Transcript
Speaker: This episode is sponsored by LexisNexis, supporting information professionals as leaders in AI innovation. Explore resources and tools designed specifically for your role at LexisNexis.com, Backsplash Community, Backsplash InfoPro.
Speaker: and connect with them at AALL this summer in Cleveland. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to All in the podcast where we explore the people, ideas, and leadership shaping the future of the American Association of Law Libraries. Hi, everyone. I am Andre Davison.
Speaker: And I'm Katie Brown. And Andre, i have to say, episode three, we're already here. and I do feel like we're starting to hit our stride. I know, Katie. I feel like we've officially moved past the figuring out where the mute button is phase of podcasting. I kind of feel like you have to speak for yourself there. I still double check mine every time.
Speaker: Fair enough. But in all seriousness, it's been great hearing from leaders across AALL. And today's conversation is actually one I've been really looking forward to. Same here. Today, we are joined by Dr. Joyce Gilbert, the Executive Director of AALL. Joyce brings such a dynamic and wide-ranging background from executive leadership to academia to entrepreneurship, association work, and even military service.
Speaker: Basically, the kind of resume that makes you wonder what you've been doing with your time. I know. And even more importantly, she really does bring a thoughtful and forward looking perspective at a really important moment, I think, for double A double L and for legal information professionals.
Speaker: I second that, Katie. ah Joyce may have come from the world of nutrition and food service, but she is now helping AALL think about how we nourish the profession with trusted information, strong leadership, and hopefully no expired ideas left in the back of the refrigerator.
Speaker: Joyce, we're so glad you could join us today. All right, Joyce. I'm going to have my Oprah moment here and get us started and ask, who is Dr. Joyce Gilbert, how would you like to introduce yourself to AALL membership?
Speaker: Well, thank you both. It's ah nice to see you again, Katie, and it's nice to meet you, Andre. ah First off, just Joyce. That's what I prefer to be known as. um I consider myself an empathetic servant leader that's very mission-centric and data-driven. I try to be as transparent as possible, and I do follow a life mission, so all my critical decisions are made predicated on that life mission, which is service to my country, service to my community, and service to my profession.
Speaker: I'm hoping that the skill sets from all of my varied experiences that I'm bringing forward for AALL are really the things that the board outlined during the interview process. which is governance, some digital transformation, those are my my terms, not theirs, but also some data repository and really building culture.
Speaker: And i build culture generally by creating spaces and the spaces are are really a safe and brave space. Thank you, Joyce. And I love that. I think I'm going to borrow the first part. If you looked at my LinkedIn profile, that's my tagline is mission-centered, data-driven, but I love the empathetic servant leadership part is that I try to serve the same way.
Speaker: And ah we know your career spans across executive leadership, academia, entrepreneurship, association work, and military service, which is a remarkable range of things to do. And again, so very impressed.
Speaker: How have these experiences shaped the way you lived? Well, i I think when you have varied experiences that I've had the good fortune to have, it really builds a ah diverse kind of knowledge base and a diverse experiential base.
Speaker: And when you combine those two, that's really what builds your business acumen. And so not only are you building skill sets in each of those spaces, but you're also building the acumen that actually can translate out of one ah area and into another area. I thought you brought up a good point, Andre. Yes, I came out of, and my doctorate is in food science and human nutrition. But when you when you have a diverse background and you can build skill sets, those are transferable. And really what AALL board wanted in the new executive director was someone that could
Speaker: actually keep the operations going while the board was making critical decisions from a from a strategic perspective. And so those skill sets fit. And I think it was my diverse background that helped to to be able to fit. Thank you, Joyce. Now, fit is very important. And I think with both Katie and I having served on the L board,
Speaker: ah I think we're very grateful and fortunate to to have you and have someone with a different skill set and a new perspective. And we're really excited to have you with our organization as well. um So with that, I could segue into this question what What drew you to AALL and the legal information profession? Well, as I said earlier, all of my critical decisions, especially professional ones, but also personal, are predicated on my life mission.
