Temple American Inn of Court
Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting
April 13, 2009
Chambers of the Honorable Cynthia M. Rufe
Present: Hon. C. Rufe, Hon. M. Bernstein, Hon. P. Dembe, Hon. M. Lachman, Hon. S. Moss, Hon. A. Rizzo (by phone), L. Bendesky, A. Casper, J. Chalal, Y. Cooper, G. Heller, M. Lennon, M. Seigle, J. Snyder, P. Weiner (late)
Excused: Hon. L. Reed, D. Davis, M. Cedrone, A. Haller, A. Duffy
After circulating an Agenda, the Committee discussed the following items:
1. February Minutes
The Committee reviewed the minutes and unanimously approved them.
2. March Minutes
Thanks to Yvette Cooper for filling in as and taking care that we maintained our record of that meeting.
The Committee reviewed the minutes and unanimously approved them with edits to minor typographical errors.
3. Treasurer’s Report
Since Paul Weiner was delayed arriving at the meeting, Judge Rufe reported that Paul had advised her of the following activities.
First, he is changing the Inn’s bank accounts to Beneficial Savings Bank, where they have a no fee, no minimum balance policy for non-profit organizations.
Second, he was informed Lisa Chapin from National that our Inn would receive tax documents in May 2009.
Third, he discussed the budget for an audit ($1,000) with auditors, which they agreed would be satisfactory to them.
Fourth, he scheduled a meeting with the auditors for the end of April to do an initial work-through of books and records.
4. March Meeting Follow-Up
Judge Rufe announced that the Inn had received a “thank you” letter from the Eastern State Penitentiary regarding our Inn’s donation of $500 to Alfred W. Fleisher Memorial Synagogue in conjunction with the March Team meeting.
5. Membership
Meredith Seigle announced that nominations were starting to come in for 2009-10. So far, there are 10 potential new members. Nominees for the 2008-09 Inn year who were not invited to join the Inn this past year will be rolled over and reconsidered for next year. The focus of the Inn is on increasing membership among the Associate and Bannister candidates, as well as to re-focus on committed judicial member candidates.
It was also reported that Judge Ransom withdrew from our Inn for the 2008-09 year. We do not anticipate she will seek rejoin in the future.
The deadline for nominations is June 30, 2009, but the earlier a nomination is made, the better the candidate’s chances for gaining admission.
Meredith stated that she would re-circulate the nomination form to members to remind them of the need and deadline for nominations.
6. Nomination Committee Report
The Committee asked Larry Bendesky to discuss his anticipated nominee for Vice President of the Inn, which he indicated he would do at the next meeting of the Executive Committee. We reconfirmed that a vote for the Vice President would be done by acclamation at the Closing Dinner on June 10, 2009 at Oceannaire Restaurant.
7. Closing Dinner
Drew Duffy stated that he would email the invitation to the Closing Dinner to Inn members along with entrée selections, which need to be made in advance.
8. Mentoring New Inn in Guam
Judge Rufe reported that she had received a request from the Chief Judge of the Guam Federal Court for assistance in setting up a new Inn of Court. The Judge is seeking program “how tos” and ideas for development.
9. National Awards
Judge Rufe reported that our Inn membership has yet to suggest a nominee for any of the National awards, as requested by her last email to membership.
Judge Rufe also reported that Judge Giles not selected for 3rd Circuit Professionalism Award. The Award is being jointly given to Judge Joy Flowers Conti from the Western District of Pennsylvania and Judge Louis Powell of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The decision on the recipients of this Award is ultimately made by the Third Circuit, though Judge Moss and Marc Sonnenfeld were members of the awards committee.
Judge Moss and Judge Rufe both indicated that Judge Giles was viewed as a good candidate for this award and might be considered again next year. Judge Rufe indicated that the nomination packet of materials would have to be much weightier for any future nominations.
In light of this experience, Judge Rufe suggested that we should consider creating an Awards Subcommittee to oversee the nominations process in the future.
10. The Bencher
The Committee reviewed outstanding articles being prepared for submission to The Bencher magazine. Greg Heller and Jennifer Platzkere Snyder will be working on an article about Judge Rizzo. Alan Casper will be working on an article about Judge Dembe and Sadye Ladov. Judge Rufe will follow up with Steve Harvey regarding the article he offered to write.
11. Program Awards
Jennifer Snyder reported that she and Alan Casper are working on meeting the next program awards submission date, which is April 30, 2009. Programs presented in January, February and March 2009 must be submitted by this date in order to be considered for awards.
With no other business, the meeting was then adjourned.
- Jennifer Platzkere Snyder, Recorder
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