Page 6 - FDCC Flyer Winter 2023

Officer Reports
Reports & Musings by Marc Harwell
Marc Harwell
Happy holidays
and cheers to the upcoming year 2024!
May we all be grateful for the blessings of 2023, and may each of
I am happy to report that in the 2023 – 2024 Budget that was approved at our meeting of the Board of Directors in August of 2024, we have allocated the funding that our Chair of the Diversity Committee requested so that we may do a better job of improving our diversity.
materials, presentations, and expertise that is important to our success as a legal defense-based organization.
In the not-too-distant future from February 25 – 29, 2024, we will convene for our Winter Meeting
at the Vinoy Renaissance, St. Petersburg Resort. For this meeting and for the Annual Meeting in Toronto, we have increased the funding for each meeting so that your experience at each meeting will be enhanced. I look forward to seeing you at each.
I am happy to report that in the 2023 – 2024 Budget that was approved at our meeting of the Board of Directors in August of 2024, we have allocated the funding that our Chair of the Diversity Committee requested so that we may do a better job of improving our diversity. Thanks to Sean Griffin and Frank Ramos for their work.
As Secretary/Treasurer, I thank Sean Griffin for his work bringing together all of the changes in our Bylaws and Resolutions since 2019. I will present several changes to our Bylaws and Resolutions for your
approval at the Winter Meeting. A preview of some of the changes is as follows:
• A Member Communications Committee is proposed for work on our various publications.
• We are proposing changes that relate to our focused efforts to make diversity more prominent in our work.
• The changes that I presented for our State and International Representatives Program that I implemented last year will be formalized.
• Our Convention Chair and Program Chair Handbooks have been updated and are posted on the private side of our website.
Per our Bylaws in September
of 2023, I served as Chair of the Convention Review Committee Meeting, which consisted of our immediate past four Presidents
and the Sites Committee Chair. We took into consideration the input that we received from the 41% of attendees at our Annual Meeting
at the Broadmoor who responded to the survey and the input of members of our Board of Directors. My report has been published to the Board of Directors and Convention and Program Chairs to take into consideration going forward.
In short, let’s get together at our Winter Meeting and work together throughout 2024 to make each
of us better lawyers and more importantly better people.
Holly joins me and wishing you and yours our very best.
Marc H. Harwell is the Secretary/Treasurer of the FDCC and a member of Harwell & Hurst PLLC of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Marc may be reached at marc@harwelllawgroup.com
us work to gain growth and wisdom through the hardships that we experienced in 2023.
As the Secretary/Treasurer, I am particularly focused upon the finances and the budget of the FDCC and work closely with Marty Bair, who is our Chief Financial Officer, with our Finance & Budget Committee, of which I am Chair, with Bernie and Martha Heinze, who are respectively our Executive Director and Director of Meetings, and with our other Officers and Board of Directors, who lead our organization.
I thank each of them for the work that they have done and will do with me in ensuring that our financial health remains strong so that we continue to have the resources
that we need to serve you well and to make your membership both rewarding and enjoyable.
I thank you – our members for the timely payment of your dues, for your attendance at our meetings,
for bringing new qualified members into our family, and for your other contributions. If you have not already paid your dues, please do so.
I thank our sponsors for being team members who provide the financial support that we truly need from them to provide meetings,
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