Speaker: And that also is ah the empathetic service kind of leadership that I that i have. And because of that and the type of member, I was drawn immediately to when I was brought in as the interim.
Speaker: um It matched my life mission, and I really love the core values. I really like specifically the collaborative, the connection, leadership and and and influence, innovation, and and also DE&I.
Speaker: What I really appreciated was the way the board actually took those core ah values and integrated them into the the new strategic plan.
Speaker: And to me, those pillars are equally, really speak volumes about what the direction is of this organization and why I wanted to be a part of it. When I look at the pillars, the advocacy and empowerment,
Speaker: innovation, DENI, pipeline to the profession, all associations are struggling with that. And then also the professional development component.
Speaker: I really was appreciative of of of all of that. I also have a ah strong desire to be active. And so advocacy and and the advocacy initiatives that AALL is involved in really spoke volumes to me.
Speaker: I think privacy of law library users, access to legal information, access to justice, copyright. I i actually am an author and an editor of ah of a textbook. And copyright with AI is just really touches me also personally. So for those reasons, I i not only wanted to be the interim, but put my hat in the ring to to stay on. And we're glad you did. Thank you.
Speaker: So you were just actually touching on kind of this, that sort of outward looking in the advocacy work. And so I'm really interested in knowing, being somebody that has, you know, joined sort of our our professional information space. um What is something that you wish that people from the outside knew about the legal information profession? If you could share something with them that you've learned.
Speaker: Yes, ah i I think that the one thing that I've i've learned several things. ah One that really speaks volumes to me is the ability to translate complexity into clarity and the influence that has on legal and law education.
Speaker: And I've seen that day in and day out. And i i really see not only that that capability and the influence that has on the next generation of legal information professionals, but also it's done in a spirit of collaboration and insightfulness.
Speaker: and um and And also i do, this is something that ah it surprised me a little it shouldn't have, but the amount of detail. yeah when When we put a board book together and it goes out in front to for the drafts, it's it's amazing the amount of detail. um I'm taken by it sometimes, but I'm also also really appreciative of that fine eye of of detail detail.
Speaker: and really keeping us on task. and And I love the social consciousness of of our members i i and how accepting they are. And I think that's why DE&I is a pillar for the strategic plan and also a core value. But i the the one that's touched me the most is really the ability to translate that complex information and get it out into a a way that's clear and concise. Yeah, I feel like Andre, especially the work, I mean, I think we all do that, but especially the work that you do. Really, i think you do that incredibly well in your space. Thank you. Thank you. And speaking of the detailness of the board books, I remember being on my way to Chicago, reading those 200 page board books on the airplane. No one's supposed to read them on the airplane. Most of them read them earlier than they were. Oops. Sorry. Sorry. I was reviewing them on the plane. Yes. we i was reviewing thes On the airplane. Yes. The important part is that you actually read it. Yeah. yeah So I think ah Katie, you know, talked about what what you wish more people knew and ah outside of, you know, the detail
Speaker: and some of the things you just spoke about, has there been any surprises for you about the profession or the the membership it's itself? Yes. um And i I speak to a lot. I'm a part of several CEO roundtables or executive director roundtables, and everyone is really having difficulty with engagement.
Speaker: And i what I've really noticed, and ah i was surprised because what's going on in our environment now and what keeps everybody busy and up at night and day to day, is has not really affected the engagement of our volunteer leaders.
Speaker: And their engagement is high, to your point, Andre. They come to the board meetings prepared. They come to the committee meetings prepared. They have innovative ideas. They're thinking outside of the box.
Speaker: And I just, in in this time and in this administrative life that we're living in, that's just surprising and also just amazing. Yeah, I think that speaks to ah the collaborative part that you spoke of and the collegiality of of the membership. I think for me, as we've been starting to prepare for the conference, which is um i less than i five five weeks away. Five five weeks away. And a meeting with different people with the programs and stuff, there's a a level of excitement and engagement that people have been bringing is, it's refreshing and and and it's contagious too. So that's that's one thing I love about um our members as well.
