WORKERS' COMPENSATION SECTION 2006 ANNUAL REPORT
2006 Section Activities:
1. 
Executive Committee Meetings
Monthly Section Executive Committee meetings were held, with the exception of July, and September, 2005 due to a lack of a quorum. Minutes of each meeting have been submitted to the Oregon State Bar in accordance with the Section Bylaws. The Minutes were taken by Holly J. Somers, Secretary, and can be accessed on the Section's Website.
2.Annual Meeting
The Section's 24th Annual Meeting was held on May 19, 2006 at the Salishan Lodge at Gleneden Beach, Oregon. The meeting is coupled with a two-day CLE, which was held on May 19-20, 2006. This CLE was, as usual, very well-attended by both sides of the bar, judges and Board members. The CLE was approved for 8.5 MCLE credits. The program included one elimination of bias credit and one ethics credit. The program included various legal and medical speakers covering topics relevant to practitioners on both sides of the Bar.
3.Bench/Bar CLE
The Section also sponsored a Bench/Bar Ethics CLE on November 17, 2006. The CLE was held at the Willamette Valley Vineyards in Salem, Oregon. The conference covered three hours of discussion regarding ethics as it relates to the practice of workers' compensation law. The seminar was once again very well attended and was approved for 3.00 ethics credits. This seminar, which included lunch, was provided free of charge to members.
4.Executive Committee Officers and Members for 2005
The section membership elected officers and executive committee members for 2007 at the 2006 Annual Meeting held at Salishan Lodge. Terms of office for these members start January 1, 2007:
Officers for 2007: Committee Members for 2007:
Linh Vu, ChairGeoffrey Wren, ALJ
Holly Somers, ALJ, Chair-ElectDean Lederer
Matthew Roy, Secretary Marcos Thesing
Meg Carman, TreasurerJennifer Roumell
Martin Alvey, Past ChairArthur Stevens, III
Chuck Mundorff
ALJ Jill Reichers
Julie Masters
Matthew Fisher
Rob Guarassi
Mustafa Kasubhai, WCB Member
5.Executive Standing Committees:
Legislative
Rules
Professionalism
Race/ethnic
Salishan CLE
Communications
Douglas Daughtry Award of Merit
These committees met on an as needed basis throughout 2006.
2006 Section Activities
1. The Executive Committee will continue with monthly meetings held in accordance with the Section Bylaws.
2. The standing committees will continue to meet on an as needed basis to function with the following general goals:
Legislative: Monitor proposed and potential legislation; give advice to the committee regarding the advisability of proposed legislation, and review current workers= compensation laws to keep the committee apprised of new developments.
Rules: Monitor proposed and potential rules under the Board and Department; advise the committee regarding the advisability of proposed rules; and review the current rules of the Board and the Department in consideration of suggestions for the improvement of current rules.
Professionalism: Advance the interests of section members by sponsoring seminars and programs dealing with professionalism and ethics; consider means by which the Section can improve relations between the membership and those providing services to injured workers and employers, clients and members of the public. The goal for 2007 is to put on at least one Bench/Bar ethics CLE at Willamette Valley Vineyards.
Race/Ethnic: Identify means by which the Section can facilitate the use of the workers= compensation forum by practitioners and members of the public; Educate lawyers, judges and those providing services to injured workers and employers regarding the potential impact of cultural differences upon use of the workers= compensation system.
Salishan/CLE: Plan and coordinate the annual section business meeting and CLE. The section voted to hold the 2007 annual meeting/CLE at Salishan Lodge. Sally Curey has agreed to chair the subcommittee and the committee already has the process of planning the 2007 event largely completed.
Communications: Monitor the development and production of the Section Website, the Section Newsletter, and continue efforts in getting relevant practice information to all section members. The Section thanks Julie Masters for her work in keeping the website up to date.
Douglas Daughtry
Award Committee: This committee is made of the most recent three past section chairs and meets to make recommendations to the full committee on the merit of nominations for the award. This committee will begin meeting in January, 2007 to start accepting nominations and making recommendations to the full committee for the award, which, if given, will be presented at Section's Annual Meeting at Salishan in May, 2007.
3. Proposed Legislative Changes: None at this time.
4. Proposed Rule Changes: None at this time.
2007 Budget:
The 2006 Section budget was presented to the committee via e-mail as Section Treasurer, Matthew Roy could not be in attendance for the November meeting. The budget was approved by the Executive Committee membership by an e-mail vote and was submitted directly to the Board of Governor=s Budget and Finance Committee for its approval.
Dated: December 4, 2006.
Chairperson, Workers Compensation Section
