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     This November our Association's members will be asked to vote their approval of four amendments to our constitution. All four were referred for this vote by your House of Delegates. Here is what and why.
     In recent years, you have approved a sweeping modernization of our governance. Formerly our House of Delegates, a large, diverse body of lawyers, was charged with running the Association on literally a day-by-day basis (with considerable help from our fine staff, of course.) Because that was impractical, an Executive Council (really an executive committee composed of delegates and elected by delegates) began doing that job under the auspices of the House. When we reorganized we transformed the Executive Council into the Board of Governors. We provided for direct election, by district, of governors, and left the House with the responsibility for broad, enduring policy issues. For example, the Association's biannual legislative package is set by the House of Delegates. However, current Article XV of our constitution still requires an affirmative vote at a regular or special election of the entire membership before the association can sponsor or even just support a proposed amendment to the state or federal constitution. (Paradoxically, no such vote is required if we oppose such a constitutional amendment.)
     The existing rule is unnecessary and unwieldy. Here is a topical example. Most of us believe that Arkansas' legislative process has suffered severely by legislative term limits so strict that they virtually mandate a forever-inexperienced General Assembly. The last legislative session produced a proposed amendment liberalizing these term limits. It is something which we should support and I am sure we will, but we really should have been able to support it from the beginning, while it was still before the Legislature. At one point it was suggested that the proposed amendment should include imposing term limits upon our judges. I, for one, would oppose that one with all of my resources. There lies the problem. During the most critical time period (when the Legislature is considering the proposed amendment) there is not enough time to obtain authority for support. Further, special elections are expensive. I would rather spend our dues delivering member benefits like Arkansas VersusLaw.
     The proposed amendment puts this authority with our Delegates, where it belongs. It is full of safeguards. First, thirty-days' notice to the membership must precede any such House vote. Second, a three-fourths' majority is required.      Article VII, Section 4 requires the Board of Governors to meet four times each year, whether it needs to or not. Often it does not need to. These meetings cost those involved time, and the Association money. We propose to reduce the number of required meetings of the Board to three and, if more meetings are needed, call special meetings.
     The first of our two annual House of Delegates meetings is held on the Saturday of our Annual Meeting. The schedule for election of new house members almost runs into that date, especially when no nomination occurs during the initial election of new house members. When that happens, the vacancy is re-advertised. Then, if there is still no qualified nominee, the vacancy is filled by presidential appointment. By shortening both the time between re-advertising the vacancy and closing nominations and the time the vote itself by five days each (thirty days to twenty-five days in both cases) we eliminate the time crunch.
     For several years, we have had a category of Association membership called "Associate Members." Those members are licensed to practice law and in good standing, but their licensing state is not Arkansas. Most of these members are on the faculty of one of our law schools. Some have simply retired here. A few others are employed as in-house counsel by national corporations in those companies' Arkansas corporate offices.
     These members are currently required to be Arkansas residents. They pay the same dues as the rest of us and devote valuable time to our task forces, committees and sections. They are not eligible to hold office or membership in the House of Delegates or Board of Governors.
     We propose to open this class of membership to all licensed lawyers in good standing who are full time employees of business organizations with regular business in Arkansas. Thus, for in-house counsel, the requirement of Arkansas residency will be removed. Some of our smaller, more specialized sections (Natural Resources comes to mind) will greatly benefit from the participation of these fine lawyers in section-sponsored publications and CLE programs. The dues base will be slightly expanded.
     Your ballot on these small changes will arrive in November. Please vote "yes".

Arkansas VersusLaw User Tips and Tricks
     As our members learn to use Arkansas VersusLaw some have learned tricks that are worth sharing. To that end, we will publish some of their Tips and Tricks in the next few issues of The Arkansas Lawyer.
     Here is one from yours truly. When including Eighth Circuit cases in a search within the AR Content library, end your query with "and arkansas." You will then almost completely limit your hits to appeals of cases arising in Arkansas, although, occasionally, some other opinions will contain the word "Arkansas". If you are only searching Eighth Circuit cases (as opposed to state and federal district cases at the same time), the phrase: "and (history includes arkansas)" works even better. (Within the Federal Appeals Court database, the field called "history" contains the name of the district court from which the appeal is taken.)
     Our next tip was developed at the suggestion of Association Governor Bob Young of Paragould. Bob noted that, while Arkansas VersusLaw searches the Arkansas Code and finds any statutes matching the search criteria, it does not facilitate browsing the Arkansas Code itself. The fix is simple. From the Association's web page click "law links". From that sub menu click "Arkansas Code". Shazam! A fully browsable version of the Code is at your service. The Code has opened in a new window. If you minimize that window (click on cute little "-" sign), you are back at the Association's website, ready to enter Arkansas VersusLaw. When you find a statute in response to your Arkansas VersusLaw query, reopen that minimized Code window and browse the vicinity of the statute which Arkansas VersusLaw found for you.
     Today's final tip comes from Finis Batchelor of Van Buren. Finis uses Arkansas VersusLaw to produce electronic advance sheets of Arkansas decisions. (We have modified his procedure to make it also work on Eighth Circuit cases.) The trick is to date-limit the search. For example, if it is Monday and you want to know about cases decided the previous week, fill in the "from" date on the date-limiter with the preceding Monday. (You do not need to fill in the "to" date.) Then, enter the query "arkansas" and search away. You will find all the cases decided that week. If you include the Eighth Circuit in your search you will only retrieve cases using the word "arkansas" which, as observed above, is good but not perfect. If you are obsessed with perfection, search the Eighth Circuit separately, and use the query "history includes arkansas" along with your date-limiter.
     If you have a suggestion for "Arkansas VersusLaw Tips and Tricks" we would like to hear from you. Send it, via email, to rhicks@arkbar.com. We will publish them as space allows. •