President’s Message
Let’s Reason Together With great humility, on September 11, 2023, I accepted the office of president of the National Association of Parliamentarians. During the 2023–2025 biennium, I look forward to working with the board, the committees, the districts, the associations, the units, and with and for each member. In the words of the great 20th century seer from Canada, Marshall McLuhan, “There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.” There is a place for every one of you, for every crew member, in the work of NAP. The work you do this biennium may be within your known skill set, or it may be new to you. We want to be a nurturing environment to promote personal development as we work for NAP’s benefit. From my place for the next two years, I pledge to you: I will turn my efforts to protecting the NAP we treasure and to providing maximum possibilities for its members. Let us periodically ask ourselves: Why are we members of NAP? Why are we in any clubs or associations—deliberative assemblies—where members themselves make the choices? I think in large part, we join together because we are seeking wisdom. We want a better world and we ask, what IS the right thing to do and how do we DO the right thing? In our quest for wisdom, we should learn from one another. We should study our personal and organizational pasts. We should study other pasts. We should listen with an open mind and open heart to our colleagues, and at all times, we should maintain an organization where we can speak without fear and share without reservation. Three thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks gave the world democracy. To this day, they inspire us to make wise laws and to enforce them fairly. Then, as now, we should meet to listen, to ponder, and to decide. For us, the Rule of Law is paramount. This ancient wisdom to me is visually captured by the image of a temple, a Temple of Law, a Temple of Justice, a Temple of Learning—rules, fairness, education. You will see in my theme and my pin, a NAP temple during this biennium. We are parliamentarians—we thrive on discourse and debate, we accept different viewpoints, and we honor and practice democratic ideals. I start this biennium with an open invitation to all, in the words of Isaiah, the ancient prophet of Israel, “Come, let us reason together.” Allison Wallis, PRP 2023-2024 NAP President 4
National Parliamentarian • Fall 2023
