Executive Director’s Message by Karen A. Gould Let’s Put Things in Perspective With numerous members , committees, sections, a governing body of eighty-one members, a staff of 100 and status as a state agency and an arm of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Virginia State Bar is a complex organization subject to stringent state administrative requirements, state and federal law, the US and Virginia Constitutions, and competing de-mands of its many constituents. The staff labors to meet the needs of more than 45,000 members of the VSB. Technology is helping to address those needs, if members will use the online tools provided. Online certifi cation of attendance at MCLE courses provides immediate updating of your MCLE records. You can pay your dues online if you pay with a credit card. The bar pays the merchant fee and does not charge it back to you as a “convenience fee.” The VSB Information Technology staff recently instituted an online service for members to pay MCLE late fees and penalties. You can now register for many VSB meetings and events online. You can update your address of record online and avoid missing an important deadline, such as the dues deadline. These tools will help us keep costs down at the VSB. We need your coop-eration to keep costs down. Nobody wants dues to go up. One thing that is going to go up are bar staff salaries, and that is a good thing. People cannot work on praise and encouragement alone. They have families and rising costs, just as you do. State salaries have been sup-pressed for almost ten years. Here’s the history of state salary increases in the Commonwealth of Virginia between 2008 and 2016: • 2008: No salary increase • 2009: No salary increase • 2010: No salary increase • 2011: No salary increase 1 • 2012: No salary increase • 2013: 2 percent salary increase and a $65/year compression adjustment for employees with fi ve or more years of continuous state service. Raise effec-tive July 25, 2013. • 2014: No salary increase • 2015: 2 percent salary increase and a $65/year compression adjustment for employees with fi ve or more years of continuous state service. Raise effec-tive August 10, 2015. • 2016: No salary increase Two 2 percent raises between 2008 and 2016 were not adequate to meet the needs of commonwealth employ-ees to address rising costs nor compen-sate them for their services compared to the private marketplace. There has been much recent media discussion about the problems with Virginia state salaries, and the General Assembly has tried to address the issue in the 2017 session by awarding a 3 percent salary increase that will occur on July 10, 2017. The problem with a salary increase is that it increases expens-es and, therefore, will decrease the bar’s reserve. The VSB’s expenses are not static. They keep going up, while its income remains level. When no reserve remains to offset expenses over revenue, how will the VSB meet the challenge of balancing its budget? The choices are limited: (1) eliminate expenses by eliminating programs and services; (2) layoff staff; (3) increase dues. The staff of the Virginia State Bar works hard every day to keep costs down. Help us to help you by certify-ing your MCLE hours online, keeping your address of record current by going online to make any changes, and paying your dues promptly after July 1. Don’t hesitate to contact me at gould@vsb.org if you have questions or suggestions. Endnotes: 1 There was a 5 percent increase in salary effective June 25, 2011, neces-sitated by the requirement that state employees begin paying the 5 percent member contribution on a pre-tax salary reduction basis effective June 25, 2011. This offset was not a true salary increase. 10 VIRGINIA LAWYER | April 2017 | Vol. 65 www.vsb.org