Speaker: I'm gonna um let Katie kind of transition us. Yeah. So, all right, let's chat about sort of your transition and when you came in, because we were, AALL was in a period of transition when you first came in. and So what opportunities do you see for the association as it continues to grow and support the members and then also responding to the changes, as you mentioned, sort of in the profession and we have the pipeline issues and some of those things?
Speaker: Yeah. Well, the board's doing tremendous work, I will say that. And when I came in as the interim, I was really brought in and it was very clear that I was brought in to do change management.
Speaker: And so really what I was due to is to keep the lights on, so to speak, you know, keep operations running. um Work with the staff. ah And i I can't say this enough. We have a tremendously amazing staff, but probably the most competent staff I've ever worked with. And and and just their their ability ah and their service and the selflessness they have.
Speaker: But ah what I found is that, and the reason I wanted to stay on is I really lean more towards transition leadership, and it takes a longer time to do that.
Speaker: And so what I was finding is, although we have a brand new strategic plan, that plan wasn't aligned with the resources. So in essence, we had a budget that sat over here.
Speaker: and a strategic plan that's set over here, but we weren't ah allocating resources toward the strategic plan. And so what we needed to do was to match the budget, which were the staff, and and we've just gotten through doing that.
Speaker: And that that budget will go in front of ah the the board in in July at its meeting at the annual conference. But that alignment was important to me. and but making sure that, in and during that alignment, you're not only looking at resources and making sure that you have the right resources allocated to the right priorities.
Speaker: The board does prioritize annually different strategies under those goals. But the ones that had been prioritized for this past year, there was no resources dedicated dedicated dedicated to them.
Speaker: So we wanted to be able to do that and the board wanted to do that. So that was one of our first steps. And when you're while you're doing that, you also want to take the time and look at all your programs and services.
Speaker: And make sure that they're aligned and that you are putting the right so right resources towards those processes so that you can actually allocate. So everything becomes aligned.
Speaker: Now you've got the right allocation to the right priorities from the right year and that matches your budget. And that is an area of my expertise and then also an area that I just love doing.
Speaker: And we're fortunate enough that we actually have staff that loves doing it too. And so we actually went through a budget period a little bit different than they had done in the past where where we we had a budget, but we had to look at how we were allocating. And also had to be very specific about how we came up with that number so that any one of us on on on the staff could look at that budget and know where that number came from.
Speaker: And that wasn't the case before, but that way that breaks down all the silos. So as you're looking at programs and services, everybody has to talk to everyone. And then that was one of the things that I promised the board that I would do with the staff.
Speaker: One, empower them. um Secondly, build a safe space and a brave space and also build our culture. And our culture is, ah it's the culture I believe in. It's called family first.
Speaker: And so we actually, and then we build a safe and and and brave space. It seems like transparency is also something that's incredibly, you know, just as you were describing the budget. And for those people out there that are big fans of administrative law, I know I was suddenly thinking about like, agencies who are defunded and still have to keep functioning. That's what it was making me think of. 100%. Never take the law librarian out. One of the things that we're finding is, or people that are attending.
Speaker: So we had people, you know, early bird just ended for the annual conference, right? And so what we had is staff was reaching out to people that have attended conferences before, but have not quite registered, just to find out reasoning and to collect that data.
Speaker: And I'm very interested in creating a data repository at AALL, so is the board. And so we were finding the one of the main data points of them not being able to attend is funding.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, some of it's time, but that's all tied to funding, right? You know, the time off. So, yeah. Yeah. That's um really, really interesting. And, you know, been in the the crosshairs of ah that, the budget and, you know, just rolling off the board. But Want to back up to the um staff, just in ah as you mentioned, an amazing staff. I think that's interesting what what I miss most about the the being on the board is that you get a chance to get to know the amazing team of individuals. So kudos to the AALL staff.
