Kevin J. Bowling

Welcome members and visitors to the NACM website!  The headline banner for our homepage asserts we are “Committed to Excellence.” The subscript goes on to state “NACM provides court management professionals the opportunity to increase their proficiency while working with colleagues to improve the administration of justice.”  These brief but impactful statements are clear guideposts for the current organizational efforts in which NACM is actively engaged.

In my first President’s Message for Court Manager, I reflected on the commitment to excellence I have witnessed among NACM members since becoming a Charter Member in 1985.  The dedication of our members to improve the administration of justice throughout the past three decades is impressive.  Moving forward, NACM will continue to provide court management professionals outstanding educational and skill building opportunities through conferences, webinars, publications, and networking opportunities.  I encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities for professional development and join with your fellow court managers. 

Current NACM efforts to improve our collective proficiency are driven by the NACM National Agenda.  The National Agenda is designed to be a “touchstone” for NACM’s leadership in education, training, advocacy, and other work in support of court managers and leaders.  As a diverse membership organization, NACM members play a critical role in referencing and reinforcing the six priorities of the National Agenda in our daily work.  These priorities include: 

• emphasizing caseflow management improvements;    
• sustaining excellence in difficult budget times;
• enhancing public perceptions of the courts and increasing community collaboration;
• promoting improved court leadership and governance;
• preparing for and responding to trends; and
• supporting professional court management education. 

On the homepage, click on the navigation bar, “National Agenda” for more information.

Throughout 2011 and 2012, NACM is striving to achieve seven organizational goals, and your participation in these efforts is encouraged. 

• To create membership value for court managers – As noted above, NACM continues to provide professional development opportunities, high quality publications and more.  We need your input to best determine how NACM can support your professional development, now and in the future. 
• To utilize the NACM’s National Agenda to drive program priorities and improvements – Throughout the year you will see evidence of the Agenda in our conferences and publications. 
• To complete NACM’s strategic planning review – This periodic review is conducted by the Planning Committee and is critical to our organizational success. 
• To implement the NACM Core Competencies Revision Project – These competencies highlight the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to succeed as court managers and have been the foundation for many continuing education programs during the past twenty years.  Now it is time to update and revitalize these materials. 
• To improve NACM’s ability to inform and guide members regarding technological advances impacting courts – This will be accomplished through established connections with FACT, JTC, CITOC, Global and others seeking to improve the use of appropriate technology. 
• To support research and development - We will pursue this within the court management world by asking you to share your research projects with NACM.  By means of our extensive professional network, we hope to share innovative ideas and encourage research projects which may provide system wide benefits. 
• To focus attention on the need to build strong professional relationships – Medical research correlates healthy professional relationships with job satisfaction and professional success.  NACM supports such efforts through educational conferences, mentoring, early career professional opportunities, committee participation and more.

These are certainly ambitious goals; however, having witnessed our collective commitment to excellence and knowing NACM’s vision to provide court management professionals the opportunity to increase their proficiency while working with colleagues to improve the administration of justice, I am confident we can achieve each goal.
I look forward to working with you throughout the next year, and thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Kevin J. Bowling, JD, MSJA
President