CAPA Committees & Special Projects
Which Committees Do What...?

Community Services Continuing Education (CLE) Job Bank Membership Programs

Publications Social Events Sustaining Members Liaison Volunteer Legal Services Clinics Web Team

Community Services ~ The Community Services Committee is the "heart" of the Association. This committee is charged with keeping us informed of charitable events & organizing interested members to participate. Past activities have included participation in walks for the women's shelters, the Book Fest, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, raising funds for KLRU, sponsoring "angels" at Christmas, to name but a few. It is the Community Services Committee that determines which associations will be the beneficiaries of CAPA's "Flower Funds" that we can contribute to at each luncheon meeting.

Continuing Education ("CLE") ~ The CLA Study Group is the responsibility of the Continuing Education Committee. Additionally, this committee is responsible for any special seminars the Association might sponsor (such as the CLA Study Seminar that we did last year), and any "Brown Bag" luncheons that might be presented. Continuing Legal Education (CLE) is so important for each of us -- it is imperative that we provide as much as we can to our members.

Job Bank ~ The Job Bank Coordinators are those we look to when, for whatever reason, we find that we are without a job or decide it is time to find a new one. It has been proven that two people can perform all the functions required to make this committee effective. The coordinators receive placement requests from legal employers in the area, gather resumes from interested members, and provide them to the employers. The ability to keep information confidential is essential.

Membership ~ The Membership Committee is responsible for everything regarding membership. The committee prepares and sends out the membership application on an annual basis. All applications and dues are received by the Membership Committee. The Membership Committee is also responsible for preparing the Association's directory, making it available to all members, and keeping it up to date -- no small feat! If we were to have any type of membership drive, the Membership Committee would be responsible for organizing it. For the past couple of years, this committee has actually been a "committee of one". However, it is a tremendous amount of work for just one person! (Just ask our last chairman in this position if you doubt...) We have not had a strong membership drive in several years -- mainly because that is something that does not have to be done, and when help is not available, this is something that can be eliminated. However, the Association can only benefit from an influx of new minds and new ideas.

Programs ~ The Programs Committee is responsible for our monthly meetings -- for obtaining the speakers, for preparing the reservation list and name tags for those in attendance, for checking us in at the meetings, and for introducing the speakers and drawing the door prizes. This committee has a lot of contact with people outside the Association, and has always been a wonderful representative of CAPA. This committee, probably more easily than any other committee, can include several members -- maybe one member can be responsible for the speaker, another for the reservations and name tags; or, it could be that one person is responsible for "everything" for one month, and then it passes to someone else for the next month. You can easily see that without this essential committee, we would have no monthly meetings and therefore no ongoing CLE.

Publications ~ The Publications Committee is responsible for the printing of our Association Newsletter -- The Brief. The Brief is designed to be a monthly publication -- mainly because there is just so much information to get out! This committee, too, has fallen into the hands of just one individual over the last couple of years -- and maybe that is why it is so difficult to fill. The publication of our newsletter cannot be done by just one person, unless that person has LOTS of time to dedicate to it and lots of patience! The gathering of articles, management of advertisements from our sustaining members, and the actual writing of the articles is a HUGE responsibility. We desperately need several members to step up and take charge of The Brief or it will cease to be a monthly publication.

Social Events ~ The Social Events Committee is our "party committee". This committee would organize, for example, any Christmas party or "Legal Assistant's Day" event that we have, or some other special social event like our new Happy Hours. Needless to say, this committee can get down & have some FUN!

Sustaining Members Liaison~ The Sustaining Members Liaison is charged with educating our members regarding the wonderful services offered by our Sustaining Members and making it easier for the Association's members to "connect" to the right Sustaining Member so that good legal services can be provided. Our Sustaining Members are wonderful supporters of CAPA, and they provide the services we need -- they make copies, take depositions, obtain medical records, perform investigations, make court exhibits, make/edit video tapes, help fill job vacancies -- they make it possible for us to do our jobs & to do them well.

Volunteer Legal Services Clinics ~ Volunteer Legal Services and Legal Aid of Central Texas provide legal services for those who cannot afford them in the Austin area. The Austin evening clinics perform initial client interviewing and take-in forms work. CAPA's "ad hoc task force" of volunteers joins the VLS evening clinics on Monday and Wednesday evenings. CAPA's volunteer liaison has been singularly dedicated to this program for many years, has been personally responsible for many volunteer hours logged toward pro bono work, and has proven long term to be an excellent representative for CAPA and for those who care in the Austin legal community. This "committee" (volunteer group) offers the opportunity (for only 2 hours a month of your time) to use your legal and interviewing skills to really help those who most desperately need our community's legal services.

Website Team ~ A recently developed area, CAPA's website is constantly undergoing revisions and modifications. The volunteer "Web Team" is responsible for not only updating the content with current materials, calendar dates, and general content, but also for developing the new areas and web pages as the need arises. CAPA's intent is to provide an online presence and resource which will help you do your legal job, as well as providing general and specific information from CAPA, its projects and programs, news, legal services... and so much more. For this website to be the service that CAPA envisions CAPA members will need to actively provide input and news and points of interest for the website to make it the voice of its member paralegals.