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Bar News - April 21, 2006 Meeting the Bar’s “Behind-the-Scenes” Team By: Beverly Rorick
Back row: Jeannine McCoy, executive director; Denice DeStefano, assistant executive director; Executive support staff: middle row left, Rose Anocibar and right, Valenda Morrissette; front row, Kathy St. Louis and Diane Seguin. Twice a year the Bar Association produces principal events for the members: the Midyear Meeting, usually scheduled in February, and the Annual Meeting in June. Both are major undertakings. The Midyear Meeting, a one- or two-day event, emphasizes CLE and other substantive offerings; the Annual Meeting provides more a mix of recreational and social offerings, as well as education opportunities, and takes place from Thursday through Sunday, with several of the Bar staff arriving hours before to make sure everything is in order for the members when they arrive. The Executive Department has the chief responsibility for organizing these two larger events—as well as for other important meetings that occur regularly, such as monthly Board of Governors’ meetings, the Ethics Committee and Committee on Cooperation with the Courts meetings, and other events that may be non-recurring, such as this past year’s Fall Conference at Loon Mountain. “And we all help one another, no matter what our chief responsibilities are,” said Denice DeStefano, Assistant Executive Director of the Association. “If we see one member of the department is ‘snowed under’ with a project, we all jump in to lend a hand.” Executive Director Jeannine McCoy oversees the work of all the departments at the Association—and the work of the Executive Department is of particular importance to her. She says, “These staff members are really the ‘inside baseball’ team. While much of their work goes unsung, it is part of what makes the NH Bar a national leader. These folks are expected to be a resource for members and other staff, knowing a bit about all aspects of the Association and being ready to pitch in anywhere at any time. I wish all members could see their dedication first hand.” DeStefano has day-to-day responsibility for directing the department’s seven members; in addition, she handles human resource functions and building issues and fields complaints and Dispute Resolution calls. She also acts as liaison to the Ethics Committee and the Cooperation with the Courts Committee. Four of the seven members of the department plan and carry out events and meetings under her guidance. They are: Valenda Morrissette, Law Related Education and Meetings Coordinator; Rose Anocibar, Member Services Coordinator; Kathleen St. Louis, Executive Assistant to Jeannine McCoy; Diane Seguin, part-time Executive Support and Purchasing. Also part of the department are two staff members who are more on the front lines in making contact with the membership and the public—Joan Raymond, receptionist, and Anna O’Neill, who oversees membership records on a part-time basis. (NHBA employees with “front-line” contact with the membership will be highlighted in a future issue of the Bar News.) The newest member of the department is Jeanne Sanders; Jeanne’s first challenge in her part-time work with the Executive Department is to help with the logistics of the Bar’s move. She too will be featured in a future issue. Valenda Morrissette and Rose Anocibar have been profiled before in Bar News. Both are involved in the executive department’s ongoing duties of planning events, organizing member mailings, and maintaining Association records. Although highly visible to many Bar members because of her work with LRE, Valenda Morrissette is perhaps less known for her expertise in helping to plan other programs. She is a strong support to DeStefano in that capacity as well. As a newer member of the team, Rose Anocibar has brought her considerable planning skills to bear helping the newer lawyers with their events and networking. “But of course, as Member Services Coordinator, I am on call to all members,” she says, “and eager to help them all.” Staffers not profiled before in the Bar News, Kathy St. Louis and Diane Seguin, also have important duties, although their efforts are mostly “behind-the-scenes.” Kathy St. Louis, a Penacook resident who joined the Bar in 2003, works closely with Executive Director McCoy and serves as a communications conduit for members of the Board of Governors, and for officers of the local and county bar associations. Diane Seguin, who worked for the Bar Association in the 1980s, and then returned to the Bar in 1999, provides support in a number of areas for the Executive Department, and has primary responsibility for purchasing supplies for the office and for off-site events and programs. St. Louis says that her job consists to a great degree of organizing the paper blizzard that all Bar executives have to deal with. In addition to helping the executive director keep current on many fronts, St. Louis lends her penchant for organization to all the team efforts of the department. Having been with the Bar Association for many years, Diane Seguin has worked in several different positions. Her broad knowledge of Bar activities in general is a vital asset. She says, “It’s inspiring to work with a team of such generous and helpful people.” The next big event on the horizon for this department, as well as for the whole Bar, is the Annual Meeting at the Mountain View Grand Hotel in Whitefield, NH the weekend of June 22-25—but before that takes place, the Bar Center will be moving to Two Pillsbury St. in Concord. “So we have our work cut out for us,” comments DeStefano. “Right after we get moved, we must start preparing for one of the biggest events of the year! But when you have the kind of help we have in the Executive Department, it’s not quite so scary.” She laughs. “We don’t mind working behind the scenes if the final production is a hit!” |
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