Message from the President - August 2025

Dear fellow ABOTA members, 

Since my last President’s Message, we have tried to encourage our membership to participate in our chapter activities, we have held social activities for our members, and we have been very charitable to groups we believe are important to ABOTA, the ABOTA Foundation, and to our local community.

At our March 2025 Executive Committee meeting, we approved the creation of four new ad-hoc committees to the Executive Committee. They are as follows: Community Services Committee; OC WABOTA (Women of ABOTA) Committee; New Members Committee; and Social Media Committee. Four of our Executive Committee members agreed to chair each committee, and our goal was to get members who are not part of the Executive Committee to serve on them. We reached out to our members, and some agreed to join some of the committees.

Our OC WABOTA Committee held a Happy Hour, for which we got a sponsor, at a local restaurant where they were able to get together and discuss the practice of law and, from what I heard, tell war stories. Our Social Media Committee has been very active in posting our activities and accomplishments on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

We held our annual Spring Dinner on April 30, 2025, at the Park Club in Costa Mesa. As always, it was a Hawaiian/Tropical theme, and we encouraged the members to wear their great Hawaiian/Tropical shirts and outfits. We had about 90 members attend and socialize, and we also used the meeting to vote on amending our By-Laws to conform with National ABOTA’s Constitution and By-Laws regarding the new member requirements. We also introduced three of our new members and made sure they received their plaques and got to know the members who were there.

We held our Annual Golf Tournament on May 19, 2025, at the Mission Viejo Country Club. Our Golf Tournament Committee, led by Thomas Dillard, put on the best one yet. National President Jennifer Doan attended, and she could not believe what a great time she and our members had. We were able to get our great sponsors to pay for it all and were able to raise over $50,000 for our chapter and $7,500 for the ABOTA Foundation.

Since the start of the year, we have participated in at least 14 Mendez Park Tribute Monument Tours. Several of our Executive Committee members and several members from our membership, who we reached out to and who reached out to us, led the tours for elementary, middle school, and high school students. Even more important is that our chapter has paid about $5,000 for the school buses that some schools need to be able to attend. Without that money, they would not be able to go.

Our chapter was also very busy during the Orange County Superior Court’s Jury Appreciation Week that took place May 12–15, 2025, in three of the county’s superior courts. Every morning, we made sure an ABOTA member was present at one of the three courthouses to thank incoming jurors for their service, along with each court’s respective presiding judge and assistant presiding judge. We discussed the importance of the 7th Amendment and the right to a civil jury trial. We also donated money for every juror to have coffee, breakfast, and ABOTA swag bags each day at the courthouses we were at. The ABOTA Pocket Constitution was a hit with a lot of jurors.

Our chapter also donated $10,000 to the ABOTA Foundation’s Civic Summit that took place in Philadelphia on June 26–27, 2025. Our own Deborah Tropp, the 2025 Foundation President, helped put it together. Kim Valentine-Gibson and Ret. Judge Linda Marks were active participants with Deborah Tropp in this very meaningful program for teachers from around the country.

Even more important is that this year we have 13 new members in our chapter. It is a diverse and young group of members, we hope will become active in our chapter.

Juan C. Delgado

President | Orange County ABOTA