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ATXConnect - September 2020

President's Message

September was a great month!

We had a wonderful game night with members and business partners organized by Summer and Angela! During that game night I leaned that I am not a gifted painter and I am not that great on answering trivia questions… However, I still had lots of fun! Hope you can join us next time we are having event for our members and business partners. Even though most people are “Zoomed out” it is still nice to see a friendly face of the fellow ALA member and business partner.

Also in September, our chapter sponsored Austin chapter members that attended the one day Lemonade Conference webinar. The best part of September – we have few new members that joined our Chapter. So exciting that during this unusual times we are still growing!

What are we planning to do in the next couple of months? Book club starts in October, we will continue our virtual roundtable where you can come with a specific question or just hang out with your ALA friends, our Education committee has great virtual lunch & learns for the next couple of months, ALA is putting on a Virtual Master Class (https://www.alanet.org/events/2020-events/ala-master-class-critical-skills-for-legal-management-success) and, most importantly, our ALA board is here for you. Please always feel free to contact us for a great solution or if you just want to talk.

Hope everyone stays safe and healthy.

All best wishes,

Ana Helton

President

Austin Chapter of the ALA

Items of Interest

LAST CALL FOR Organization Pricing - SEPTEMBER 30TH DEADLINE!

Organizational Pricing is a dues model that’s based on the total number of attorneys across an entire organization, including all office locations in any country. It delivers better value for organizations of all sizes and offers the new ability to extend ALA membership to all legal management professionals who can benefit from ALA’s resources — without any additional dues payment required.

To learn more, go to:

https://www.alanet.org/membership/organizational/

Enabling the Law Firm of the Future

Upcoming ALA Webinars

Business Partner Spotlight

Check out this article from ala austin business partnerS, shepard & walton!

The Challenges of Bringing Employees Back to Work

Member Spotlight

Getting to Know Stacey Ransleben

I come from a large, loud, and fun family. We pick on each other and love to have a good time. We are there to celebrate the good times and help each other through the bad. I love them all and would not be the person I am today without them. When we all get together, there is a whole lot of us, and just thinking about them makes me smile. I am very fortunate to have such supportive and loving people in my life.

I am a native Texan, was born in Austin, and grew up in Corpus Christi. My mom is an award-winning educator and my stepfather was a business owner; my dad is a CPA and my stepmother runs an ISD education foundation. When I was 12, I moved to Houston with my brother and my mother, and we have been here ever since. I am a believer in “home is where the heart is” and right now, that’s Houston.

Being the daughter of professionals, two of whom owned professional services firms, I grew up understanding the intricacies of running a private firm. This particular experience has been the most valuable asset to my being an administrator today. It is natural for me to consider both sides – employee and employer.

With over three decades of experience working for attorneys at three different law firms, I have earned the seat at the table I have with my current firm, Thompson & Horton LLP. The lawyers are demanding and incredibly interesting to work with, and I would not trade it for the world. I love what I do. The best thing about being a legal administrator is the constant evolution of knowledge. I love to learn and have come a long way since I first started.

People always ask about goals. I usually respond with, if I had goals, I would know what I wanted to be when I grew up. The truth is that I do have goals. I want to be President of ALA. I have held chair and board positions with the Houston Chapter, among other positions, and currently serve on the Chapter Resource Team. I want to continue doing public speaking which I am now doing with a speaking partner. I want to be the best administrator I can be. I want to be the friend I see in my friends.

We all have a bucket list. A bucket list is goals, of a sort, and it is something I work on every single day. Tomorrow may or may not come. Yesterday is gone. So, I live each day the best I can and enjoy all that it has to offer. That also means not believing in “someday” – code for never. That is a paraphrase of a line from a movie Knight and Day. I am a big movie buff and would go to the movies almost every Sunday morning. I look forward to being able to do that again in the future.

When the CRT members were introduced in 2019, there was a picture of me with a bright orange Camaro. That is my fifth Camaro. I love them. My father is a Corvette enthusiast and I learned to love a good, classic American muscle car. My favorites are from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Travel and reading are two of my passions. I have been to 42 states including Alaska and Hawaii. I have also traveled to several places in the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, and Europe. Italy was home. My last trip in 2019 was to Amsterdam and the Texas ALA members and several business partners managed to sneak in the Texas State-Wide Retreat before we all got grounded in 2020. Pass the marinara! (Read Just the Facts from August 20^th for the reference.) Greece, Russia, Ireland, Germany, and Costa Rica are on my list of must see, and I will also make it to the remaining 8 states.

Para-romance novels really do it for me. They are a nice departure from reality, and I call them brain candy. Ever since I was a kid, I have had a thing for vampires. Throw in a werewolf, an elf, and a fairy or two, and it’s a party! Yes, I did work at the Texas Renaissance Festival for over 30 years.

Years ago, someone asked me if I had a motto and every time I think about it, I still come up with the same thing. I see Tim Curry in Three Musketeers as Cardinal Richelieu saying, “It can be arranged!”.

I live by two simple things: The Golden Rule and the Serenity Prayer.

SRCollesium

Calling All Members

don't forget to connect to your austin chapter members on our weekly zoom calls!

Wednesdays at noon- we want to see your smiling faces!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

The next Managing Partner Breakfast will take place on Thursday, February 11, 2021. James Robbins will be our speaker. Mr. Robbins was scheduled to speak to us this year but was unable to make it.