Planning the bar's future

Capozzi

By ANTHONY P. CAPOZZI

As a third year member of the Board of Governors, I was appointed by President Jim Herman as chair of the Planning, Program Development and Budget Committee for 2003.

First, a little background. The State Bar has engaged in a series of planning efforts throughout its history. The bar adopted a "strategic action plan" for 1991-1995, while at the same time establishing and receiving a report from the Commission on the Future of the Legal Profession and the State Bar in 1994.

In 1997, a gubernatorial veto of the membership dues bill resulted in the virtual elimination of the discipline system and the layoff of most of the State Bar personnel.

In August of 2001, members of the board of governors, specially invited guests, and State Bar senior executive staff took part in a comprehensive strategic planning and organizational governance session to address the bar's future.

The results of that meeting brought about a new board governance structure which synthesized the planning process, program development and budgeting into one committee, which after much thought and debate (after all, what else could we be doing in a meeting of such significance?) came to be denominated as the Planning, Program Development and Budget Committee (P, P D & B).

You're probably reading as fast as you can to finally determine what the committee really does. In a nutshell, it plans, it develops, it programs and prepares the budget. The committee’s charter is to develop and lead the board of governors' participation in all State Bar planning, budget preparation and program implementation by:

• Establishing a detailed design of the bar's planning and budget development cycle;
• Preparing and hosting the annual strategic work session (this is now done on a yearly basis);
• Recommending to the full board the strategic issues that will be added annually to the strategic plan; and
• Ensuring that all program plans include both financial and programmatic performance targets.

The committee will host an important strategic planning session in Oxnard Jan. 24. The session is the continuation of a planning and management process that the board of governors adopted to improve the State Bar's ability to advocate, obtain and account for its resources.

In this upcoming strategic planning session, the members of the Member Oversight Com-mittee (MOC), chaired by Vice President Carl A. Lindstrom Jr., the Regulation, Admissions and Disci-pline Oversight Committee (RAD), chaired by Vice President Robert K. Persons, the Stakeholder Relations Committee (SRC), chaired by Vice President Nancy Hoffmeier Zamora, and the Volunteer Involvement Committee (VIC) chaired by Vice President Judith M. Copeland, specially invited guests and State Bar senior executive staff will discuss their accomplishments, governance role, trends, stakeholder input and new strategic initiatives.

Finally, an operational plan will be developed which will identify short-term objectives that will move the State Bar toward implementing the long range strategic plan and develop new strategic initiatives.

Anthony P. Capozzi is vice president and treasurer of the State Bar Board of Governors. He practices in Fresno.