The purpose of the Member Services Committee is to seek out and evaluate potential products and services for the members of the Oklahoma Bar Association. There are three levels of benefits which may be recommended by the committee, including OBA endorsed major vendor contracts, OBA vendor relationships, and OBA vendor acknowledgements. These potential benefits are reviewed by the committee and then, if appropriate, submitted to the OBA Board of Governors for approval.

In 2008, the activities of the Member Services Committee included the following:

Review of the Potential New Services/Products

The committee met twice during the year to review possible new vendor proposals.

On Feb. 19, 2008, the committee met and reviewed a possible new member benefit. Two employees of the vendor, marketyourownlawpractice.com, provided a presentation to the committee. Marketyourlawpractice.com provides many services to assist an attorney or firm in their marketing efforts, including a contact management program, a marketing workspace with interactive features and access to a virtual marketing coach. After the presentation, the committee discussed this service in detail and decided, while it was very intriguing, but it may not be right for an OBA endorsement at this time. The committee decided this was not a benefit it wished to endorse currently. Chair Keri Williams Foster agreed to write a letter to the vendor advising them of the committee’s decision.

On Sept. 24, 2008, the committee met and reviewed five new possible benefits. The committee reviewed proposals from MiQuotes, Deporoom.net, Gateway Mortgage, Office Max and Office Depot. After discussion and committee vote on each benefit, none of the proffered benefits were submitted to the OBA Board of Governors for approval at this time.

Oversight of Prior Member Services Committee Projects

• Affiniscape Merchant Solutions – This vendor offers a law firm merchant account designed for client-attorney credit card transactions. Affiniscape became an OBA vendor in late 2007. There is a discounted price offered for OBA members, as well as a small royalty to the OBA for every dollar of Visa/MasterCard transaction. As of September 1, 43 members of the OBA had signed up with Affiniscape. At the September 2008 meeting, the committee suggested that further and more prolific advertisement of this benefit by the vendor might be in order to increase awareness and enrollment.
• Fastcase – This benefit, first proffered to OBA members in 2007, offers a comprehensive public domain legal research tool. Fastcase is available to all OBA members and may be accessed via the OBA Web site. Funding for this member benefit comes from annual dues paid to the OBA by its members. Both the time-saving and economic impact of the new benefit makes it one of the best perks the OBA has offered in many years. As of Sept. 1, 2008, 5,957 of the approximate 16,000 OBA members had used Fastcase. There was an average of 2,934 log-ins per month. Of those logins, there was an average of 973 unique users a month. Throughout the year, free training webinars were provided by Fastcase and announcements related to Fastcase were provided by the OBA through the Oklahoma Bar Journal, the OBA-NET and the OBA e-News.
• Corevault – This vendor offers a professional data backup system to OBA members at a discounted rate. The OBA endorsed this program as the official online backup service for the OBA in April 2007. During the 2008 bar year, the committee reviewed the member enrollment for this benefit and a few pitfalls encountered by users. As of Sept. 1, 2008, there are approximately 50 OBA members who have signed up for Corevault. Most users have expressed satisfaction. The pitfalls addressed involved limitations to the backup system and the need to further educate users on these specific limitations.

Keri Foster,
Chairperson