BLSPI General Meeting Tomorrow, Aug. 30th at 1pm in Rm 603

Posted on August 29, 2011 by BLSPI

Welcome back, BLSPI Folks!

Hope you all had a great summer.  We have had quite a first week back to school (or a very anti-climactic one—either way).   Our first general meeting will be tomorrow at 1pm in room 603.  Please join us for lunch and a few important items to start off what will be a very busy and rewarding year of public interest on and off campus.  We will also have elections for a few positions, including a Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer, and the other Auction Chair.  Other positions, such as our two community development chairs and alumni relations chair, will be appointed this year based on interest and dedication to BLSPI.  We will explain this at the meeting.  Lastly, we will be appointing 1L representatives for these respective e-board positions to learn the ropes and get involved in the capacity they can as newbies.

Also, our new mentorship chairs, Cristina Lee and Sary Udashkin, are already underway to creating a wide-spread mentoring program for both 1Ls and upper-class students.  This year will host many new opportunities, not only to advise others but also to meet alumni and lawyers in various public interest fields.   In order to sign up as a mentor, please click on this link: http://bit.ly/BLSPI-MentorReg.  The process should not take very long at all.

Lastly, the Student Activities Fair will be this Thursday, Sept. 1st at 1pm, and we need some people to help table for BLSPI and advocate for our pro bono programs on campus.  If you are supposed to be at other tables, even a half hour would be appreciated!  Please email our secretary, Matt Allee at matthew.allee@brooklaw.edu to sign up for a time.

For all other questions and comments, please email blspi@brooklaw.edu.

Thanks, and see you tomorrow!

Meredith Symonds and Mike Berman
Co-Chairs

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PRO BONO ORG PICNIC FRIDAY 1PM

Posted on August 15, 2011 by BLSPI

Hi BLSPI Folks!

Hope you have all had a great summer, working hard and playing hard. We are gearing up for this coming school year, planning a lot of new programs and events, and would love you all to get involved in as much as you can, so keep an eye out for activities and our first big meeting of the semester.

Our annual picnic is going to be co-hosted this year with the other pro bono organizations on campus. This will take place this Friday, Aug. 19th, at 1pm in Brooklyn Bridge Park. At 12:45, we will meet the 1Ls at school in our brand new granite quad and walk them over to the park, touring the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood on our way.

If you would like to help out earlier or later than the walking tour, set-up and clean-up in the park are needed. Please contact blspi@brooklaw.edu to let us know what you would like to do. Otherwise, come grab a sandwich and hang out!

If you have graduated, you are VERY welcome to join.

See you soon!

Bar Study Grants for Graduating Students

Posted on April 7, 2011 by BLSPI

Hey Everyone,

BLSPI is extremely excited to announce a brand new program to help public interest graduates from BLS. Thanks to a very generous gift from the estate of the late Professor C. Edwin Baker of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, BLSPI will award 10 outstanding graduating students with a $1,000 stipend to help defray the costs of summer expenses and a Bar Review prep course.  It is our hope to be able to make this an annual program and to expand its size in the future. Download the application and cover sheet, and please be sure to carefully read through the the page of rules and restrictions regarding the grant program.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Michael Berman.

Applications are due by 5:00 P.M. sharp on Wednesday, April 27th. Late applications will not be considered.

Best of luck to all the applicants!

Bar Grant Application
Bar Grant Application Cover Sheet

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Reminders for April

Posted on March 31, 2011 by BLSPI

BLSPI Folks,

A few reminders for next week:

1) Brooklyn Law School Public Awards Ceremony and BLSPI Alumni Dinner is next Wednesday, April 6th at 6:30pm in the Subotnick Center. Come celebrate public interest at Brooklyn Law School and honor graduating students who have exemplified themselves in public service. We are very excited to have the Honorable Ramon E Reyes Jr. as our keynote speaker. Please RSVP to Danielle.sorken@brooklaw.edu

2) March Madness Viewing Party — $5 raffle tickets for Pieper Bar Gift Certificates, and proceeds go to Japan Relief Efforts! Monday April 4th, 8pm Student Lounge (game starts at 9).