Speaker: for everything they do for this organization. So ah right now we're going to take a short break to hear from our episode sponsor, LexisNexis. We'll be right back.
Speaker: Every great era of transformation has architects behind it. Today, information professionals are helping shape the next era of AI in legal organizations, guiding adoption, ensuring authority, and turning innovation into real impact.
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Speaker: And connect with us at AALL this summer. LexisNexis, private, secure, authoritative, legal AI. So Joyce, um i know you kind of talked about this, but I wanted to to dive deeper. And as I was you know thinking thinking about, we were getting ready to have you on.
Speaker: And we talked about you talked about the transition leadership. You talked about the change management piece of it. And will their work covers you know awesome sir all different sorts of things priorities, you know, you have advocacy, education, professional development, access to legal information, member connection.
Speaker: And um ah the question I have, and and and and again, this is near and dear to me, you know, ah to being on the board, how do you ah work with the executive board to lay the groundwork for balancing all those priorities? Well, one of the easy things I did is on the back of the name placards, when we're all sitting around the table, I put the vision in the mission. I love that.
Speaker: Whenever we get on a topic, because I said some people are more detailed than others, or if we get off a topic, we can always go back to the fact that we're here, we're mission-centric.
Speaker: is what our discussion or where our discussion is headed, is it still applying to our mission? And because it's very easy, because because we have such broad interest as a board, it's very easy to get sidetracked into another area.
Speaker: that may not be fit into not only the mission, but then the next level down is the strategic plan. And so we're constantly reminded of how to do that. And then also, one of the things that I've found is our members, any members, but are our members really want to know that they're heard,
Speaker: And that's why we're doing the things that we're doing, which are these town halls that have been very, very successful, the meet and greets that we've been doing through our GRC. And what what the purpose of those are is to listen and to hear what our members are, hear their voice.
Speaker: But the board's responsibility is not just to hear the voice, but it's to turn the that that information into actionable outcomes. so that the membership can see in a very transparent way the the work of the board and what that brings to the member value.
Speaker: And that that's what we just keep, it's ah it's an ongoing. And what we've created, and this is kind of my approach to leadership, is we we were in what was perceived, rather it was true or not.
Speaker: The perception of our membership was we were in a no-but mentality. And my mentality and the board's mentality moving forward is yes and. and So when someone comes, we're saying yes and It may not exactly what they need.
Speaker: um Well, good example with Flip, ah Katie, we went through it together. yeah It was a yes and experience and not a no but experience. And I think what that did is in in getting that agreement together is gonna make it much easier as we move forward with any of the SISs. And so I thought, and and it's it's that mentality that the board has accepted and adopted that I think will move this board forward And it will also, to the membership, be perceived as a yes and.
Speaker: And there'll be some very timely. i think timely is important as well. um There were issues that have been sitting um that had not been acted on. Even though they really had been, the board was still discussing them.
Speaker: It still has to be actionable and it still has to be transparent so that the member can perceive it. as ah As action. And so I'm very proud of the sport. It's a ah tremendous sport.
Speaker: Yeah, I love it. I love the a shift in in mindset and a shift perception versus reality. I think we encounter that. Every one of us, we encounter that in in our our day to day, especially if you're leading any type of organization as well. So loved how you framed that in the conversation. So um your background, you know, we talked about this.
Speaker: ah Includes ah digital transformation, artificial intelligence policy, governance, compliance and.
Speaker: data driven strategy. How do those experiences inform your leadership in ah the legal information profession? Yeah, I said earlier, you know, you you build your skill sets through diversity, or at least that's how I've built mine.
Speaker: And utilizing that diversity and those skills to kind of formulate how you'll lead. And i i i said it just a little while ago, but yes, and is a good way to lead.
Speaker: it it it ain't it also encompasses a safe and brave space. You know, I define a safe space as everyone has a voice and they and everyone's voice should be heard.
