As I enter my second month as YOUR HSBA President, please allow me to share a frequent telephonic exchange between my supportive wife, Mia, and my equally devoted paralegal, Miki. It oft-times goes like this: Mia: Is Greg available? Miki: I can pencil you in for 5 minutes in a couple of days. No joke, folks. This HSBA Board Officer position keeps me THAT busy. TRULY. Thankfully, however, I get things done mostly because of those who have my back and quite frankly work harder than I. The HSBA Staff, Board members, Committees, and YOU, the HSBA Members, pull together every day to help me lead. MAHALO for that. MAHALO for everything. It’s not easy, BUT together, we will continue to get things done.
I’m starting to figure out my role as YOUR HSBA President. In a few words, it’s to get out there and be there, for our HSBA Board and for each of YOU. Truth be told, my paralegal Miki sorts a “high stack” of email & letters re: HSBA “stuff” to calendar each and every invitation and event, and then tells me “where I gotta go, and when I gotta be there.” Then, off I go…“being there” for YOU.
In January & early February alone, I enjoyed a discussion and screening of MINIDOKA at Ali’iolani Hale in tribute to Civil Liberties & The Constitution Day, coordinated by our hardworking HSBA Civil Education Committee. Stunning. Shocking. Consider joining Friends of Minidoka. I have leant comments, opinions, aloha & welcome at a couple of JSC evaluation interviews and at a few formal swearing-in ceremonies for newly appointed Circuit & District Court Judges, to include a sensational ceremony at Second Circuit Court. The Maui Court staff, Maui County Bar President, bar members and Chief Judge, Hon. Richard T. Bissen, Jr. (Fun Fact: my College Classmate “back-in-the-day.” Go, Broncos), were so welcoming and hospitable. Their collective efforts were “top shelf.” My dedication & loyalty to this new role then really got tested when our esteemed Chief Justice asked me and our HSBA Exec. Dir., Pat Mau-Shimizu, to attend a Welcome Pa’ina for the Conference of Chief Justices Midyear Meeting held at Washington Place on Super Bowl Sunday. Yep, you read it right. We made it, believe it or not, and our Island State was again wonderfully represented on the national stage thanks to the tremendous work of our High Court, staff and the Judiciary as a whole.
As I press on into February & March, please allow me to remind you all that I’m always approachable re: “anything & everything HSBA.” Just give me a call or drop me an email. Certainly, if you are willing to devote energy and effort to our HSBA Committee system, contact me. We need your interest, effort & philanthropic spirit, NOW & going forward. In closing, I humbly ask every HSBA member to support our 2020 HSBA / HSBF Annual Dinner & Fundraiser on August 29, 2020. Until next time, stay involved.