What was an endearing eccentricity in a friend and gentleman like John Madigan back then is not nearly so endearing, however, all these years later in my fellow members of the ISBA. Their failure to use e-mail and to access the ISBA'S Web site on the Internet perpetuates expenses which must be borne, in part, by the dues I must pay to be a member of the ISBA.
I happened to note the other day that the minutes of a meeting of the Committee on Legal Technology (which had previously been e-mailed to all interested parties) were subsequently also mailed to each interested party as well. It occurred to me that one mailing cost the Association about $15 in postage alone – not counting the paper, envelopes, copying and labor used to created the mailing. Every time the Association must mail out a notice of meeting, rather than rely on committee members to access the ISBA Web site to obtain (at no cost) precisely the same information, it wastes a frightful amount of money in postage, paper, envelopes, copying and labor. Newsletters and other publications of the Association can be posted to the ISBA Web site, available to all subscribers, instantaneously and without cost. Why do we have to continue to print them and mail them, all at great cost to the Association and its members?
E-mail is fast (instantaneous, in most cases), cheap (no paper, no envelope, no postage) and convenient (incoming mail sits there until you turn on your computer and choose to read it). Almost any old computer can be used for sending and receiving e-mail, and there are companies that will supply you with the necessary software and the online service FREE OF CHARGE. For those who might not be adept at using a typewriter keyboard, there are even software programs that translate the spoken word into the written word for transmission by e-mail. I can't think of one valid excuse that should keep any Illinois lawyer from signing on to an e-mail account right now. If someone would like to do it but just doesn't know how to begin, contact your Committee on Legal Technology, and we'll try to see to it that you get the help and the training you need.
Internet access allows the Association to post information of both general and specialized interest to its Web site [http://www.isba.org/]. There it becomes instantaneously available to all members (and others all around the world) at no cost. Potentially, hundreds of thousands of dollars in paper, envelopes, postage, copying and labor that is otherwise expended mailing that same information to thousands of members at regular intervals could be saved each year.
What I have said has been said with a sense of fellowship and good humor. But I firmly believe what I have said. All ISBA members must realize that the time has come to move up to electronic, online communications. For those who could do so but will not, I say: "Are you nuts? Get e-mail and Internet access or before long the day will come when you will no longer be entitled to expect to regularly receive any other forms of communications from this Association!"
