From the Director Sep 1999

ABI and the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees (NABT) are planning a joint-venture
web site to post notices for the sale of assets of debtors and trustees in bankruptcy cases. The
site will be located at http://www.bankruptcysales.org and will be linked to both ABI World and the
NABT site. We hope to launch the new site this fall. The listings would include both scheduled
sales of property as well as listings of assets that are available for sale but not yet submitted to
the bankruptcy court. The site will include a search engine of the database of assets, an index of
the asset categories, a site map and the capability to conduct transactions online. The site will be
free to the public for the buying of assets. The ability to post information will be limited to ABI
and NABT members and others who pay a transaction fee. It is hoped that the combined resources
of the two organizations will provide a powerful new method for trustees to centrally post a
national register of available assets, thus maximizing returns. The prominence of the site will
assist the courts in broadening the required public notice of the sales. ABI members working on
the project are <b>Joseph S.U. Bodoff</b> (Chair), <b>Hon. William H. Brown,</b> <b>Dillon E.
Jackson,</b> <b>John D. Penn</b> and <b>Jamie H.M. Sprayregen.</b> NABT leadership has included <b>David Birdsell,</b> <b>Paul Swanson</b> and <b>Bob Waldschmidt.</b>

</p><h3>Leaders Convene for Strategic Planning Session</h3>

<p>The last three years have been marked by extraordinary growth for the ABI. To help us manage
this growth and think for the long term, about a dozen members of the ABI Board of Directors
will join the Executive Committee and key members of the ABI staff for a two-day strategic
planning meeting September 24-25 in Sandpoint, Idaho. The session will build on the work of
an earlier group, which met in 1997. The planning meeting will be led by a professional
facilitator, <b>Dr. Gordon Bermant.</b> In addition to his work as a facilitator, Bermant has held
senior staff positions at the Federal Judicial Center and the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees.
An ABI member, Bermant is uniquely qualified to help the leadership hone its goals and vision as
we begin the new millennium. The results of the session will be published in a forthcoming
issue of the <i>Journal.</i>

</p><h3>State Court Judges Programs Continue This Fall</h3>

<p>ABI's popular programs to teach state court trial and appellate judges about bankruptcy law and
procedure continue this fall with new programs in Texas and Oklahoma. The Texas program is in
conjunction with the annual Judicial Conference on Sept. 28 in Austin. Faculty members are
Judges <b>Leif Clark</b> and <b>Larry Kelly</b> and practitioners <b>Mark Browning</b> (Texas Attorney
General's Office) and <b>Stephen Sather</b> (Overstreet, Winn &amp; Edwards). The Oklahoma program
is also a plenary session for all state judiciary and will be held on Nov. 10 in Oklahoma City.
Faculty members will include most or all of the state's bankruptcy bench, including <b>John</b>

<b>TeSelle,</b> <b>Richard Bohanon</b> and<b> Dana Rasure,</b> joined by <b>Hon. George Paine</b> (M.D. Tenn.).
The programs are supported by a grant from the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges
Endowment for Education.

</p><h3>Thanks to Sponsors of Northeast and Southeast Bankruptcy Conferences</h3>

<p>ABI thanks the many sponsors who supported the Northeast Bankruptcy Conference (NEBC) in
July and the Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop (SEBW) in August. Patrons of the NEBC, who
contributed at least $2,500, included Choate, Hall &amp; Stewart, The Finch Group, Foothill Capital
Corp., Goodwin Procter &amp; Hoar LLP, KPMG LLP, Nixon Peabody LLP, Paragon Capital LLC, The
Recovery Group, TSSG LLC, Schottenstein Bernstein Capital Group LLC and West Group. Thanks
also go to the many firms from throughout the New England area that contributed at various
levels of sponsorship.

</p><p>ABI also thanks the sponsors of the SEBW: Allomet Partners Ltd., Anderson Bauman Tourtellot
Vos &amp; Co., Bank of America, BDO Seidman, Berwind Financial Group, Clifton Gunderson L.L.C.,
Continental Plants Corp., Electronic Processing Inc., Equity Partners Inc., FINOVA Capital
Corp., Foothill Capital Corp., Fox &amp; Associates, KPMG L.L.P., Morris-Anderson &amp; Associates
Ltd., The Recovery Group, Silverman Group and West Group.

</p><h3>Welcome to New Staff Member</h3>

<p>ABI welcomed its newest staff member in August. Vanessa York joined the staff as receptionist
and staff assistant. Vanessa is a May 1999 graduate of Virginia Polytechnical Institute in
Blacksburg, Va., where she majored in art history and classical studies. A native of Seattle,
Vanessa has spent the last nine years in the metropolitan Washington area. Please welcome her
as you call into ABI headquarters!