Speaker: But the brave space is someone that's a little bit more difficult. And the way I define a brave space is you allow disruption and you're allowing disruption because you're hoping it results and are leads into constructive conflict.
Speaker: And then from constructive conflict, you can bring a board and to consensus. But if you don't allow the brave space, then you're going to have individuals that are going to feel that even though you heard their voice, you didn't really hear their voice.
Speaker: And so I think that that's the type of leadership I'd like to bring forward. I also, as as I said earlier, I i think being in in an executive director position is probably...
Speaker: One part talking and three parts listening. And the more that you can get used to that, the better. I'm very comfortable and I prefer to not be the face of an organization. I prefer to be the operational part.
Speaker: And it's perfect for me here because I'm not a content expert. In my former position, I was a content expert and the CEO and the president of the board. And I really felt and this was a very good fit for me.
Speaker: i like I like being the listener, being the person that's trying to hear what those voices are saying, and and then helping the board to make timely decisions that align with the mission and the strategic plan priorities in any particular year.
Speaker: Joyce, I'm usually the one dropping the one-liners from constructive conflict to consensus. I know. She's got the one-liners in there. I feel like got the pen out and you're writing them down. I do. I do. I love it. From constructive conflict to consensus. That's great.
Speaker: ah That's pretty good. It's relative and it resonates with me. Yeah. But but you know before you can even do that, you've got to build trust within your members. Exactly. and And within the board members themselves, too.
Speaker: And we had a really good board retreat right before our April meeting to do just that, to to try to rebuild or build trust, build that whole yes and mentality, a culture of we're okay with disruption.
Speaker: as long as it's done respectfully. Yeah, I want to piggyback on this concept of disruption because I think we are, you know we've talked about sort of information profession and and law librarianship and being in this period of transition. And I think with one of the big disruptors for us right now is sort of these emerging technologies and how are we facing them and how do we work with them and You know, episode one, we spent an entire episode talking about general AI. was a very good episode. Oh, thanks. But, you know, I would love to know sort of your take on right now, we've got obviously these emerging technologies and everything that's happening. And so...
Speaker: how can AALL position itself as really the go-to organization for being trusted guidance and, you know, providing the education and sort of the leadership in this area when maybe people don't always think of us in that space?
Speaker: Yeah, you're you're so right, Katie. I actually joined the, AI caucus this past week. And the reason I was joining is that were we're we're partnering with an organization that's doing a survey. And we we want to get that survey out, but we also want the the data as part of our data repository. And and what that survey is looking at is um how do people best learn AI and utilize it? but And really, can people use AI to learn AI?
Speaker: And I think that that's kind of an interesting concept for for me. and But as that survey goes out, we'll be able to have the collected data because we've partnered with them. And I wanted to see if the AI caucus would be willing to help us analyze the data, of course.
Speaker: And then on another side, we are actually putting together an AI summit. And that summit will happen in the fall. And once again, we're we're now soliciting people to put in for presentations and ah with the help of the AI caucus. And I think one of the things that June said that would really spoke to me, um June and Emily, they're the co-chairs and of the caucus, is that everyone seems to think, and and I'm paraphrasing, everyone seems to think, which you have to do with June. No, i'm just kidding. But but um what...
Speaker: But it seems that that people feel that librarians should be threatened by AI, that AI can do things that like librarians do, which we know is totally not true. I mean, it can do some things, but it can't do cognitive things. It can't connect dots and it can't do some of the things. And I i really felt that June expressed that really well. We should embrace it and we should demonstrate that we not only understand it, we can teach you how to use it in the context
Speaker: that's best for what you need at that particular time. And then we can help you connect the dots to get to that right answer at the end of the day. And that's going to be the main focus of the ah of the summit is to look at it that way through case studies, through case utilization and how people are utilizing it now.
