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MSBA CHILDREN AND THE LAW SECTION
Annual Report for 2006-2007

By Sherri D. Hawley, Chair of the MSBA Children and the Law Section

The Children and the Law Section of the MSBA had less than active year:

Membership: 
The Section has experienced very little participation from section members in the past couple of years.

Section Meetings:
The section did not focus on CLE programs this year, having determined that, while people did sporadically attend CLE’s in prior years, that attendance did not result in any increase in participation in the section.  A meeting was held at the beginning of the year to discuss what members want to see from the section.  Very few members attended and there was no real vision for the section.  A meeting was held in March to address changes in the child support law by allowing members to come together and present the issues they have faced in applying the new law and to learn from others’ experience.  No one attended the meeting other than the section chair.

Service
The section adopted a family in need during December.  Through contributions of a handful of section members, a family of 4 children and their grandmother received everything they had asked for through the Sponsor-a-Family program.

Annual Meeting: 
The Section held its annual meeting on June 28, 2007, at the MSBA’s annual convention held at RiverCentre in St. Paul.  In attendance were Sherri Hawley, Wendy Watson, Irene Opsahl, Gillian Blomquist, and Katarina Jimenez.  All members were notified of the meeting by email and were invited to respond if they were interested in serving on the council or as an officer but could not attend the meeting.  No such responses were received.

Election Results: 
The members attending the annual meeting agreed to the following officers and council members: 

Officers for fiscal 2007-2008 are:
Chair:               Gilliam Blomquist
Treasurer:         Wendy Watson
Council members elected for fiscal 2007-2008 are:       Katarina Jimenez and    Irene Opsahl
The Section’s MSBA representative for 2007-2008 will be Sherri Hawley, past chair of the section.

Fiscal Status: 
The Section finished the year with a surplus of $4,157.09.