Report:

It is more than time for another update.

February is a short month but a lot has happened:

1. The Winter Newsletter is now out with all the Annual Conference
(Baltimore) details and the conference web page is up and running.
Thanks Art and Dan for all your work.

2. I talked about the site selections for future conferences in my last
report. Contracts are now signed with the Four Seasons in Las Vegas for
2002. This will be quite the experience as I understand it is an
absolutely splendid hotel. Jim Highsmith will be conference program
chair and will, I'm sure, provide extensive information before long.

 The 2003 negotiations are more complex. Toronto is proving far too
costly we fear. Our main concern is who absorbs exchange rate risk. We
simply can't afford to have it be our members. You will recall that
Cleveland is our second choice if Toronto doesn't work out and we are
fortunate to be several years out and have a good deal of breathing
space. We will keep you posted.

3. Strategic Planning: Jim Highsmith and Ginny Maurer have been working
long and hard on preparing materials for the Executive Committee
Mid-Year meeting in Boston (in conjunction with the North Atlantic
regional). This meeting is expected to result in a completed draft plan.

4. Various members of the Executive Committee have attended Regional
meetings and report very positively about them. I finally got to visit
my relatives in Australia for a couple of weeks and was able to attend
the Commercial Law Teachers Association meeting in Woollongong. I can
highly recommend this group to anyone looking for a meeting to go to in
Australasia – lively and with excellent papers. I also met with the very
interesting department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash
University. That department is certainly a fine model for any of us
considering how to build up the profile of business law. I'm sure Paul
Latimer or any of his colleagues there would be happy to discuss his
experiences.

5. It is hard for me to report on what is going on with the AICPA issues
since mostly it is building connections and ensuring we are clearly
positioned for whatever happens next. I met with William Holder at USC
who is Chair of the Computerization Implementation Committee. He was
most generous with his time and thoughts. I have since met by phone with
Rick Isserman who is chair of the Business Law examination committee. He
was equally generous. Both are members of the Board of Examiners.

 The essence of what I can tell you is that absolutely no decision has
been made as of yet. The practice review is, I believe, nearly complete.
The final recommendations on potential changes will be put forward for
discussion before too long. It is my sense that it will not be
surprising if there is a recommendation that business law no longer be a
separate examination. They are looking for a more integrated model of
examining. There have been many people making statements about possible
percentages of examination but none of these statements reflect any
decision or official position. However, it would be obviously naive to
believe that they do not reflect at least some people's desires.

 I will keep you posted as much as I can. I will also undoubtedly be
asking for help in terms of contacts etc as things move along.

6. There are several regional meetings coming up in the next two months.
As I write, the Midwest Regional is meeting. Southern meets in San
Antonio March 15-18 (contact Florence Elliott-Howard, (409) 468 1785
[log in to unmask]), Mid-Atlantic in Annapolis (contact LeGene
Quesenberry at [log in to unmask],) North-Atlantic April 8
(contact Jeffrey Beatty, (617) 353 6397 [log in to unmask]).  There are
three others later in April (Pacific Northwest, Western and
Northeastern) that I will mention in more detail in my next report. Good
luck for all meetings.

I hope all your terms are going well, although not too fast – for those
of us not teaching until the summer, we need all the time we can get
right now!

Sally