Lincoln County Chancery Clerk Tillmon Bishop has been electedsecretary/treasurer for the Mississippi Chancery Clerks’Association in an appointment that puts him on the fast track tothe group’s presidency.

Bishop, who previously served as chairman of the association’slegislative committee, was elected to the position unanimously atlast week’s annual convention in Natchez. With the group’s officersserving on a rotating basis, he will ascend to the office of vicepresident in 2010 and be named president in 2011.

“It’s an honor to be elected by your peers,” Bishop said. “Ilook forward to working with all the clerks around the state todetermine what the issues are that affect chancery clerks, whichwill in turn affect the general population.”

In his capacity as secretary/treasurer, Bishop will keep trackof the association’s legal and financial documents – a natural taskfor a chancery clerk. The real task in the coming years, he said,will be to work with the association’s 81 other clerks and helpdetermine direction for the future.

“The main thing you do is you listen to the associationmembership and try to determine what the needs are, the directionthe association wants to go in,” Bishop said. “You work veryclosely with the Legislature … their vote determines not only thedirection a group can go in, but also determines the future of theposition. We work very closely with them to make sure they know howwe feel on certain issues.”

Bishop and other chancery clerks play an important role for thepublic.

Clerks are responsible for keeping county land records; servingas clerks for the chancery courts, boards of supervisors and youthcourts; and all phases of civil commitments. The Legislaturerecently passed new laws that change document filing standards andprocedures for committing patients to mental health facilities, hesaid.

The association reviews and briefs its members of such changesin policy, ensuring good public service.

Besides named duties, serving in so many capacities also placesBishop and his counterparts at the intersection of localinformation. They know their counties, through and through.

“The clerks may not be responsible for a particular function,but they need to know who is,” Bishop said. “The general publicwill call the chancery clerk’s office for information, and we needto be prepared to give it to them.”

Murphy Adkins, executive director of the association, saidBishop has been a “real leader,” especially while serving aslegislative committee chairman last year, a job that required lotsof time and travel.

“He was probably the go-to man in the association forlegislation,” he said. “He spent a lot of time on bills affectingchancery clerks and county government, and spent a lot of time upat the Capitol working on this.”

Adkins predicted that Bishop would lead the association throughmajor changes in document storage and technology over the nextthree years. He said states are trying to follow a federalprecedent for filing court cases online, and better ways to filedocuments in county offices are always sought.

“That’s another thing that’s coming that will be right in themiddle of all his three years serving,” Adkins said.

Bishop is serving in his third term as Lincoln County chanceryclerk. He has also served as executive vice president of theBrookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce and is a longtimeparticipant in local economic development.