After enduring 28 months of the Covid-19 pandemic and several unpredicted surges, experts say that the pandemic should ease up within the next few months. This is based on the combination of factors such as

raising vaccinations, decreasing infection rates and rising immunity levels. The last 28 months have been a tumultuous period for all of us physically, emotionally, mentally and financially. I am grateful to each of
you for your resilience and perseverance to yourselves, your family and those around you. Hopefully, we are near the end of the pandemic and things can go back to a new “normal”. Since cdcbaa offers great net
orking opportunities and benefits, it is with great anticipation that we can all get together again in-person beginning with our September 2022 and October 2022 cdcbaa seminars at Southwestern Law
School. The leadership of cdcbaa has always been searching for the right time when it is safe to get back to in-person board meetings, members meetings, and our educational seminars.

We greatly look forward to this occurring in the near future. We shall also, at the same time, continue to provide Zoom access to our educational seminars for those that are not able to physically attend 1-on-1
in-person events.

For the year 2022, cdcbaa is experimenting with having 2 Co-Presidents and a much larger Board of Directors of 20 individuals. I am very pleased to work with Co-President, Lucy Mavyan, in sharing the many

tasks and duties of being President. With having CoPresidents and a larger board, the goal is to allow cdcbaa to expand into more areas and address more issues involving bettering our law practices and our

interaction and relationship with the Court and the various Pro bono organizations under the umbrella of the Debtors’ Assistance Project. In addition, it allows us to strengthen our organization and strive for more 

transparency. Lucy and I are also very proud of the fact that we were finally able to obtain parity on the Board with an equal number of male and female colleagues. We will continue this effort for greater 

inclusiveness, diversity and transparency.

Lucy and I are extremely fortunate with having a very active, talented and motivated Board of Directors. Special thanks goes to the following Directors: Roksana Moradi Brovia, who organizes our phenomenal

educational seminars and who has been selected to be cdcbaa’s Representative to the Court’s Bar Advisory Board; our Vice President, Daniela Romero, who has taken up the role of cdcbaa’s Representative to

the Debtors’ Assistance Project (“DAP”), Jeff Hagen, who is our CFO and judicially keeps our books and reports monthly to the Board, David Jacobs, who has accurately kept the Board’s Minutes for many years now, Dennis McGoldrick, our sacred Sergeant-at-Arms since 2010, who carefully monitors our meetings and listserv and Marcus Tiggs, our Chair of the Website Committee who has led cdcbaa through an

amazing upgrade of our website.

I have to give a special shout out to the recently formed Committee on Bylaws. Their initial task was to update the Bylaws as it relates to the elections of the President, Officers and Board of Directors. The chair
person, Hale Antico, has done an incredible job working with his committee in order to bring the 2005 bylaws up to today’s standards. Lucy and I personally thank the committee members of Jeff Hagen,
Dennis McGoldrick, Tom Ure, and Eliza Ghanooni. They have done a yeoman’s task in updating the bylaws to make them reflect our current practices and to create more transparency. They have worked 

tirelessly on behalf of cdcbaa, its board, and the members on defining a clear timeline for the election of our president, our officers and our board of directors. The Committee has proffered a redline version of the

updated Bylaws which the Board will consider and vote upon shortly before it is presented to the membership for their approval. The Committee has beaten the aggressive schedule set for their work. Their hard 

work and efforts are a credit to all of us in ensuring cdcbaa’s longevity and transparency. We owe a great debt of gratitude to them.

The Board has set the date and location for the upcoming 2022 Calvin Ashland Awards Dinner for Thursday, November 10th from 6 pm to 9 pm at the Sheraton Universal’s Skyview ballroom on the 21st floor.
During this event, we shall honor Jonathon Hayes as the 2022 Calvin Ashland Attorney of the Year Award recipient for all his accomplishments and his many contributions to the practice of consumer

Bankruptcy law and to the cdcbaa and its members. In addition, we shall be awarding the Thomas B. Donovan Award to our friend and colleague, Aki Koyama, staff attorney to the Chapter 13 Trustee, Kathy Dockery. We honor Aki’s many contributions to the betterment of our Chapter 13 practices.