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Public: Recent News

The new calendar year also marks a new volume number for e-bar, the North Carolina Bar Association’s popular electronic newsletter.

Vol. 6 begins today, continuing the tradition of providing “news you can use” in 60 seconds that former NCBA Communications Director Clifton Barnes established in 2001. 

Borrowing from an early electronic communications vehicle that another bar association was distributing to its members, the NCBA crafted its product to focus more on news and entertainment.

“I remember researching a similar communications vehicle in another state that (Executive Director) Allan Head told me about,” Barnes recalls. That state primarily sent information about the association itself.

“I thought it should be interesting or entertaining law-related information that attorneys could use – not necessarily related to the bar association. But when we did have something in there about the bar association, the members would know that it was newsworthy and timely ... and brief since our members are very busy.

“It was important for it to be a useful service to the members and not a self-serving junk email that they would delete. We may have been the first state to do an e-newsletter that wasn't just bar news.”

Barnes said he wanted to find information that members may not have otherwise heard about. The name, Barnes added, was a take-off on e-mail and ebay. The first issue was distributed in the spring of 2001, but the volume number has always changed with the beginning of the new calendar year.

The member benefit has been well-received throughout its existence, building on the success of an early review from one member.

“Hi – just wanted to tell you that you are doing a great job with this newsletter. Topic selection is good. Brevity is just right. The reminder about CLE reporting today was needed and timely. I often use the ‘Website of the Week.’ 

“In a time of information overload, you've done the near impossible – provided more information that is actually welcome. Good work.”

E-bar also received a national APEX Award (Awards for Publication Excellence) that year.

“Clean layout combines with concise rewritten summary blurbs to make this an extremely useful and usable e-letter,” noted one contest judge. “Their slogan, 'News and information in 60 seconds' is right on.”

Comments pro and con are always welcomed via the comment line at the bottom of each edition.