MINUTES OF THE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SECTION
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
September 12, 2008
I. CALLED TO ORDER:
Chair Holly Somers called the meeting to order at 12:10 p.m. at the offices of the Oregon State Bar. Present in person were:
Jackie Jacobson; Chuck Mundorff; Geoff Wren; Matthew Roy; Dale Johnson; Robert Guarrasi and Suzanne Cushing.
Present by phone were:
Jim Edmunson; Jill Riechers; Meg Carman and Julie Masters.
II. MINUTES:
The minutes of the July 18, 2008 meeting were reviewed. A motion to approve the minutes was made and seconded and the minutes were unanimously approved.
III. CHAIR REPORT:
Chair Somers welcomed the new members, Jim Edmunson and Jackie Jacobson. Julie Masters was working on flyers for the new bar members. We discussed sending a flyer versus a postcard and whether we should spend the money for this or not. Julie Masters was left in charge of this project.
IV. TREASURER’S REPORT:
Meg Carman reported that we had a balance of $22,244 at the end of August, but that we had yet to pay for the Fall CLE, which is the Bench Bar Forum. Meg Carman indicated that the costs are up and she projects the outstanding balance for the year to be $17,000. She also discussed the costs for the rooms at Salishan for the annual meeting on the same weekend as usual. She discussed that in 2009 it will be $154 for a traditional room; in 2010 it will be $159; in 2011 it will be $164; and the same for 2012. In order to lock-in those rates, we had to have some kind of commitment. Meg Carman will take care of that.
V. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A. SALISHAN:
The committee has had no meeting as of yet.
B. THE WEBSITE:
Julie Masters has not yet updated the roster. She needs a current roster. She also indicated that she needed to send a reminder to the new bar members about section membership and associate membership, along with the Bench Bar announcement.
C. DAUGHTRY AWARD:
No report.
D. LEGISLATIVE RULES COMMITTEEE:
It was noted that Steve Cotton has resigned from the Legislative Committee and there is an option for Gary Wallmark to take over that spot for him. Holly was going to contact Jennifer Roumell to discuss the members choosing a new Chair.
E. BENCH BAR FORUM:
Jill Riechers reported that the contracts were approved and that the Bench Bar Forum is set for November 14, 2008 at Willamette Valley Vineyards. She indicated that there will be three panels, two of which involve conflict of interest and exparte communication. She indicated that Linda May, who works with the City Attorney’s Office, will speak on Access to Justice. She further noted that David O. Wilson and Mark Strooband will address discovery issues. As far as the brochure for the Bench Bar Forum, she was going to be working with Anna at the Bar in the near future.
F. ACCESS TO JUSTICE:
The group met on August 11 and seven members participated. There was some talk about investigating the lack of Workers’ Compensation education in the law school and it was indicated that the Access to Justice Committee would talk to Jerry Keen, Al Lyons and Margaret Weddell about that. Bill Replogle has contacted Jennifer Flood at the Ombudsman’s office. She will participate in the next telephone conference when the committee meets. Furthermore, there was some discussion about interpreters for arbiter exams and WRMES. There was a motion made by Dale Johnson and seconded by Robert Guarrasi that the Executive Committee charge the Legislative and Rules Committee with coming up with a proposal regarding interpreters and rules regarding who pays for those interpreters. The motion passed unanimously. There was a new committee formed that is headed by Dean Lederer. As Dean was not present at the meeting, there was no report.
VI. OLD BUSINESS:
We discussed expense reimbursement.
VII. NEW BUSINESS:
The Executive Committee discussed having the Salishan Committee look into putting news, including obituaries, retirement announcements, change in firm names, addresses and contact information in the bound booklet that is received by attendees to the Salishan annual meeting and conference. Chuck Mundorff indicated he will run that by Sally Curry.
The meeting adjourned at 1: 01 p.m.