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Our
new website at www.arkbar.com is a portal to a growing
number of resources for Association members and our
guests from the general public. From the new Member
Directory to the coming Arkansas VersusLaw,
exploring our site is similar to Alice's journey down
the rabbit hole. One never can be sure where it will
lead, but each twist and turn can result in a new
discovery.
As this column is written,
Arkansas VersusLaw is scheduled to go live on our
website sometime during late February or March. If
it is not live at the time you read this, there is
a description of this extensive online law library
for our members on our website. This new member benefit
is free for Association members.
The Member Directory
was developed by our Website Oversite Committee which
wanted members to be able to access up-to-date
contact information on individual members, as well
as see which attorneys in a specific city in Arkansas
(or another state) are Association members. The directory
includes a live e-mail link for individual
members, thereby enabling one to click on that individual
and send him/her an immediate e-mail using your computer's
e-mail software.
Only the Member Directory
and Arkansas VersusLaw are password protected and
thereby restricted to current members of the Arkansas
Bar Association. The first time you visit either of
these pages on the website, you will be prompted to
secure your password for future access. Please
note that you may change your password.
A helpful feature of
the password system is that once you have logged in
to either the Member Directory or Arkansas VersusLaw,
you may move in and out of the password-protected
page to other websites and come back without logging
in again, as long as your browser has remained open.
The new website enables
members to be involved in the legislative process.
The Legislative Advocacy Network was established
by the Association as part of its increased capacity
to represent the legal profession and work for improvements
to the legal system. Find out more by clicking on
Legislative Matters on the left side menu bar.
For a complete listing
of member benefits, click on Member Benefits
to see the variety of services and products provided
to the members of the Arkansas Bar Association. Actually,
the list is so long that there are two Member Benefits
back pages, the Overview page and Other
Services page.
Online Services
on our website will continue to expand. One can renew
their dues online, post or search for jobs at our
Legal Career Center, and search the back issues
of The Arkansas Lawyer to its beginning in
1967. This latter service is provided by the Law Library
at the UALR Bowen School of Law.
Another new category
on our website is Professional Resources which
has important links, ethics information, Sections
and Committees. The new Ethics Information
page includes the Advisory Ethics Opinions issued
by our Professional Ethics Committee and a link to
ETHICSearch.
There will be increased
visibility on the website for the Annual Meeting,
CLE events, the practice handbooks, and arkansasfindalawyer®.com.
There is a growing number of back pages for the general
public including the Mock Trial program, legal pamphlets,
law links, legal services for the poor, and disaster
legal assistance.
The new website would
not be a reality without the leadership, expertise
and hard work of our Website Oversite Committee whose
members are Karen Sharp Halbert, Chair, William G.
Almand, Annamary Dougherty, Donna L. Gay, Claude S.
Hawkins, Tim Holthoff, Robert D. Ross, E. Shane Springs,
and Tim Tarvin. Special thanks go to Chair Karen Halbert
and Immediate Past Chair Tim Holthoff for the many
hours they expended to finalize the website. I deeply
appreciate also the help of the Association staff
who worked on the project.
Passwords
Here is a tip on selecting
a password for the growing number of websites which
require such. We should know never to leave a list
of our passwords laying around the office, especially
near our computer. To help avoid a list of your passwords
being discovered by someone else, you might follow
the strategy of using the same two digit number at
the end of each of our passwords. Then when you write
down each password for handy reference, simply leave
off the last two digits.
By the way, one may
change her/his password on our website. And if you
have questions or problems on the website, feel free
to contact our Webmaster, Rando Hicks, at
rhicks@arkbar.com
or (501) 375-4606 or our instate toll free number
at (800) 609-5668.
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