Speaker: And I think that's going to be just an amazing summit. And it's going to be over two days, but they're not going to be consecutive, which so we hope that that will really help to draw people in. And it will be virtual. That's really exciting. Yeah. I'm excited about it as well. Not to steal June's thunder, but i I agree with her. I do believe with all the different platforms, AI platforms, you know to be able to weed through which one do you need, which one is good for this, which one is good for that, but still understanding that you're going to need that librarian to take that complex information and make it clear.
Speaker: And that's something that AI cannot do. And even simply just figuring out how to integrate it within the workflow itself. 100%. many conversations I had with people that don't even know how to do just that simple process that a librarian can help you because they can help with the knowledge management side of it. Yeah. yeah And I'm sure that even though you were talking about in the context of the summit, I am quite certain this summer.
Speaker: at the annual meeting, we're gonna have maybe a couple of things that will talk to us about generative AI. So let's talk about the conference. Yeah, and just to that point, Katie, yeah we did listen to the evaluations that came from last year and um and and also the committee that puts it together. AMPC committee, all these acronyms i'm learning. i live there yeah want you get it pretty they They realized that there might be a little fatigue on the AI side. And so we didn't, ah they they were conscientious about the selections. um A lot of them came in, but we also realized that there's other things that needed to come forward and be addressed in the conference.
Speaker: Yeah. Our second episode, we did have Jenny come on and the chair. That was a good one too. I'm sorry I don't have that level of energy. No, that's okay. It was balancing act in more detail from how it was this year. So yeah, if people want to learn more about that process, come on back. And don't feel bad. Nobody has Jenny's amount of energy. Yeah. I don't even have any of my things.
Speaker: Gotta i love it. But all right, back to the annual meeting. i do have a question for you. So what are you most looking forward to as you prepare to connect with our members in person, right? I know we started this, you and I were chatting a little bit before and you said, you know, you've met a lot of members, but you've met them, you know, in the box of the virtual conversations. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to having one-on-one conversations and time um with with our members and and learning. ah A few of us from staff were able, our new partner for us is Legal Geek.
Speaker: And they just had their Legal Geek North America was here in Chicago. And Heather and ah and Chris and I went. And just to look at a different format of what we might be able to offer, maybe a little bit of a different format for our own annual conference, but also just to get, and so and some of our members were there. And then one of our members, Eugene, actually helped to um ah be a moderator for one of the roundtables.
Speaker: and just did a marvelous job. And and i'm looking for I'm looking forward to that, just listening to that peer-to-peer exchange of listening to our members really teach and engage eat one another and what they do day-to-day and how they can learn from one another. I'm i'm intrigued by it, and I i think i'm I'm excited to to to meet people. and and to the The people I've met the most have been the board because I've been to three but board meetings. but And just...
Speaker: Other members and and and committee members that I'm working with, very looking forward to it. That's exciting. The mayor of Chicago, Eugene Gita Jay. And on and it to his merit, on very short notice, ah Legal Geek came to us very short notice and gave us very little time. And he volunteered and put it together and did a marvelous job. And it was very well ah very well attended.
Speaker: and now I've been on a number of committees with Eugene. He always has great ideas. He does. I ate lunch with him beforehand. He has more ideas. love it I love it. I do. I love it. it um As Katie mentioned, we did talk to the energetic, Jenny and Kelly, which It was chairs awesome. Yeah. Chair of AMPC Kelly was amazing. And it was ah my opportunity to get a chance to, had met Kelly at a conference, but to get to speak to her. And I think that's the the great thing about the conference is that
Speaker: You get a little more intimate, build intimate relationships with people that you typically see inside the boxes virtually as well. And that's going to be super exciting. ah But for me, I wanted to get your perspective on.
Speaker: If there's someone who's still deciding whether or not to attend, what would you say about the ah value? And I think you kind of spoke to this of being in the room with colleagues, peers, vendors, speakers, and leaders from across the fish the profession, that in-person part, because I think it's going to be a first for you. What would you tell somebody who's on the fence about attending? Yeah, just that. And we hear it. We've heard it in the evaluations. it is the The number one thing that rises to the top after the quality of the education is the networking.
