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FROM THE EDITOR
Building on Editorial Boards Past
Y ou may have noticed that another perfectly good bar year is wrapping up. This is the moment when hard-working HBA members briefly come up for air and look around. So, what have we actually accomplished by all this running around—practice section CLE lunches, service committee planning meetings and activities, fund raising for another Habitat home, rolling up our sleeves for the blood drive. Is it just me, or are the rest of you running into yourselves in the hallways, too? Tell yourself that being active in the HBA is good training (so that in your next life you'll be a train—or not).
Really, this organized form of giving back to our community through bar service is more important than we individually would think. Each activity by each of us may not seem important or significant, viewed in isolation. But we aren't isolated. We are members of a community. I would like to take this final opportunity as editor of The Houston Lawyer to look back a little (okay, a lot) further than the traditional editorial farewell.
First off, my thanks to Carolyn Aiman, guest editor of this special volunteerism issue. Her hard work makes my point for me. In this year, I have not only worked with many wonderful editorial board members and authors, I have had moments to think about this group, this magazine, and this organization as a living organism. Last spring I received the traditional Red Pen of Office from my dear friend and mentor, my predecessor Fred Simpson. As I hand the Pen on to John Gray, I pass on to him Fred's advice about this position: this isn't a leadership position, it's a cat-herding experience. I have had plenty of opportunities to tell Fred under my breath how right he was. We don't lead people who are already leaders. We point out the goal, and perhaps make a few observations about suggested paths before our troops stop listening and start doing. Go for it!
As I was walking around the HBA's offices the other evening during my Legaline shift, I had another opportunity to look at the HBA membership's group photos from years past, when the group was small enough for everyone to fit in the same photo. I see the styles in hair, beards, and collars come and go. But I see the same determination to get done what needs to be done, and to do it in the best possible way.
You know the expression about accomplishing new goals by standing on the shoulders of giants. If you are over six feet tall, you have no idea what that means to those of us who are under five feet tall. But it also means that I didn't get here all by myself. The magazine you are holding is shiny, up-to-the-minute, and full of great ideas about improving us as practitioners and as humans. It is the product of a year's worth of work by my departing board. It is also the product of many years of work by many other dedicated editorial boards.
So, I leave you with my thanks for the opportunity to serve the Houston legal community as editor of The Houston Lawyer. And I salute all my predecessors, some of whom you know, some of whom you remember, some of whom you may have heard of, some of whom have vanished into the back stacks of the Great Law Library. They have all contributed greatly to what this magazine and this organization have become, and I honor all of them.
My thanks to them and to you. It's been fun.
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