Dear FBCBA Members,

It has been a busy year and we are excited about sharing the very necessary technological changes that we have been working hard on for our members and for moving our bar forward!!!

As many of you know our Bar website had been inaugurated well over a decade ago and not updated and not functioning properly for quite some time and was in desperate need of a technological overhaul.

Our Board decided on day one of this year to make this our priority as we are excited and simultaneously dedicated to increasing our membership, including attorneys from all age and practice ranges in this amazingly diverse and vibrant county that we live in and love and to foster ties with other local bar associations to share membership and participate in events together to increase our network and colleagueship as well!!

We have worked hard this year to move our bar association forward technologically and to save money and streamline our communications, finances, and facilitate communications with our members, our judges, our community and other members of local bar associations to ensure not just the viability of our organization for our members, but to GROW!!!!!

We have partnered with OneEach Technologies, a firm dedicated to non-profit organizations for website building and construction who are dedicated, understanding and worked with us each step of the way as our new website is underway and not just for cosmetic purposes, but security and all the myriad of technological issues that accompany moving an outdated platform for functionality, which has been our main and only focus on this project.

We are looking forward to unveiling this as soon as it is ready and are happy to discuss with our members who are interested the many background issues and hurdles that had to be jumped and dealt with to properly secure our technological presence and security for our bar association.

We have strengthened and again taken the necessary technological and security steps to secure the bar association's presence on LinkedIn and have been and will continue to use that as an additional means of communication with our members and the professional world as we move forward!

As many of you have already seen, we have streamlined our communications through Zeffy, which again is a platform and software that is designed for non-profits and is totally free to our bar association and allows us to eliminate the cost of Constant Contact and allows for more freedom and accessibility for communications and ease of use for our members for everything from CLE's, to renewals, to campaigns and events and which has allowed us to eliminate the costs of LawPay as well!!!

The Board has worked hard to move us to a better accounting system and worked very hard to eliminate excessive costs and streamline our operations so we as a bar association can better serve our membership and grow together and have our presence meet the mark for years to come!!

In addition, we have met with and are looking forward to pairing with TYLA on membership, mentorship and joint events!!!

We voted as a Board to establish our inaugural Committee for Judicial Portrait Fundraising to keep this historical tradition going in partnership and support for our county judges and have created a database of every single judge in our county to ensure that going forward we can keep that communication open and we look forward to including our judges in events as well to foster the bond that already exists between the bar and the judges as well! The Committee was formed in March of 2023 and Mr. Scott West graciously accepted to Chair this inaugural committee.

With all the changes technologically that we hit the ground running to establish, we were initially unable to get word out to the membership to contact Mr. West for any contributions to the Judicial Portraits that members might like to make as we know there are many that would love to contribute and help with this ongoing tradition, but we encourage those who would like to do so, to contact Mr. West and consider donating to this committee!

As we seek to serve our members and our members are the Fort Bend County Bar Association, it is with a thankful heart and with gratitude that the FBCBA 2023 Board and the President open up a chance for each of our members to be part of this change and to support it as we are only as strong as our members and are happy to announce these much needed changes and ask you to make a contribution of your choosing in amount to OUR Fort Bend County Bar Association to help support these much needed changes that will serve the best interests of our members and help us grow as a bar association!!!

And to show our appreciation and make sure the county knows our biggest supporters, we are looking forward to having a special page on our new website dedicated to our Fort Bend County Fundraiser Stars and to provide information on those members contributing!!

Please make sure that you mark your donation with "FBCBA Fundraiser Donation" when making your donation through Zeffy and please be sure to provide your contact information as well!!

Our thanks, gratitude and appreciation for each and every one of you and your support of YOUR Fort Bend County Bar Association!!!! We are only as strong as our members and it is with a grateful heart that we have been happy to serve you this year and will continue to serve you!!!

Tons of blessings and best wishes for everyone and their families for this Holiday Season and we look forward to seeing you soon!!!

Please be on the lookout for Our Save the Date for December 16, 2023 for our Jolly Judge Jingle Mixer event for which we will be sending out information soon!!!!

Best regards,

FBCBA Board