3) Class and Clinic Mentoring Event: date, time and location TBA. Come speak with upperclassmen to get some perspectives about registering for classes, taking on internships, and creating the resume you want.

4) SBA Transition Dinner, April 21st, 7pm in Forchelli. Let’s welcome our new student leaders! Also, be sure to vote for BLSPI as best student group on campus.

Speaking of transition, congratulations to our newest board members!

Michael Berman, Co-Chair
Jess Rickards, Auction Chair
Rosa Cohen-Cruz, Fellowship Chair
Cristina Lee and Sary Udashkin, Mentorship co-chairs
Matthew Allee, Secretary

5) Outline Bank: email Steven Hasty with helpful outlines, and he will send you the password for BLSPI’s outline bank, which is located on the TWEN site.

Email blspi@brooklaw.edu with any comments or questions.

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Next General Meeting March 29th

Posted on March 21, 2011 by BLSPI

BLSPI Folks,

Hope you all had a good spring break and are finishing out the semester well. Thank you to all who helped and attended the Auction! It was a very successful night, and we are so glad to have some substantial funds for our programming. Also, Race and the Law last week went incredibly well and was an enriching educational experience because of everyone’s efforts and participation.

Our next general meeting will be Tuesday, March 29th at 1pm. The schedule says room 603, but that may change, so pay attention to the portal. We will make several announcements and will be holding elections for a few positions listed below. If you are interested in running, please send a campaign blurb by this Friday 5pm so that we can send out candidate info to our members before they vote on Tuesday.

Events for the next couple weeks:

  • April 4th: March Madness for Charity, 8pm Student Lounge Come watch the end of the Final Four and get a chance to win a Pieper Bar Certificate! Buy-in for final four and raffle tickets will go to relief efforts for Japan.
  • April 6th: Public Service Office Ceremony and BLSPI Alumni Dinner, 6pm Subotnick Come network with public service alumni and watch our graduating 3Ls receive their awards for all their hard work. RSVP by Friday, April 1st to danielle.sorken@brooklaw.edu

Position Descriptions for Elections:

Co-Chair: This position oversees the executive board, helps run BLSPI events, works with BLS administration, and performs various other tasks to fulfill BLSPI’s mission of helping students on campus pursue public service careers. This role requires 5-10 hours/week and certainly more during the last month before auction.

Fellowship Chair:

  • Maintain contact with all fellows and act as liaison between fellows and administration
  • Direct the selection of new fellows through the application, interview, and selection process
  • Fellowship chair must be a past BLSPI fellow, and preferably a member of a previous fellowship selection committee This is a position which will depend on a steady commitment throughout the next year. You’re expected to mentor incoming fellows and keep in contact with them throughout the summer about fellowship concerns. Then, you aid fellows in transitioning into a BLSPI leadership role. Time commitment is ~4 hours per month during the summer and fall semester, ~15 hours in application prep in January, and ~25 hours for selection weekend. The fellowship chair also orients incoming fellows at the end of next year. (Email leigh.mangum@brooklaw.edu for more information).

Mentorship Chair (at this time, not an e-board position, but subject change):

  • Encourage 1Ls, 2Ls and 3Ls students to sign up for the BLSPI mentorship program
  • Match and facilitate the meeting of upperclass mentors and 1L mentees (by planning a fellowship)
  • Stay in touch with mentors and mentees and mediate occasional scheduling conflicts and communication between them
  • Plan event preparing students for PILC Fair/summer job search
  • Time commitment is <5 hours prep over the summer, 10 hours matching students and planning fellowship mixer, <2 hours per month communicating, 10 hours planning PILC Fair prep event. (Email leigh.mangum@brooklaw.edu for more information).

