Message from Jennifer Breech Rhoads, 20th president of the Ohio Women’s Bar Association
The following is an excerpt from a speech given at the 2011 OWBA’s Women’s Forum & Annual Meeting by incoming president Jennifer Breech Rhoads.
Today most associations are in a race for relevance. The track is fast and associations are at risk of falling seriously behind or even dropping out completely. Increased competition, shrinking revenue sources, technology, higher member expectations and changing markets are all significant and permanent changes to the fundamental association structure.
While most associations just soldier on – governing and communicating the same way, and delivering the same service--OWBA is growing.
Under the leadership of my predecessors, association membership has increased, and increased dramatically, in a few short years. Under Valoria Hoover’s leadership alone, OWBA membership has increased by nearly 60 percent – 60 percent growth in membership in one year. Now that is truly remarkable. In 1991, the association’s three founders, along with 26 other dynamic women lawyers, formed the Ohio Women’s Bar Association. Today, the OWBA proudly serves more than 500 women lawyers across Ohio.
Why is the OWBA growing while other professional associations struggle to survive? The answer is simple. The Ohio Women’s Bar Association remains as relevant today as it was in 1991.
We all know the number of women entering law school has grown so that women now account for almost half of law school graduates. Yet the line tracking women’s share of leadership roles follows a straighter downward path as the potential to assume a leadership role rises.
Take for example, The White House Project Report: Benchmarking Women’s Leadership, issued in late 2009. The White House Project surveyed the current state of women’s leadership in 10 different fields – from military to journalism, to business and politics--to establish an understanding of where women are and to learn where we need to go from here.
According to The White House Project, at the very top of the legal sector, women have made no progress at all in 15 years. Ladies and gentleman, I am one of the many women in this room who have practiced law for nearly the same length of time – 15 years – and I find this fact remarkable.
According to the report, across the board in all fields, the key to true transformation is advancing a critical mass of women in leadership, so that we can all move on from gender to agenda. The report, however, also offered a series of specific recommendations for each of the fields surveyed, including the legal profession.
To name a few – the profession was urged to:
- Improve access to support networks for women;
- Help talented women balance work and family demands;
- Provide better mentoring opportunities for women;
- Include women in professional networks;
- Improve awareness of latent stereotypes about women; and
- Help gatekeepers understand women can be just as competitive, powerful and willing to meet strenuous demands as their male colleagues.
The OWBA has been devoted to promoting the interests and progress of women lawyers for more than two decades now, and offers members educational programs, publications, opportunities to network, and of course, opportunities to lead. More so than any other statewide trade association, the OWBA affords those opportunities viewed as to “key” to closing the leadership gap for women lawyers, and then some. That’s because at the OWBA advancing opportunities for women lawyers across Ohio is our sole priority.
Even after two decades, our focus remains unfaltering: We serve the needs of our members. The OWBA is your association, and we are here to serve your needs today and every day.
Yet as we read the newspaper, scan our favorite blog, or watch the TV news, we are assaulted by a constant flow of signals that the world is changing. Think for a moment about how advances in the Internet and social networks alone are transforming how we communicate with one another.
The world around us is truly changing at an unprecedented rate. So should your expectations for your trade association. The OWBA has changed. And, the OWBA will continue to change. The only constant is change. Change for the better. Change to better serve your needs.
In the coming year, my focus will be ensuring OWBA better serves the needs of our current members, and is properly positioned to continue growing at an aggressive pace. To achieve these goals, we must communicate, collaborate and connect.
Communicate with OWBA. Reach out and share your thoughts. What’s important to you? What’s not? What do you need to move forward in your career? What can we do better to serve your needs?
Collaborate with OWBA. How can we partner with you? Who else should we work with? How can you maximize your talents and skills to maximize OWBA?
Connect with OWBA. How can we build a stronger relationship with you? How can we ensure you feel connected to the association and to women lawyers across Ohio?
Make your voice heard with your association. Tell us where you want us to go and lend us a helping hand to get us there. Together, OWBA can be the home for all who support our mission to advance opportunities for women lawyers across Ohio.
The future is in our hands, and collectively we can make a difference. Without question we are stronger by association.
