Highlights of Presidency:

At my May installation as president, I pledged to use my year to continue the great WBASNY tradition of making a difference. Making a difference in the lives of our members, making a difference in the lives of children and families in all our communities, making a difference in the lives of women across the state. One year later, I was so proud to attend the Convention in New Orleans and report to you: We Did. We started the year playing a leading role in ensuring the passage of legislation giving rape victims across the state guaranteed information about and access to Emergency Contraception in the Emergency Room. Later in the year, we topped that legislative achievement by becoming the driving force behind a bill extending to age 14 the right to testify by closed circuit television for child victims of rape and incest. I must confess I am particularly proud of this one. The bill had languished for years before we became involved. We were told it had no chance of passage. We disagreed. Four months later, due almost entirely to our hard work, Governor Pataki signed the law that spares child victims of rape and incest from the trauma of testifying in open court against their abusers. But we did not limit our efforts to the halls of the legislature. In 2003 – 2004, we established new legal clinics in parts of the state that never had them before – and now dozens of families across the state are better off and know their legal rights and how to access them. We also became the first statewide bar association to obtain malpractice insurance for our members who volunteered at these clinics. And while space does not permit a complete catalogue of all we achieved, no review of the 2003 – 2004 WBASNY year could be complete without mention of the Adirondack Chapter. One of my proudest moments as WBASNY president was the ratification of this, our 16th chapter, at the September 2003 Board meeting. I am sure that everyone who was there will always remember the joy and sense of empowerment that filled the room as we welcomed the founding members of the Chapter to our great Association.

Looking at this list of accomplishments, I am reminded once again how true it is that WBASNY is more than the sum of its parts. Together, we are better and can do more than any one of us or even one chapter could hope to get done. Together, in 2003 – 2004 and every year to come, WBASNY is making a difference.