MINUTES
HAWAII STATE BAR ASSOCIATION
BOARD MEETING
1132 Bishop Street, Suite 906
Honolulu, HI 96813
Thursday, November 21, 2008, 10:30 a.m.
1. CALL TO ORDER
President Jeffrey Sia called the meeting to order at 10:36 a.m. with a quorum present. The following persons were present for all or part of the meeting:
Officers Present
Jeffrey Sia
Rai Saint Chu
Douglas Moore
Carolyn Yu (by phone)
Directors Present
Darren Ching
Steven Chow
James Dandar
Craig DeCosta (by phone)
P. Gregory Frey
Mark Gallagher
Geraldine Hasegawa
Hugh Jones
Ronette Kawakami (by phone)
Carol Kitaoka
Gregory Markham
Steven Songstad
Jill Hasegawa
Board Members Absent
Nathan Aipa
Louise Ing
Jodi Yi
Others Present
Charles Hite
Janet Hunt
James Kawachika
Catherine Levinson
William Meheula (by phone)
Craig Wagnild
HSBA Staff
Iris Ito
Debra White
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Minutes of the October 23rd board meeting were approved by consensus.
3. TREASURER’S REPORT – Treasurer Douglas Moore reported that as of October 31st, much of bar directory income and expenses were not yet recorded, hence the large variance compared to budget. He also noted that the 2007 audited financials were complete and would be posted on the website and in the Hawaii Bar Journal.
4. COMMITTEE / REPRESENTATIVE REPORTS
a. HSBA-Disciplinary Board Liaison Committee - President Sia introduced Bill Meheula, the HSBA representative on the Committee to Revise Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct. Mr. Meheula, who participated in the meeting by phone, explained that the Committee has been working on the rules for 4 years, and estimates that it will complete its report in February 2009. He briefly reviewed his handout which listed the names of committee members, outlined the format and process followed by the Committee, and summarized significant changes to the rules that are being proposed.
b. Strategic Planning Committee - next meeting is on December 11th.
c. Swearing-in Ceremony of New Admittees - the November 19th ceremony, held at the Neal Blaisdell Center, was well attended.
5. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT: a) MCLE - President Sia reported that now that the Supreme Court has issued the proposed MCLE rules for comment, HSBA will need to set up guidelines, rules, etc. He remarked that he would like to take care of it this year, if possible, but also did not want to rush it. Director Steve Chow suggested that a committee be formed to start working on the necessary procedures and rules; b) judicial nominee Melvin Fujino was confirmed by the Senate earlier in the week.
6. YLD REPORT - due to time constraints, an YLD report was not given this month.
7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
a. UPL Rule - President Sia reported that he met with the Insurer’s Council on November 10th and they seemed generally favorable to the revised proposed rule, but he had not received any written comment to date. He mentioned that the Board of Realtors had a minor suggested revision. President Sia also noted that he was awaiting comments from the Attorney General’s office before he submitted the revised rule to the Supreme Court.
b. Proposed 2009 Budget (see Exhibit D) - fyi only.
c. Section Budgets/ Collection of Dues (see agenda item 7.c) - With the new requirements for IRS Form 990 approaching, HSBA will need to do more documentation and reporting on its procedures and relationships with internal and external entities including Sections. In October, the Board suggested setting up a committee to establish policies to address these issues.
Action taken: A motion was made, seconded, and carried without opposition to adopt the Executive Committee’s recommendation to appoint a committee that would review Sections’ governance and its relationship with the HSBA. The committee would include Hugh Jones, Craig Wagnild, Carolyn Yu, and Alika Piper, if she is willing. President Sia suggested some section chairs, such as the Real Property Section and Bankruptcy Law Section, also be asked to serve on the committee.
d. Premises Assessment (see agenda item 7.d.)
Action taken: A motion was made, seconded, and carried without opposition to adopt the Executive Committee’s recommendation to finalize the President’s appointment of members to a committee to work with CBRE real estate agents in searching for and leading negotiations in a purchase of premises in 2009. These members include Carl Schlack, Leighton Yuen, Rai Saint Chu, and Douglas Moore. Mr. Moore abstained from voting.
8. NEW BUSINESS
a. Appointments to the Access to Justice Commission (see agenda item 8.a.)
Action taken: A motion was made, seconded, and carried without opposition to adopt the Executive Committee’s recommendation to reappoint Jill Hasegawa and Martin Luna as HSBA representatives to the Access to Justice Commission for 3-year terms beginning January 2009.
b. ABA Model Rule on In-House Counsel (see Exhibit F) - President Sia asked board members to review the ABA model rule for discussion at a future board meeting.
c. Disclosure of HSBA Election Results
Action taken: A motion was made, seconded, and carried without opposition to adopt the Executive Committee’s recommendation to disclose HSBA election results to members upon request only for the particular office the member is interested in.
9. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 11:56 a.m.
Submitted by:
Iris M. Ito
HSBA Assistant Executive Director
Approved by:
Carolyn M. Yu
HSBA Secretary