About NFPA – The Leader of the Paralegal Profession™

Core Purpose:

To advance the paralegal profession

Core Values (not in any particular order):

• Responsive to member needs
• Committed to honesty and integrity
• Supports unity within the profession
• Provides visionary leadership
• Open to the exchange of ideas
• Embraces diversity
• Committed to the profession's Code of Ethics
  

Goals:

• To achieve financial security
• To achieve a more inclusive membership
• Regulation and educational standards for the paralegal profession is achieved through the advocacy efforts of NFPA
• To advance the paralegal profession through strategic alliances

February 2008 NFPA Inside Report
By Sylvia Naim, RP, NFPA Primary Representative and Director of Positions and Issues for the Minnesota Paralegal Association


    MPA held its annual event, the Winter Gala at the beautiful St. Paul Hotel located in historic downtown St. Paul on February 7th. The event was well attended and the food was outstanding. The entertainment for the evening was Comedy Sportz – they did several skits using volunteers from the audience. One skit in particular really stood out and had the audience laughing hysterically; of course, it was at the expense of our President, John Kastan. John was a good sport and played along nicely.

    Many of our members are continuing their participation in Wills for Heroes, a pro bono program sponsored by the MN State Bar. Attorneys and paralegals (and other clerical support staff) are trained in the use of the HotDocs program, along with the specific documents being prepared. Clinics are scheduled around the state for First Responders – police, firefighters, EMTs, corrections & probation/parole officers, etc. – who are able to get wills, health care directives, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designation letters prepared for themselves and their spouses, free of charge. The Wills for Heroes program is booking into 2009.

    A while ago, some of the MPA board members decided it would be great idea to gather some bears and donate them to first responders. The idea being that when a first responder arrives to a scene, where children are present, the first responder would give a bear to comfort the child during a difficult or traumatic time. MPA dubbed this as, “Bears on Patrol”. Well, years went by and while the bears were being gathered and collected, they were gathering and collecting in Helen Federline’s basement. A couple of months ago, members of the board decided that it was time to finally donate the bears to the Minnesota State Patrol. A few phone calls were made, and this great idea finally came into fruition. On Friday, February 22, 2008, Helen Federline and MPA President, John Kastan delivered the bears to the Minnesota State Patrol.

    Planning is well under way for MPA’s next event, the Annual Convention, which will be held on June 5th in Bloomington, MN. The first meeting of the annual convention committee will be taking place next month. The planning of the annual convention takes a lot of work and time, but it is always great to see the outcome of such an event. We always have great speakers and wonderful vendors who support MPA and this year shouldn’t be any different.

    On February 29th, two members of the NFPA board, Georgette Lovelace and Cyndi Byfield, will be coming to Minnesota for a site visit of the 2011 NFPA Annual Convention site. Both Helen Federline and John Kastan, will also be present during the site visit. We are excited to have Georgette and Cyndi come to Minnesota, we only wish it was warmer for their visit.

On February 12th, John Kastan (MPA President); Aisha Erickson (MPA Director of Membership) and I (NFPA Primary) attended the Minnesota Legal Administrators Association (MLAA) Conference as an exhibitor representing MPA. It was a well-attended event by both attendees and vendors. It was also a successful event for MPA; we received a lot of interest from both attendees and vendors who were interested in supporting MPA through membership and/or vendor support. The board and committee chairs will be hard at work to ensure we follow-up with all who expressed interest.

    On Saturday, March 1st, MPA will hold its Leadership Training. Attendees will include all board members, as well as, all individuals holding leadership positions within the association. We have many new individuals holding leadership positions this year and this is always a good opportunity to provide them with the history and leadership training they need to carry out their positions successfully and to ensure the future of MPA.

Important and Exciting Information Regarding NFPA! (Updated 10-20-2005)

Rich Cantrall, owner of Cantrall & Associates, has made the decision to semi-retire and is working to finalize the sale of his company to Melby, Cameron & Hull (MCH). With this sale, our Managing Director and our administrative staff will be transitioning to the MCH offices -- also in the Seattle, Washington area. MCH has been in business as an association management company since 1978. Donna Cameron and Rich Cantrall have known each other for many years, and are involved together in the Washington Society of Association Executives. Their companies have similar cultures and structure. Jane Kennedy will remain our Managing Director, and Duane Braccionier will remain our administrator. We fully expect and believe the transition from the Cantrall office to the MCH office will be seamless. You can read and learn more about Melby Cameron & Hull by going to their web site at: www.melbycameronhull.com.

The change in ownership will become effective November 1, 2005. The current Cantrall staff will be moving to the MCH offices beginning Friday, October 28, 2005, and the move will be finalized over that weekend. We will be moving forward with MCH as our association management company on that date. NFPA will have a new telephone number and address, and our management staff will have their own @paralegals.org email addresses, so we can make this transition even smoother.

MCH was one of the first companies in the Washington area to begin working with Affiniscape, the host of our web and email servers, so we expect no change in our web site or our email or listserves. On an even more positive note, rather than having only a voicemail system, MCH has a receptionist, which means all of our calls to Headquarters during business hours will be answered by a "real" person rather than a voicemail system.

As you may know, NFPA's Treasurer annually meets in person with our management staff to begin the budget drafting process. Anita will be going to Headquarters the second week of November and will meet all of the MCH staff, as well as sit down with Chas and Jane to work through our budget and its drafting. Kelly Montgomery, along with Beth King, also will be joining Anita for one day during that week to tour the facilities and meet the MCH staff. And, Donna Cameron will be attending the Winter Board Meeting to meet the rest of the board, and any of our members in attendance.

Speaking from the Registered Paralegal perspective, I am very pro-voluntary certification. One of the things I have been personally impressed with is that all five principals of MCH hold the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation. MCH strongly believes in continuing professional development for their staff, and I believe this will be a great benefit to NFPA.

The changes you will see should be very minimal. The ones you will see, and will affect you immediately, will be the change in our address and telephone number. We will provide you with our new telephone number as soon as we have it confirmed. And, we will let you know of Jane and Duane's email address as soon as it is created.

National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc.
P.O. Box 2016
Edmonds, Washington 98020 (Map)

Our physical address will be:

National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc.
23607 Highway 99, Suite 2C
Edmonds, Washington 98026

If you have any questions about this transition, please do not hesitate to contact our Secretary/Director of Operations, Kelly Montgomery, RP, our Treasurer/Director of Finance, Anita Haworth, RP, or me. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have. The entire board believes that this transition will be a smooth one, and will be very beneficial to NFPA's growth as an association.

Note: Our web site will remain the same: http://www.paralegals.org/