President's Message 
Hello and Happy New Year! As we entered the last quarter of 2007, some interesting developments occurred that required NCBC board action. We actually had to make two decisions, each tied to one another. Let me explain.
Many of you know Jim De la Torre. Jim has worked with the NCBC for years through his former company, Gallagher Benefit Services (GBS). You know him because of the financial planning and retirement classes he has conducted. Many of you might be unaware of the business relationship we have with our broker, GBS. Thru GBS, we have been able to offer our dental, long term care and disability insurance programs. Because we are the sponsoring association, we receive a small “royalty” when someone signs up for these benefit programs. The board determines how this money should be spent on various business needs of the association. One example is the decision to sponsor three free retirement and financial planning seminars to local courts per year.
In October, 2007, Jim voluntary separated with GBS and moved to another insurance and benefits company, Andrieni and Company. Once the board learned of this event, Jim was contacted to see if the NCBC could continue to do business with him. Initially, it was thought that we could switch brokers to Andreini and continue with our long standing relationship with Jim. GBS thought otherwise, and successfully obtained a temporary restraining order against Jim and Andreini that did not allow the transfer of our business. A preliminary injunction was issued at a hearing in November, which will remain in place until the case is either settled or proceeds to trial.
Although the board made the initial decision to follow Jim to Andreini, we remain with Gallagher as the broker for our insurance and benefit programs. GBS has presented a business plan to the board and we plan to continue to act in a manner that is transparent to our members, except that you will no longer see Jim presenting these classes.
The board held numerous conference calls to discuss and resolve this issue. Our main goal was to keep the interest of the association and its members as the guiding force behind these decisions. The insurance programs that we currently offer will be ongoing and you will not see a disruption of service. GBS is also working to launch the life insurance program that was mentioned at the annual conference in Seattle. We still hope to have this program available sometime in the spring of this year.
While I am personally saddened by Jim’s departure, GBS is one of the largest insurance and benefit companies in the nation and we have successfully worked with them over the last ten years. We plan to continue this partnership, which I can assure you both sides want and need very much.
As we move into 2008, we will continue to provide the retirement and financial planning seminars at the annual conference and to local districts. Through the business plan that GBS has developed, we will also see more resources available on line to answer questions and address issues. Our hope is that you will be personally unaffected by this change, and that we will continue to build upon the past successes to provide opportunities to our members that they cannot receive elsewhere.
On another front, the Administrative Office pulled together an ad-hoc group to discuss the next generation CM/ECF system for the Bankruptcy Courts. Mark Hatcher and I attended this meeting in December along with other Judges, Clerks, a Systems Manager and AO representatives. We discussed the planning necessary for the development of a new system and used the paper develop by our CM/ECF committee last year as the starting point for discussions on a new system. It was an excellent meeting and we are in the process of developing and refining a plan to determine how to make it happen. This was a major goal of the NCBC last year and I am happy to report that we were successful in beginning this discussion.
Kenneth S. Gardner
President, NCBC