a wide range of different experiences, each member told me that they value the PCBA. Based on such responses, I encouraged each attorney to reactivate their individual and firm membership with the Peoria County Bar Association. The positive responses were great to hear and suggest that we are slowly yet determinedly on the way back to more fully engaging with each other on all professional levels. Thank you all for letting me interrupt your overly busy days. We’ll talk again soon.
PCBA President,
Ambrose V. McCall