REGIONAL REPORT cont.
The keynote speaker was one of our own – Jay Hamilton-Roth – a presently seated juror in Marin. Jay’s stated topic was “How to Use Social Media” in the furtherance of the Civil Grand Jury system, Chapters and the CGJA. During his presentation, he said almost nothing on the topic. Instead he focused on “telling your story” as opposed to how to disseminate it. His premise was that if you don’t make the story personal, no amount of social media exposure of any type will make the message reach the people. One person at the end of the discussion summarized the presentation by saying: “You didn’t tell us a thing about what we asked but everything about what we really needed to know.” (Candidly, my post Regional reviews were EXTREMELY positive from just about everyone and will surely merit an additional, more, more detailed session with Jay if he is willing.) Following lunch CGJA directors updated the attendees on the status of the CGJA Board and Committees. That completed, a birthday cake was then presented and devoured by all in attendance. In closing, the group once again agonized over the issue of to-have or not-to-have our next Regional in November. The issue is that the annual Conference occurs early in November and some are concerned that our attendees would not attend the conference if they can get a full accounting at the Regional. For the 5th time in a row, the attendees voted to have the November Regional as well as re-nominating Mike and Leslie as co-hosts in November.