Advocacy

MDFWAL has an important platform, and is respected in the Florida legal community. We have already done so much good by lending our support to the Lactation Spaces Act and the Florida Bar Parental Leave Rule and by helping to get more women on the state and federal benches. While we of course must be measured in our approach, I hope to use that platform to advance the position of women, and especially female attorneys, in South Florida and beyond. We as an organization have the opportunity to make real positive change, and we will continue to use our collective voices and influence to do so. 

Membership 

We saw an unfortunate, but understandable, decline in membership during the pandemic, but we are steadily increasing our ranks. I would propose dedicating significant efforts to membership outreach and retention in the coming years. 

Our Law School Liaison, Sarah Valdes, does a fantastic job of getting our name out to law students, and our Mentorship Committee has curated great events to encourage involvement. We should endeavor to increase law student involvement in our committees and initiatives, as they are the future of this organization and bring a unique perspective. In addition to inviting students to MDFAWL events, leadership can attend student-led events, give membership presentations, participate in student organization panels as speakers, and otherwise spend time on campuses supporting the next generation of Miami attorneys. 

Similarly, we have revived the practice of making membership presentations to law firms and other legal employers, including governmental agencies. If each Officer and Director makes just one presentation this year, we can reach dozens of potential new members (and sponsors). 

In addition to gaining new members, we must not lose focus on membership retention. While our Newsletter regularly spotlights members, and PR does our best to re-post and call out accomplishments on social media, I hope to create an ongoing member feature coordinated between the PR and Membership Committees whereby we are able to regularly highlight an active member and recognize their hard work both for MDFAWL and outside of the organization. 

Key to member retention is increasing the value of membership. We have begun to do this by creating new free or low cost members-only events, such as the membership networking lunch series. Having more events such as coffee dates, park meetups for members with children, coordinated walk/runs or other active activities will not only create value for members individually, but also help to build community for all members. 

One membership community that has been underserved is our public interest lawyers. I have supported the efforts led by Elsa Van Gorp to increase our outreach to attorneys in the government and non-profit sectors to make MDFAWL membership worthwhile for them. We planned a recent night at the theater meetup for public defenders, plan to host additional Lunch & Learn events with judges and other prominent public interest lawyers, and are working on a mechanism for the donation of unused event tickets (from sponsors and/or members who have conflicts) to those for whom a certain event may be out of their budget. MDFAWL is an organization for all women lawyers and allies, so we need to ensure that no one is left behind. 

Increase communication Sponsorship & Fundraising

MDFAWL cannot provide great programming without funding. A large portion of our yearly funds come from law firm sponsors. We have seen great success with the annual sponsorship packages this year. Moving forward, I hope to work with our partner firms to determine what incentives we can provide to increase value for our loyal sponsors and entice more to join us. We can increase our outreach and decrease the workload placed on the Sponsorship Committee and President by encouraging each Officer and Director to set a fundraising goal, to be achieved directly through sponsorship attributed to their employer and/or through volunteering their time to assist our hard working Committee members in soliciting additional support. 

Another successful initiative this year was the creation of the Law Firm Champion of Women Award. We had many law firm applicants, all of whom submitted fantastic packages. In the coming years, I plan to work with the Awards Committee to design additional honors that can be bestowed upon individuals and organizations in recognition for their accomplishments, thus encouraging awardees (and their employers) to become more involved. 

I also hope to leverage my experience creating MDFAWL branded designs to create another revenue stream: the MDFAWL Merch Store. Every time we have created MDFAWL merch (I'm looking at you, baseball caps), they have gotten rave reviews. I have researched third-party websites that will allow us to simply upload our designs and choose our materials, and then will handle payment, inventory, and shipping, so that the endeavor is efficient for our members, creates pure profit for the organization, and does not tie up the precious time of our already overburdened volunteers. We can make special items for certain events, and create designs that benefit our charitable partners, including Lotus House, Buddy System, and the MDFAWL Foundation (perhaps even bringing in enough to cover an additional scholarship). 

Leadership 

MDFAWL's leadership is the backbone of the organization. I am proud to say that I have a great relationship with our past and current leaders, and look forward to seeing who steps up this year. Since the pandemic, we have been working to get back to the engagement we once had, and it begins with leadership. We must set expectations for leadership, all the way to the top, including participation in scheduled monthly meetings for our Officers and Directors, frequent event attendance, fundraising and sponsorship/membership outreach goals, and other benchmarks designed to help us achieve our objectives for the year. We as leadership need to encourage engaged members to volunteer to serve on committees, give them responsibility for event planning or committee initiatives, and recognize their efforts. We should keep committee members engaged throughout the year so that we do not lose momentum, and foster senses of community and accomplishment for our volunteers. I hope that by encouraging more leadership involvement, we can continue to grow as an organization. 

Partnership 

The soon-to-launch Leadership Academy is a great example of what we can accomplish when we partner with our Sisters-in-Law at Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers' Association. This year we have also co-hosted multiple events with the Miami-Dade Bar, including our ongoing Blueprints CLE series, the Florida Bar President's Lunch, and our upcoming Shine Theory CLE. I look forward to leveraging my relationships and those of my fellow MDFAWL leaders to renew and strengthen our connections with other local voluntary bars, including the Cuban American Bar Association, the Caribbean Bar Association, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Willkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association, Broward County Women Lawyers' Association, and others. By working together, we can increase our impact and create even better programming for our members.