As I sat before the banquet of our Annual Meeting at Amelia Island and prepared to assume the chairmanship of the Environmental and Land Use Law Section, I could not help but feel a certain sense of irony. Larry Sellers, of course, conducted the usual efficient elections, there were no nominations from the floor, and a new slate of officers and Executive Council members was selected without incident. What was ironic, is that many years ago, in the only potentially contested election we have ever had, I was one of the potential candidates for Chairman. 

     During the summer of 1984, our annual update seminar and meeting was being held at the Amelia Island Plantation. One of our members at that time, Tim Keyser, was very active in advocating for conservation issues. He felt that the proposed set of candidates was too heavily weighted toward attorneys representing development interests and began lobbying various members to nominate an alternative slate. He wanted me to run for President. The Chairman-Elect, Cliff Schulman, soon caught wind of this nascent coup, and brought his formidable negotiating abilities onto the floor. As Tim went from table to table fomenting rebellion, Cliff followed offering peace and concessions. What finally put the rebels down is that Cliff offered to form a public interest representation committee, through which members of the Section who were concerned about protecting the broader public interest in the environment could share information and work on educational projects. True to his word, he created the committee and named John Hankinson as the first chair. The committee has become an integral part of the section, producing a long series of excellent CLE programs, most recently in cooperation with law students at the University of Florida. 

     The strength of the Environmental and Land Use Law Section is the diversity and commitment of our members. We have attorneys who practice across a wide range of specializations, representing industrial, commercial and development interests, governmental agencies at every level, and environmental and citizens organizations. We even have a few academics and we have an active group of affiliate members. During the course of last year, literally hundreds of our members contributed their time and talent to Section activities, as authors or editors of the Treatise, writers for the Reporter or our Journal column, speakers at CLE programs or workers on Section committees. Nevertheless, we need more help and will be encouraging the involvement of new people during the next year. If you are interested in working for the Section, please contact me or one of the Committee Chairs listed in this issue.