PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

On July 1, 2020, I took the reins of the Dayton Bar Association as your President for the 2020-2021 term. My service for our Association has little to do with me. I don’t need the money (which is a good thing, since the position does not pay anything). I am old and do not need the position on my resume. My ego has not asked for it and I have a strong distaste for notoriety.

What I do enjoy is serving a strong diverse group of professionals - lawyers, judges, paralegals - in a legal community recognized as one of the country’s most collegial regions for the practice of law. I enjoy working with the amazing team that our Chief Executive Officer, Jennifer Otchy, has around her and our dedicated Board members. The best part of this position is seeing firsthand how those amazing people work together to make our lives better.

There are challenges, and they are not going away anytime soon. The DBA staff is due loud and raucous applause for their fantastic efforts in dealing head on with Our Direction is Forward

By Fred L. Young Esq. DBA President Shareholder, Green & Green Lawyers

those challenges the past several months. But there is more to do, more innovation to pursue, more dedication to task for all of us to ensure the DBA grows in the coming year.

I was privileged to be raised by two amazing people, just Mom and Dad to me, but two souls who were well down the path to legendary status in their world even before I came along. They taught me early on that their achievements came not only from success, but moving ahead whether the times were good or bad. Forward was always their direction of choice. Sideways and backwards are never the directions for success.

Our own path forward demands that the DBA continue to offer and in fact grow its value to its members. We are a professional association, but I, Jennifer, her team and our Board members know this is a business. And every business that succeeds does so by providing value to its customers. We are developing new and innovative ways to continue to provide and even enhance that value as we head into this difficult year.

But being an Association of profes sionals, our value thrives on us working together to enhance our profession, our legal community, and ourselves. Our Association thrives on participation, and would easily wither away without it. We need you. We need you to join our Section meetings, easily attended through Zoom. We need you to attend our CLE Zoom webinars. We need you to teach them, too. We need firms to help us actively engage young associates so they understand the long-term benefits they receive from being part of all this.

Despite these challenges the DBA points to opportunity as we continue our mission to provide value and access to justice and enhance the legal profession. But we need you like we always have. I’m just the pretty face for the organization and that’s just not going to be enough to keep us moving forward.