Auction Chairs (2):

These roles require a steady commitment throughout the fall semester to communicate with donors, create support committees among BLSPI members, and plan for the day-of event. Spring semester will demand part-time hours, and then more during the couple weeks before auction, to ensure that donors are committed and school contacts-students and alumni- are aware of this wonderful event so that they can be ready to help this cause. For more information, contact michael.berman@brooklaw.edu or theresa.omansky@brooklaw.edu

Secretary: This job requires you to schedule monthly meetings and other BLSPI events through BLS Connect, make any technology arrangements for any BLSPI events, make food arrangements for the monthly meetings, and make flyers for each meeting and hang them in the school. It requires about 1.5 hours the week before a meeting, but other than that does not take any time unless there is an event that needs to be planned for, such as the auction, Race and the Law, etc. It takes a lot of communication with the Presidents and other members of the E-board, so mainly you just have to make sure you’re able to be reached through email most of the time.

Please contact blspi@brooklaw.edu with questions or concerns.

See you all Tuesday,

Meredith Symonds

Jesse Thompson

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Auction Success!

Posted on March 4, 2011 by BLSPI

Hi All,

I just wanted to write on behalf of the co-chairs to congratulate and thank all of you who helped us last night.

First of all, Mike Berman and Theresa Omansky probably slept a combined total of 30 hours last week, and their hard work absolutely showed through last night. Their never-ending dedication and tireless commitment to BLSPI is an outstanding example of what it means to care about a cause. Deeply, from all of us, thank you!

Next, I wanted to thank everyone else who helped us with any part of this process. From the people who canvassed and brought in our wonderful donations to people making sure guests got their coats by the end of the night, we really could not have done this without you. I was so impressed and honored to see so many people willing to dedicate so much time and energy to our organization’s most important event.

I spoke to so many people — students, faculty and alums — who praised our efforts. We put on a great show last night, and I want all of you to feel like it couldn’t have happened without you, because it actually couldn’t have. I got the chance to thank many of you last night, but I wanted a more public way to acknowledge everyone’s great work.

Because of our wonderful volunteers, we had one of the most successful auctions in our organization’s history. Thank you again and again, and enjoy this well-deserved week off!

– Jesse Thompson and Meredith Symonds, Co-chairs

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Auction Update

Posted on February 24, 2011 by BLSPI

Hey Everyone,

The lots for the auction have been posted. Check out the great collection of items that will be up for bid at the Auction on March 3. Ever wanted to know what it’s like to be a fighter pilot? Want to own a Fender guitar signed by the Pink Floyd guitarist Roger Waters? Ever wished you could feed the animals at the Bronx Zoo? Well we’ve got all that and so much more, and you’ll find it only at the BLSPI Auction!

Hope you all can be there next Thursday.

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ONE WEEK until the Auction!

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Jess

We will be tabling in the 4th floor dining room on Thursday 2/24 from 11am – 2pm. We will be selling advanced tickets to the Auction, passing out fliers, and generally hyping up the auction to all the passers-by. A few of you have signed up already to help that day. But, even if you have not, we would ask that, if you have time, please stop by to help out. The more the merrier. We’ll have all the supplies that you’ll need there for you when you get there.

We will also be doing this on Tuesday, March 1.

Facebook stuff: If you have not done so already, please RSVP to the facebook event for the Auction: http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=042aa78693ff1c6b54e4aca8cdda7877&#!/event.php?eid=129255567142475 And, please invite all of your friends from BLS (or elsewhere) also. And, while you’re at it, make sure that you “like” the BLSPI page as well.

OK, so from this point on, it’s “All hands on deck” around here. We need all of you there at the Auction, helping out in a variety of ways, to make this night the success that we all hope it will be.  But, before next Thursday, we’re going to have a series of meetings to talk about things. There will be two meeting, we need you to come to one of them. The first will be Monday 2/28 at 1pm in Room 603. The second will be Tuesday, 3/1 at 4pm in Room 503. Again, you only need to come to one.

At these meetings we will hand out and discuss the various jobs that we need you all to do at the auction. Below is a list of those jobs. If you have a preference please make note of it. Then click on this link: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=txmlhpKTOuUvq0m5nTB-C3Q&authkey=CKyP-KID#gid=0

Sing up on either the Monday or Tuesday sheet (tabs on bottom) based on your availability. Make note of your job preference if any. We will attempt to accommodate your preferences, but we obviously can’t guarantee anything. Also please note if you have any experience working in restaurants or catering (and how much).  And also please note what time you will be available on March 3.

