|
|
| |
|
A New Year and Beginnings
|
| |
 I hate goodbyes – especially long ones. I'm not referring to the fact that my term is more than half over. Nor am I intimating that I plan to spend the next five months counting down the end of my special year. I have already chosen to ignore that inevitable conclusion – including the part when I'll have to relinquish that coveted reserved space in our new and substantially improved parking lot!
The farewells that I dread are to beloved people and places that have long been a significant part of our lives. Unfortunately, though, that too is inevitable. And so it is that in the coming months we will be saying goodbye to our cherished Executive Director Dr. Deena Ehrlich. |
| |
| Deena has been with us for more than 25 years. She is the quintessential executive director – a stellar professional in guaranteeing and safeguarding our position as the apex of bar associations. And she's done it for over a quarter of a century! Times change. People change. Deena never has in her steadfast enthusiasm, direction and dedication for and to our Nassau County Bar Association. |
| |
| Deena has helped groom and assist 25 presidents through their terms at the helm of this association. Since I am the 109th, that means she's been there for almost one-fourth of all of the NCBA's leaders – probably half of the presidents some of you have elected. And Deena has effectively adapted to and served each and every one of us, above and beyond the call of duty! |
| |
| Deena's been there to guide us, and as an invaluable resource for us all. Not just in terms of our organization and our profession, but personally, as well, like family – and always will be. I probably don't have to tell you that Deena has literally taken the hand of every one of "her" presidents more than once – I'm sure she has done the same for many of you – and guided, celebrated or comforted us through good times and bad. She's told us when and where we've needed to be, and placed whatever tools and materials were necessary in our arms. She's hugged us when the NCBA has been honored with an award, and upon the christening, bar/bat-mitzvah or marriage of our children. She's cried with us through professional and personal challenges, tragedy and loss. Always. For all of us at the NCBA. |
| |
| Priceless. Particularly because Deena's been able to do this despite the annual changing of the guard. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment – to have survived each and every one of us! Everyone at Domus knows that Deena is the key to survival. But you don't really appreciate the depth of it until you become president. |
| |
| Deena does it all and she does it for us. She's a tough act to follow, and I wouldn't want to have to fill her shoes. But we do, in the coming months, as we search for our next executive director, since no one can ever replace Dr. Deena Ehrlich. |
| |
| This new year will be bittersweet. It will be filled with mixed emotions for all of us, and for Deena. But as they say, whenever one door is closed, another is opened. And so it will be for this great Bar Association which she has helped cultivate into the epitome of outstanding professional organizations, and for Deena as she enters a new phase of her life. The time has come – she's earned and deserves to thoroughly enjoy life and her family, to the same extent she's been ours – 24/7 ! |
| |
| A new year. Beginnings .... |
