Welcome to 2007-2008 Idaho Juvenile Justice Association. We are looking forward to a great year full of growth and accomplishments. Our conference in Boise was very successful and we appreciate everyone's comments in the evaluations. This feedback helps us improve each year and is very beneficial to the Board. Your input allows us to build on our strengths and address issues of concern that may need our attention.

We must give great thanks to the Juvenile Justice Commission for their continued support. Our conference would not be possible without them. Also, we would like to thank all the counties, Administrators, Department of Juvenile Corrections, and other agencies for their continued support of this conference. Input and feedback in regard to ways our conference can assist with Juvenile Justice training in our state is always welcome. Our membership continues to be at an all-time high and we are motivated to maintain and even increase this level of membership as we reach out to juvenile justice workers in all areas of the state.

This year our conference will be in Lewiston. We are very excited about some changes to our conference format. First, in response to your feedback, we are working to develop track or course work for training purposes. This will take hard work and collaboration with ICA but we hope to have at least one or two tracks in place this year. Based on the feedback we get from members this year, we will decide if this is the direction we want to continue.

We want you to know we do address issues of concern that are brought to our attention. One of the most common suggestions is that we have coffee breaks during the conference. In order to respond to this request, we plan to discuss increasing the conference registration fee a small amount to meet this demand.

We also plan on reviewing and changing some of our forms to make them more efficient for members. In addition, we will also continue moving toward maximizing electronic communication and utilization of our website.

IJJA and ICA are working collaboratively to continue to improve our communication and teamwork. This will include having an additional joint meeting with the ICA Board this year. We continue to be committed and motivated to put on another successful conference. We hope that you will join IJJA for another great year!!!

Linda Hurd
IJJA President
2007-2008