Congratulations to our winners: 

At the state association's 46th Annual Membership Meeting, two annual awards were given out.  Our congratulations go to these 2007-08 state award recipients: 

Award of Excellence 

Reba Peden, PP, PLS  

Tri-County LSPA

Cheryl Crayden, PLS Memorial Legal Education Scholarship 

Olivia Burgess  

Jackson LPA

Report on Conference Registration and Attendance: 

A total of 57 people attended the various events offered during the annual meeting.  The breakdown is was follows:  

Report on Seminar Registration and Attendance: 

A total of 15 people attended the Friday afternoon CLE seminars.  The breakdown was as follows: 

We join President Lisa Roberts, PLS on her journey to "Professionalism... Linking Yesterday with Tomorrow.”  This year we will be holding our own Membership Campaign in an effort to support President Lisa on this journey. Our members will start in the year 1929, the year NALS was founded by Ms. Eula Mae Jett, and travel forward through the years in the hopes of joining the future generations in NALS in 2029. Along this journey the member will receive travel tokens that will allow you to move forward through the years (each one representing one month, with twelve tokens a member will travel one year) . There will be small prizes handed out at each of our state meetings throughout the year with the major prize being awarded at the Annual Meeting in May 2009.  Rules and ways that Time Travel Tokens may be earned may be found via this hyperlink.     

The 46th Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Division of NALS will not likely be soon forgotten! The ladies from the Greenwood Legal Professionals Association (a small chapter of six) hosted their very first state annual meeting, with a theme of “Music in the Delta.”  The Friday night social was at the Eastland Law Office, the Saturday night installation and award dinner was at the Greenwood Country Club, and all other activities were at the Hampton Inn meeting room.  It was a very full weekend – full of excitement, fun, friends and business!  

For a reasonable price of $75, a member had the opportunity to receive seven hours of CLE, a chance to win money for “knowing your stuff” at the Friday CLE, a fun night of karaoke with long-time musician and Mississippi native Mack Allen Smith (of Greenwood), food and drink with old and new friends, a chance to make new friends and get to know our Region 6 Director during the two hours spent in the middle of the night in the hotel’s laundry room (1am to 3am) while under a tornado warning, chances to spend money on the silent auction and the vendor booths and the 50/50 raffle and the raffle for the Viking blender.  Also included was free food and drink throughout the weekend, the chance to be recognized for being certified, be exposed to information on the Mississippi Blues Trail, be a “star” on the red carpet at the Greenwood Grammy Awards, be entertained by a local musical artist and composer, Brandi Lyle Ward, and also being “blessed out” and motivated by world-renowned professional motivational speaker and Mississippi native, Dale Smith Thomas, plus the opportunity to attend a state membership meeting and a state board of directors' meeting and be a part of the exciting opportunities and changes taking place in our state association in the coming year. 

The biggest change made over the weekend was the approval of the revised Bylaws and Standing Rules – which changed the name of the state association to the Mississippi Legal Professionals Association. 

President Lisa presented lists of the new state officers, their chapter liaison assignment, the state committee chairs, the chapter presidents and chapter directors.  All of these are available on the MEMBERS ONLY page of the state’s website.  President Lisa also announced her theme for the coming year and we all wanted to join her on her year’s journey to “Professionalism… Linking Yesterday with Tomorrow.”  We approved the operating budget for the year.  State Vice President Misty also announced the state’s membership campaign and how each member can participate for the chance to win prizes (similar to the national campaigns).  The members also approved a new state logo pin and Henley t-shirts for sale. 

Bids were accepted for all state meetings for the coming year.  The dates and hosting chapters are: 

See what you miss when you don’t go to a state meeting?  I bet you won’t miss the next annual meeting!  Well, President-Elect Reba certainly hopes you more than just “make plans to attend” – since her chapter will be doing the hosting next year.  On May 15-17, 2009, she will be installed as the state president at the annual meeting to be held at the Duncan Gray Center in rural Canton, Mississippi.

The members of the Greenwood Legal Professionals Association were honored to host "Music in the Delta" for the state's 46th Annual Meeting and Educational Conference.  We are especially proud of our own Lisa Roberts, PLS being installed as our new state president.  

As always, we enjoyed the opportunity to visit with everyone in attendance, to renew old friendships with our sisters-in-law, and the opportunity to make new friends.  We absolutely did miss those of you who were unable to attend the Greenwood meeting, and we hope to see you at a meeting very soon.