DRI Central Regional Meeting
The Central Regional meeting was held in Cleveland on April 25-26 at the Ritz Carlton. Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia were all well represented. On Friday, James E. Lozier, the Central Regional Director, welcomed the attendees and DRI President, John H. Martin, provided an update on DRI and talked about the 2008 initiatives. Several topics were covered, including developing diverse SLDOs, ways DRI can help SLDOs, issues facing state judges and planning successful SLDO meetings. Peter J. Hersha, Ohio State Representative, Jose T. Brown, Michigan State Representative and Neva G. Lusk, West Virginia State Representative, all participated as panel members or moderators. Madelyne Lawry, Executive Director of the MDTA, Nancy Waterhouse, Executive Director of the OACTA, and Peggy Schultz, Executive Director of the DTCWV, also participated as panel members.
Attendees met for dinner at Vivo and the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel received a cake in honor of its 30th anniversary. James R. Kohl, MDTC's third President, spoke about the development and formation of the organization.
Saturday's session began with a presentation from the SLDO past presidents on leading a non-profit SLDO in the 21st century. Mary Massaron Ross, DRI board member and vice chair of the Annual Meeting Steering Committee talked about the 2008 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, October 22-26. Janice D. Lai, a DRI board member who served on the DRI Task Force on Women Who Try Cases, was a featured speaker.
The meeting concluded with a discussion about the 2009 Central Regional meeting, followed by the afternoon group social program, the baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees.
Ohio attendees included Kurt Anderson, Kevin Connell, Jim Gallagher, John Garvey, Gary Grubler, John Hands, Peter Hersha, Tim Johnson, Jim Kline, Gretchen Koehler Mote, Amy Mass, Paul McCartney, Jim McCrystal, Greg O’Brien, Abbey Joy Scholl, Jill Mercer, Anne Marie Sferra, Hilary Taylor and Nancy Waterhouse
View meeting photos |