San Diego Conference
Our 20th Annual Conference, held earlier this month in San Diego, was a great convention. And that's not just political spin. It was the sentiment of many who attended. I want to thank those members who took the time to write and express some very complimentary thoughts about the event.
The elections brought about some surprises-I can't recall a year in which we had five new members get on the board-but all indications are that this is a board that can and will work together for the benefit of this Association and the process serving industry. Of the five new board members, two have seen prior service on the board-MaryLee Rustand, our new First Vice President, and Lee Russell, our new Secretary. The other three-David Nill, our Second Vice President and Peter Lazetich and John Perez, both Directors, are all serving for the first time.
Our attendance at the annual conferences has been at or slightly below 250 persons for the past 4-5 years. And of this number only about half are members. This means roughly 10% of our membership goes to the conferences. Location and cost don't seem to matter. The numbers remain static. It would be helpful to know your thoughts about what it takes to get YOU to come to a NAPPS conference.
Our 2003 conference site has not been officially chosen, but it looks as though it will be Charlotte, North Carolina. Pretty much half the population of this country is within 500 miles of Charlotte, so maybe this may turn the tide in attendance numbers.
NAPPS Website
The NAPPS website has undergone extensive changes and they are still in the making. Several of the notable changes: We have a new Laws section that contains information about those states that require process servers to be licensed or registered, along with a variety of laws of relevance to process servers such as laws prohibiting Sunday service and interference with the service of process. The State Legislation reports I compile for The Docket Sheet will be reprinted in the Laws section instead of in The Docket Sheet section.
The Education section will have information about books and other reference sources for process servers. This will be extended to seminars on process serving and other NAPPS-approved educational activities.
The State Associations section has the listings of all NAPPS chartered state associations, which are now eight in number. The three additional states-New Jersey, New York and Texas-had their charter applications approved by the NAPPS board of directors on May 3. We have posted basic information about those associations and have given those with websites a hotlink so that viewers can go direct to the source.
We're well on our way to answering the question: What's the benefit of being a chartered state association? Aside from the publicity we can give the state associations, a substantial monetary benefit will be forthcoming year in and year out. Each June 30th we will ascertain the number of NAPPS members in each chartered state and multiple that number by 10. We then will issue a check to the individual state associations in that amount. For example, a state with 150 members will get a check for $1,500. We anticipate this will get more states energized and have the desire to jump on this bandwagon. They will certainly be welcomed aboard.