JOBS:

Entrance Table- Selling wristbands at the entrance of Feil

Set-Up- Helping to set up downstairs and upstairs

Runner- collecting winning bidder information

Cashiers- Helping the treasurers handling the purchases

Bussers- Light clean up around the auction and food tables

Bartenders-  giving out beer/wine to guests

Clean-Up- stay and help carry items back to BLSPI office

Coat Check – check guests’ coats

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BLSPI Auction Update: The Home Stretch

Posted on February 9, 2011 by BLSPI

Hey Everyone!!

It’s pretty hard to believe, but the auction is right around the corner. It seems like just yesterday Theresa and Mike were sitting in a cafe in Tribeca having their very first discussions about how to make this year’s auction a great success. But, that was seven months ago, and now the auction is only three weeks away!

This semester so many of you have given your time and energy to ensure the success of the auction. Between the mailings, the canvassings, and the goody bag efforts, your efforts have already resulted in so many great donations, with more and more coming in every day. And, through graphic design, contacting professors, web design, mining through databases of past donors, working on publicity and social networking, or getting in touch with family and friends, it seems that everyone is finding some way to get involved. When you look at all the work that has been done, it’s hard not to feel enthusiastic about the auction!

But, this is no time to rest on our laurels. Not when we’re all so close to putting together an amazing event. And especially not when that event is just over three weeks away. So we’re asking you to join us down the home stretch for one final push to ensure that this auction turns out to be the wonderful success that we all know it can be.

Here’s what you can do to help:

  1. Publicity – We need folks to put up fliers all over campus. And we need people who can sit in the entrance to the cafeteria during lunch hours the week before the auction to talk up the auction and sell advanced tickets. So, if you’d like to help out this way, send us an e-mail. Or you can click on the link to the Google spreadsheet below and enter your name in the columns that fit your availability. We’ll get in touch with you. And, even if you can’t help out at any of these times, we still need you all to start talking up the event to your friends and classmates. Get people excited about attending!!! Remember: March 3, 7 P.M., Feil Hall, $15 admission for students which gets them lots of food and an open beer/wine bar.

    Lunch Hour Sign Up Google Doc (note: there are five separate pages to the spreadsheet, one for each day of the week).

  2. BLSPI Jeopardy – You may have noticed that you recently received an email from Professor Pitler announcing his jeopardy event. We’re responsible for making this event a success and we’re looking at is as an opportunity to promote the Auction and also sell some advanced tickets. We need some folks to help promote the Jeopardy event and to help set up the logistics. If this strikes your fancy, let us know.
  3. Last minute arrangements – Finally we’ll need everyone’s help as we get closer to the day of the auction. We’ll need people to do everything from picking up food and beer to arranging auction items so that they look pretty. And on the day of, we’ll need lots of help setting up Feil Hall for the Auction. We’ll be in touch again before that comes.

That’s all for now. Thank you all again for everything that you’ve done for the auction and we look forward to hearing from you about how you’d like to help going forward. We’re almost there. Let’s knock this baby outta the park!!

–BLSPI Auction Co-Chairs

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PILC Prep Tomorrow! 6-9PM in the Student Lounge

Posted on February 1, 2011 by BLSPI

Hello everyone,

This is a reminder of this tomorrow night’s PILC Fair/summer job prep event. Please join us from 6-9pm in the Student Lounge.

Please come if you are attending the NYU PILC Fair, have attended PILC Fair, are looking to secure a summer public interest job, or have worked a public interest job! Yes, that means you.

1Ls, feel free to bring a copy of your resume and/or cover letters; we’ll have upper-class students to give you feedback on them.

BLSPI will provide the refreshments.

Again, that’s tomorrow – Wednesday, February 2, from 6-9pm in the Student Lounge. We’re looking forward to it!

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