1. Participate in Forum Programs.
The Forum typically begins planning its national programs roughly 18 months in advance. Proposed outlines are vetted through an exhaustive review process aimed at ensuring that topics are fresh and written materials are both substantive and up to date. The results are some of the country's most highly rated construction industry presentations, offered at a variety of interesting cities across the United States.

In addition to their educational content, Forum programs provide valuable opportunities to "network" with leading corporate counsel and construction consultants from across the U.S. Those who attend regularly will develop friendships and professional relationships that can be invaluable when legal assignments involve other jurisdictions. With growing international participation in our Forum events, the benefits of membership expand to forging professional connections in foreign countries as well. Speakers for each program are typically selected approximately one year in advance. Division leaders can inform their members about planned program topics and may invite members to volunteer as speakers. Speakers are generally required to submit a researched paper in support of their presentations, and in some cases non-speakers may contribute papers to a published program text. Since January 2002, each national Forum program has provided attendees with a CD-ROM disk in addition to printed text materials.

2. Read Forum Periodicals.
As a past editor-in-chief of The Construction Lawyer, I should admit to being a bit biased in touting its value as America's premier quarterly law journal in the construction industry. What many readers do not know is that articles in The Construction Lawyer typically undergo rigorous editorial compression so that readers can benefit from their essential content without having to read too many pages (the same principle famously used on the front page of The Wall Street Journal). For an index to articles in past issues', please visit the Forum website, click on Publications, and scroll down to click on the Index.

In addition to The Construction Lawyer, the Forum publishes Under Construction three times a year. This newsletter provides important notice of upcoming programs, as well as reports on late breaking legal developments and reports on activities of the Forum's various Divisions.

3. Read Forum Books.
Since 1997, the Forum has published a growing list of books, covering a broad range of topics for litigators, transactional lawyers, and everyone in between. Because the Forum is able to recruit authors from the industry's most experienced and articulate practitioners, our books have won critical acclaim and achieved consistently strong sales. For a list of currently available titles, click on Publications in the navigation menu above.

4. Become Active in a Division.
The Forum encourages each of its members to join and become active in at least one of its twelve Divisions. These Divisions promote education and exchanges of information in various areas of special interest for construction industry practitioners. At the Annual Forum Meeting in the spring, each Division hosts a breakfast meeting for its members. At that meeting, the Division discusses special projects for the coming year and often provides a guest speaker of interest to Division members. During the remainder of the year, a select Steering Committee organizes special projects and recruits interested members who volunteer to participate in them. Individual participation may consist of planning a program workshop, assembling a book, or providing short articles informing other members of new developments of national importance.

5. Utilize the Forum Websites.
The Forum's principal website is found at www.abanet.org/forums/ constryction/home.html (with apologies to the Latin purists who might point out that the plural of "forum" is "fora"). All members should have this address readily accessible among their "favorite" websites. In addition, the CD-ROM from any of the Forum's national programs will give members access to an extensive "elibrary" with links to literally masses of resources for news and research in the field of construction law.

6. Identify Yourself as a Volunteer.
Each year, there are scores of new opportunities for members to volunteer for useful projects in the Forum. There are programs to organize, papers (and chapters of books) to write, and there are Division projects to organize. If you wish to participate in one of these projects, the best starting point is to join one of the Divisions and convey your interest to the Division Chair. If you have suggested contributions to one of our periodicals, contact an editor of that publication. If you would like to speak or contribute a paper to a program, contact one of the chairs for that program (the Division chairs can provide names of the program chairs). If your firm wants to be a sponsor of our Annual Forum Meeting, please contact the Forum Chair or the Past Chair.

Adapting the famous words of President Kennedy, we will all prosper if we ask not only what the Forum can do for us but also what we can do for the Forum. If we join in maintaining the Forum as the nation's most active and thoughtful meeting place for education and innovations in construction law, we will be able to look back on our service with the same satisfaction voiced by President Reagan when he retired from public life: "not bad...not bad at all."