Speaker: And how you can learn in that peer-to-peer networking is more difficult to do on in a box, as Katie said. it's ah it's It's much easier to do and a roundtable or to listen to a panel and interact um much easier. And I think that they would be missing that dynamic.
Speaker: I'm not saying virtual training doesn't work. It does. But I think that and also sometimes it's really hard to separate when you're in your own office and you're learning virtually.
Speaker: You're still thinking about something over here that somebody is either dinging you on your computer or your phone's ringing or. someone's knocking on your door or walking past all of those things that are distractors.
Speaker: And sometimes you can shut that part down and you really can engage at a different level. And i that's what I would tell them. The engagement is just, it increases your engagement and it gives you maybe that respite from that day to day.
Speaker: And while you're learning things that will help you in your day to day. Yeah, I think really being present matters. just And um I know the AAAO Leadership Academy was recently where i and i I was, of course, I research everybody. So I was just looking on the page to try to find out more things about you outside your bayou. And I saw that you had spoke to the the group at the Leadership Academy. And I remember in 2020, of course, the pandemic year, that was the year I was in the Leadership Academy. And ah and I had attended the Management Institute. And I mean, it was another great thing. And I'll plug the Leadership Academy. The mentor I got, I just, I still have conversations with my mentor every month. So the A-A-O Leadership Academy.
Speaker: Academy, maybe two years away, but plugging it here was great and awesome. But I think ah that virtual experience was ah was good. and And we had to to pivot to that due to the pandemic. But being in person, being present um is is very important. So I absolutely 100% agree with you Interesting you should say about the mentors. We're up to 167 mentors pairs now. And from the leadership ah academy, the interesting thing for me for that is the evaluations. So 97% the attendees
Speaker: rated it as excellent or good So that tells you the the caliber that the staff put together for that, along with the facilitator. And just when I was over there, i and the first day i was I was asked to kick it off and i and and I got a chance to meet some of them. And the second day I brought the whole staff over.
Speaker: Because nothing it's so much better to meet someone when you're having to deal with them all the time. And so I think we got a ah lot of, and the staff felt the same way.
Speaker: And it's nice ah to see the next generation of leadership as well. That's awesome. That's amazing. Well, i know you've you've ah ah we had a great conversation today, I think.
Speaker: And I was, as I said, I was really looking forward to meeting you. I've heard nothing but great things about you as well that have been reaffirmed today. So I think to our listeners on the all in, hey, y'all, I'm bringing back a to this episode of who's on the fence about getting more involved, whether that's attending the conference, volunteering, or just engaging more with the community, now is a great time to step in. We have a great board place. We have a great new, great executive director. We have a great staff. we've i think we've established that today. so Now is a great time to step in, become more active. And and please, if if you can, and have the ability to attend the conference as well. 100% agree with everything that Andre has just said. And also, come on back. you know Next month, we're going to have our podcast number four. And you'll have to wait and see what we're going to talk about.
Speaker: yeah It is. And please... ah You know, reach out to us if you have ideas. I had the opportunity to go to SEAL, which is the chapter meeting of the Southeast. so Katie is very familiar with SEAL. Yes. Her neck of the woods and got great feedback about the podcast. But yeah, please reach out to Katie and I if you have ideas. We would love to, you know, continue to um have conversations like this, highlighting people, perspectives and ideas that move double A double O forward.
Speaker: Well, ah i know I'm speaking for certainly for the staff, but I'm also, I think, speaking for the board. We couldn't have picked two better hosts. ah thank so Thank you. Thank you. You've done just a marvelous job. And as I said earlier, before we got on, it you all sound like you've been doing this for years together. And it's a very nice plus for. So I'm very grateful both of you.
Speaker: He's very good at wrangling me. Katie Wrangler. that's my view handles and and but We're grateful for the opportunity. We have a blast. Thank you so much again for joining us. It's my pleasure.
Speaker: Thank you.
