DISHING on the Florida Bar

Voluntary Bar Leaders Conference

Generally each month, I write The Dish about a great local restaurant. Very few times have I strayed from this approach. But when it is called for, I do make the call and stray away. With that, welcome to The Dish: Conference Edition!

Each year, I attend the Florida Bar Voluntary Bar Leaders Conference (VBLC). It is held all throughout the state of Florida during July each year, typically a few weeks after the Florida Bar Annual Convention.

More casual than most, this conference is designed to be a comfortable and candid environment where executive directors and bar leaders can be in rooms with their peers and ask questions without any judgement. The conference hosts about 250 attendees each year, as well as many vendors from all over Florida who want face time with voluntary bar association (VBA) leaders.

There are a variety of breakout sessions and main sessions where leaders from both The Florida Bar and the VBA world speak with and to conference attendees to help further our education. They share tips and ideas about how to grow membership, maintain budgets, gain sponsorships and manage in a way that best suits members’ needs.

This conference has proved invaluable for me during the past five years that I have served LCBA members as executive director. This is also sometimes where I meet sponsors for our very own voluntary bar! I even had the opportunity to get some questions answered by my friend and The Florida Bar President Scott Westheimer.

Stepping Up to Serve & Lead

The planning and execution of this conference are a huge undertaking for the chair, vice chair(s) and Florida Bar staffer, Jeff Doran. To give back, I have deliberately stepped up more and more each year to assist with hosting this event.

This year, I was asked to speak along with John Kynes, a fellow executive director from the Hillsborough County Bar Association, as well as Katie Gilden, a CPA from Broward County with COO of Fiske Forensic Accounting. Speaking is beyond an honor at this conference, and I have been lucky to have spoken at two of them now!

There are always familiar faces each year as we gather. But this year, there were also several new faces as various boards changed over. I highly encourage anyone who wishes to seek a leadership role in the LCBA, YLD or any other similar organization in the legal world to attend this annually.

The ideas that come from this conference each year prove to be some of the best!

I am an advocate for constant learning. One of my catchphrases is “always be learning,” and that applies to life – but also in any business setting. No matter how experienced you are in your field, there is always an idea you have not had yet. Sometimes it takes hearing one idea to blast off an event, a case or the like, and make it successful. Being around passionate VBA people at this event each year renews my passion for the LCBA.

The ideas, comradery and face time with statewide Florida Bar governors, president, president elect and president-elect candidates are fun. It also provides me an opportunity to remind them of the community in Lee County and the Twentieth Circuit.

If you are not aware, the only candidate up for the role of Florida Bar president for the 2025-2026 Florida Bar year is Sia Baker Barnes, Florida Bar governor. I met her a few years ago at the VBLC and have since seen her at each and every VBLC and Florida Bar Annual Convention since. I say this to show you that my attendance at these events on behalf of LCBA ensures that you are known to each and every county, circuit and affinity bar, which can potentially lead to your victory!

By Alan Zagier