President's Message 
Hello and Happy Summer NCBC members!
It seems that we have had an unusually long winter this year here in Chicago. We had snow at the end of April and going into the Memorial Day weekend our temps only hit a high of 59 degrees. Oh to be back in California where it’s been hot and dry!
Let me first address the issue with our hotel situation in San Antonio. I personally told many of you that we would be able to accommodate as many folks as we wanted in San Antonio at the Grand Hyatt property because it has 1,000 rooms and we would be able to grow the room block as needed. Up until the beginning of April I still thought this was the case. Unfortunately, a rather large group (18,000 people) decided to have their conference the same week and gobbled up our overflow space in the Grand Hyatt. While I am quite disappointed and apologize that we were not successful in delivering on this promise, please understand that when we negotiate the contract, the NCBC is responsible to fill the room blocks. If we don’t fill them up to our contract percentage (80% is normal) then we have pay for these rooms anyway. Two years ago we had no idea how the Clerk’s offices would be staffed, nor if there would be any funding available from the courts to send employees to the conference. As it turned out, neither was an issue, but we played this one on the conservative side given the uncertainty that was prevalent when the contract was negotiated. In future years I think the reality of having more than one hotel will be the rule rather than the exception because of our size. We have approximately 500 people registered for the San Antonio conference already. Aside from the hotel situation, the education agenda is fantastic and our host court is working hard to make this another excellent conference!
I am also excited to report that our members who have participated in the MSU program from its inception will be eligible to graduate in 2009 if they have completed all course requirements. One issue that has come up is that many of our members have not paid MSU for the courses. If you are one of these members, please try and rectify this situation at your earliest convenience. Some may graduate earlier if they accelerated their course content, like April Colling did last year, but most who started the first year will graduate in 2009. We plan on having a special ceremony for this graduation, so please mark your calendars for the next conference in St. Petersburg, FL. at the Vinoy Resort. The dates are June 29 – July 2, 2009.
Nominations are now open for our Vice-President/President Elect, Treasurer, and two Board Member seats. Nominations must be received by June 2, 2008 and can be sent to Therese Buthod, Clerk of the Oklahoma Eastern Bankruptcy Court at Therese_Buthod@okeb.uscourts.gov.
And finally, I would like to mention the International Association of Court Administration conference that Mark Hatcher and I attended in Dublin, Ireland from April 21-23. This is a newer association whose charter is to try and help out other countries to implement the rule of law and provide assistance and guidance in that endeavor. Mark has written an article that covers the highlights in this Impact edition, so please take a moment and find out more about the conference.
Here’s hoping that I see the first 80-degree day here in Chicago before June!
Kenneth S. Gardner
President, NCBC