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2006 News Articles › Online Transactions Surpass $1 Million
Online Transactions Surpass $1 Million
Article Date: Monday, April 24, 2006
Written By: Russell Rawlings
The North Carolina Bar Association and the NCBA Foundation have surpassed the $1 million mark in online transactions in a single year for the first time. The milestone was achieved last Thursday (April 20, 2006) when Winston-Salem attorney George “Kip” Keener signed up for an online CLE course.
Web-based transactions have been available through the N.C. Bar Center since 2000-01 and have increased in popularity since that time. As members have grown more accustomed to transacting business online, the NCBA has responded with enhanced technology, cutting-edge security systems and user-friendly forms.
“The Information Technology staff believes that the steady and dramatic increases,” said IT Director Tom Purdy, “are a reflection of staff throughout the Bar Center being responsive to our members’ desire to conduct more business online by adding more transactions regularly.”
Purdy cited the efforts of John Hodgkinson, the NCBA’s Web architect and lead Web developer, in optimizing these emerging technologies to the benefit of the NCBA membership.
“We think the increased usage reflects our members’ faith in the security of the NCBA/NCBA Foundation Web site, including the addition of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol in FY 2001-02,” Purdy added.
“SSL protocol is a robust security system that was developed to transmit private documents (e.g., personal information, credit card transactions) via the Internet using a data encryption system with 2 keys: a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the message recipient.”
The online market opened slowly for the NCBA with just over $1,000 in transactions recorded in the first year. The pace quickened in 2001-02, as Purdy noted, when more than $280,000 in business was conducted online. Overall, $3.3 million in online transactions have been received in less than six years.
Over $1,000,000 in online transactions have already been recorded in FY 2005-06 with more than two months remaining and scores of NCBA Annual Meeting registrations in the offing.
It is fitting that a CLE course figured into surpassing the $1 million mark because over two-thirds of the business transacted via the Web site involves CLE course orders, but it was ironic that a non-member placed the order.
Had he been a member, Keener’s fee would not have been enough to move the needle beyond the $1 million mark! Needless to say, membership recruitment efforts are being stepped up now that he’s a part of NCBA history.
“I do not have what would be considered an active practice,” Keener said. “It is an investment advising firm, an individual portfolio firm, so there is not a lot of active lawyering going on.”
Because of the nature of his practice, Keener said, the annual MCLE requirements have a tendency to sneak up on him, as was the case this year until he received a friendly reminder letter from the State Bar.
“CyberCLE is so easy,” he added, as is the online registration process that enabled him to sign up for a program in Asheville, “The Amazing Race: How to Successfully Run a Law Firm.”
For starters, join the NCBA, where members enjoy the ease and speed of online transactions when they sign up for CLEs, CLE Passports and place CLE Bookstore orders; apply for NCBA, NCBA Sections and Lawyer Referral Service (LRS) memberships; contribute to the NCBA Foundation Endowment; register for the NCBA Annual Meeting; and place orders with the newly activated NC Legal Marketplace.