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Well, guess the best way is to start this blog at the birth of the NH Justices of the Peace A-List Organization.
In 2006 I received my commission to be a NH JP. Since I had no idea on how to BE a JP, I scoured the internet looking for information. To my dismay I couldn’t find any how-tos on being a Justice of the Peace in NH. So I shadowed an experienced JP at 2 wedding ceremonies that she performed. Or at least I was suppose to shadow. This JP told me at the very last-minute that she wanted me to perform the ceremony and handed me a piece of paper with the vows.
I was petrified but went through with the ceremony and to my amazement I handled it just fine. I didn’t miss a word and I actually felt comfortable. I did feel bad for the couple though because they didn’t know they weren’t having the JP that they hired until the same moment that I found out I was performing the ceremony.
This sort of unprofessional behavior made me even more possessed to find information on being not just a JP but a professional JP. Even though this was my very first ceremony I knew it wasn’t handled professionally by the “experienced” JP.
Still no luck finding that perfect article “How to be a professional JP”. That is when I decided that it was time for NH to have an organization of Justices of the Peace that could share experiences with each other which in turn would help all of us become better at what we do. End result, a group of JPs that the public can depend on being professional in every aspect of their wedding.
After doing more and more weddings I began seeing what was important to the wedding couple and how to best handle all the fine details.
In 2007 I began the NH Justices of the Peace A-List Organization or better known as the NHJPA. I sent e-mails to a list of JPs that I found online and invited them to join the NHJPA. Now, in 2011 we have over 20 wonderful members, both male and female.
May I be the first to say the Lee has done an exceptional job as founder of this organization. It is difficult to have head an organization that is spread out over the entire state. Even though some of us have never met she has tried very hard for us to know each other so that we can count on each other in a crisis. We know that if we have an emergency we can find another qualified JP to stand ini for us, or if we can’t perform cermony because we are already booked we feel comfortable reccommending someone from our group to hand it off to. I am honored to be a part of the NHJPA…
Bobbie Wilkins
Thank you so much for the kind words Bobbie! Without members like you this organization wouldn’t exist.
Lee