By President David Carl Anderson
Come gather ‘round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
* * * * *
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
“The Times They Are A-Changin’”
Bob Dylan
Released: January 13, 1964
Columbia Records
In each of our lives, there are individuals who have been very influential in terms of shaping who we have become as adults. In my life, these individuals included my parents and close relatives when I was a toddler, Boy Scout leaders and coaches when I was in elementary and junior high schools, inspiring teachers when I was in high school and college, and legal mentors as I completed law school and ventured out into private practice.
In 1964, I was a sixth-grade student at Lathrup Elementary School. My two primary after-school activities included following The Beatles and playing baseball. When I wasn’t listening to a new Beatles release, I was outside playing catch, pickle or home run derby. My prized possessions were my collection of Beatles records, my Wilson A2002 baseball glove, and my Louisville Slugger bat.
I was a member of a Lathrup Village Little League team known as the “Yankees.” I was blessed to have a wonderful baseball coach named Tom Hardy. Tom was the older brother of one of my closest friends at that time, and was a recent law school graduate. You probably know Tom Hardy as a superb lawyer and the founder of the Birmingham law firm Hardy, Lewis, & Page PC. Tom has been a member of the OCBA for many years and is a highly respected member of our state bar as well.
Tom devoted countless hours to coaching us to be the best we could possibly be. He taught our Little League team the values of hard work, team play and playing by the rules. The net result of Tom’s outstanding coaching was that we won three city championships in a row. Tom truly made a positive impression on me as a youngster.
The Beatles likewise had early influences that helped shape who they became as a band. Their musical influences included British skiffle performers like Lonnie Donegan, American rock and rollers like Elvis Presley and Little Richard, and the influence of Motown music. While The Beatles continued to absorb influences throughout their entire career, in the 1960s their most important musical influence was Bob Dylan.
Bob Dylan was a nasal-toned, rail-thin musician from Minnesota who moved to New York City and became a remarkably prolific songwriter. It was Bob Dylan who gave a forceful and articulate voice to the apprehensions and ideals of the baby boomer generation. The Beatles first met Bob Dylan in August 1964 while they were on a U.S. concert tour.
After that meeting, The Beatles began to regularly give him a plug in their interviews. Bob Dylan’s influence could be heard in The Beatles’ folksy, introspective style on songs such as “I’m a Loser,” “You Got to Hide Your Love Away” and “Norwegian Wood.” Bob Dylan further influenced The Beatles by politicizing them and inspiring the group to accept its popularity as an opportunity to define and speak to a vital youth constituency. Conversely, The Beatles influenced Bob Dylan in terms of his wardrobe and causing him to use electric guitars in his songs as opposed to classical guitars.
The interplay between Bob Dylan and The Beatles was one of the central dynamics of mid-1960s rock and roll and it had a seismic effect on popular music and youth culture. They changed the soundscape and ambition of rock and roll in ways that still carry a tremendous influence on current rock and roll musicians.
Bob Dylan’s 1964 song “The Times They Are A-Changin” caught the attention of The Beatles as well as young rock and roll fans. This song captured the spirit and energy of a generation that questioned all conventional values and mores. It served as the baby-boomers’ anthem regarding social and political change throughout the 1960s.
We are now halfway through this bar association year. The times are unquestionably a-changing today for the OCBA. I would like to discuss with you several significant changes that have or are now taking place in our bar association.
At the June 2015 OCBA Annual Meeting, I challenged the bar association to go “from being good to being great.” One of the activities I asked our bar association members to do in achieving this goal was to become a sustaining member of the OCBA. This membership status requires a simple contribution of an additional $100.00 a year. The monies received from the sustaining members’ donations are used to upgrade our computer technology and website.
I am pleased to report our members have stepped up to this challenge. We now have 358 sustaining members and this group continues to grow. I am hoping, as you read this article, that if you are not already a sustaining member you will take this opportunity to immediately become one. You won’t regret your decision to become a sustaining member of the OCBA.
A second significant change is the upgrading of the OCBA website and computer technology. This improvement is inextricably connected to the sustaining member program discussed above. The upgrading has been moved forward by our great executive director, Terri Gilbert.
Our current website is vastly improved over our prior website. Any suggestions for making our new website even better will be greatly appreciated by Terri and her staff. The upgrading of our technology is crucial in terms of our future marketing efforts, our ability to be relevant with bar association members and our ability to attract new members.
A last significant change that has occurred over the past six months is the closure of the OCBA Lawyer’s Conference Room (LCR). The LCR was a project that came about during the 2007-2008 bar year. The LCR was designed to re-establish a presence for the OCBA at the Oakland County Courthouse, where the OCBA offices had previously been located prior to their present location. The vision for the LCR was that it would provide a place for our members to take a break between court hearings, do work, hang up a coat and grab a cup of coffee. The funding to create the LCR came from the generous donations of our OCBA members.
Over the past several years, the OCBA board of directors has performed a “line item budget” analysis on all of our bar association expenses. The overall budget analysis was done by the board of directors to make certain the programs being offered by the OCBA benefit the majority of its members and reflect the monetary expenditure associated with the program.
The budgetary analysis of the LCR unfortunately revealed a very small number of our members used the LCR compared to its substantial operating cost. Our Filing-by-Fax program, a revenue-producing activity that helped fund the operating costs of the LCR, petered out over time due to the implementation of e-filing. The conclusion reached by the board of directors was that the out-of-pocket cost of running the LCR was simply too extensive to continue in its current manner.
A survey was conducted of the OCBA members to find out whether the LCR was an activity that made sense to the bar association members in light of its limited use and significant cost. The survey results clearly indicated the vast majority of OCBA members did not use the LCR and were not interested in paying additional monies to cover its operational costs.
Based upon the results of the survey, Gerry Gleeson, the OCBA’s current treasurer, entered into negotiations with the Oakland County department responsible for leasing courthouse space to obtain an early release from this obligation. Under Gerry’s skillful negotiations, the OCBA was able to be released from this onerous debt without any penalty effective November 25, 2015.
Much of the furnishings from the LCR have been relocated to the OCBA office to replace some of the worn-out furniture and appliances at that location. In addition, the board of directors has been able to negotiate space in the Oakland County Law Library for attorneys to use as a gathering place and to leave their personal belongings. This Attorney Study Room is being provided free of charge by the law library’s board of directors.
While the members of the OCBA board of directors are saddened by the fact the LCR has been closed, the board takes very seriously its fiduciary responsibility to make certain it is doing what is best for the bar association as a whole. The closing of the LCR in the transparent manner in which it was done, coupled with the associated reduction in expenditures of more than $25,000.00 a year, is clear evidence the OCBA board of directors is constantly looking out for what is best for the bar association as a whole.
If you have not been actively involved in Oakland County Bar Association activities over the past six months, there are still six months remaining in this bar year to get involved. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, while the times are a-changing, the one constant that makes our bar association stand out above all other voluntary bar associations is the commitment by our members to make the OCBA the best it can be. As 2016 begins to unfold, I challenge each of you to become involved in any OCBA activity you find meaningful and to take positive steps in helping our bar association go from being good to being great.
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David Carl Anderson, of Law Office of David C. Anderson PC, is the 83rd president of the Oakland County Bar Association. Share thoughts about the OCBA or anything else with Anderson at 248-649-5502 or dcalaw08@att.net.
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