BarTalk February 2001
Volume 13, Number 1

Reflections from the new Executive Director

by Frank C Kraemer

I am humbled and at the same time proud to have been selected as your new Executive Director. In her column, our president Margaret Ostrowski, QC has given an eloquent resumé of my past experience which I sincerely hope will prepare me for the challenges ahead. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to my many colleagues, fellow members and friends of both the Bench and Bar who have extended congratulations to me.

While I am known to many of you, I thought it might be useful if I outlined some of my initial thoughts on the approach I intend to follow as the Executive Director of the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association. First and foremost, let me say that one of my strongest beliefs is in the Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch being a service-oriented organization. The BC Branch is here to serve its members by protecting and promoting their interests as lawyers and valuable members of our society.

Secondly, I am well aware of and proud of the diverse nature of our profession. I mean that not only in terms of the traditional concepts of diversity, but also in terms of firm size, geographical location and public/private sector practices. It is these many dimensions that enrich the profession and enhance our ability to protect and advance the rights of all British Columbians.

Thirdly, while I do not believe in rushing into change, I am at the same time sensitive to the need to be flexible and responsive to circumstances as they exist and to new challenges as they arise. We live in an age of rapid change and I believe that our staff, our Branch and the services we provide must adapt to meet the needs of our members.

Fourthly, I am excited to be able to work with the many talented and dedicated members of the Executive Committee of the Branch. In the short time that I have been in my position we have begun to tackle some very challenging issues and I want to tell you that I am impressed by the hard work and careful consideration given to issues by the members of that Committee.

Last but not least I want to express my pleasure in being able to work with the very high caliber staff of the BC Branch. The care and attention that each of them devotes to ensuring that this organization serves its members and thereby fulfills the mandate of the CBA is a tribute to us all. I would also like to recognize the assistance I have already received and that I know the Branch staff regularly receive from the National CBA organization.

In our last edition of BarTalk we set out extensive information with respect to our new Web site – www.bccba.org. As many of you now know, it has been up and running since November. While we acknowledge there were a few bugs in the initial days, I am pleased to report that most of them have now been resolved. You should know though that some of these bugs occurred because of the design of our Web site; that is, one limited to use by our own members and secondly as a result of our use of firewalls to ensure the security of information that relates to our members that might otherwise be obtained through our Web site.

There is an enormous amount of information now available on our Web site and for those of you who have not yet visited it, may I encourage you to do so.

As I become more familiar with the many services provided by the Branch to our members, I am personally delighted. Having said that though, no organization and no service delivery model is perfect. On this last point, may I say unequivocally that I welcome your feedback on the operation of the Branch, its staff and our service delivery. Only with open communication, can we effect change and improvement.

This article was published in the February 2001 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.