What goes into an organization putting on a conference?  I know as an outsider looking in I certainly didn't realize what all went into the process.   I know I had often said, why don't they do this? Or why don't they do that?   Why's the registration fee what it is?  What do I get for my money?  Why don't we do more? I've read the reviews of the past two conferences, and many of the items that you all listed I could not agree more on.  We definitely need to improve our conferences.  We definitely need the auto manufactures.  We definitely need more vendors.   We should do more group activities.  We should have different presenters from a more varied aspect of emergency vehicle operations.  The unfortunate truth is with any organization it all comes down to money.  ALERT has an extremely small operating budget.  Costs continue to rise.  I'm not going to bore you with specifics, but a basic conference costs money, a lot of money.  Many vendors, including the automobile manufacturers, have slashed their budgets, and in turn, do not want to attend "small" conferences, regardless of the audience.   That whys it's so important we try to make our conferences better attended.   It's not that we haven't personally reached out to these entities to attend, they simply will not attend conferences with low turnout.  Presenters, travel fees, websites, registration software, email systems, office supplies, facilities, meals, equipment, ect., all cost us money.  I had many grand ideas when I took over President late last year.  This included more advertising and pushing the word about our organization.  I wanted myself or a member of the Board to travel and be present at, and attend, many of the major LE conferences that go on during the year.  This would help spread the word about ALERT and help secure new members and vendors.  When I started looking at the numbers and our financial situation, I quickly realized it would be financially irresponsible for us to try many of these ideas.     

 

     So how do we make our Conference's better moving forward to attract more vendors?  How do we make our organization stronger and attract new members and sponsors?  The BIGGEST thing we can do is have more people attend the conference!   The annual conference is the bread and butter of what ALERT does.  We have two regions doing events this year which is awesome, but many regions do not have the resources or people to put on a regional event.  Our annual conference is the only way we as members, who believe in what we do and who are trying to make things better, can all meet up once a year and discuss our organization's mission, agenda, goals.   So how will this year's conference be a little different than previous years?  First of all, we will have Ford back at "track day"  to drive their vehicles.  Speaking of track day, we all agreed we needed more wheel time during track day.  So this year we will be at TWO tracks for track day!  We will be at Adams County Colorado Driving Facility and the Colorado State Patrol Driving Facility.  This is a first for us to get to two tracks in one day for an ALERT Conference track day.  This will require some additional logistics we are still working on, but felt it was important to maximize our attendees experience for driving.   We plan to have the new pursuit rated Ford F-150, along with other new fleet vehicles for members to drive.  We will discuss the use of patrol vehicles in Traffic Incident Management with a practical exercise.  We will be giving attendees the opportunity to drive Colorado POST EVOC courses. Many more events are being planned.  We also hope to have our EVOC related vendors back at track day again.

 

     Our hotel lineup of presenters is coming together to cover a wide variety of topics related to Emergency Vehicle Operation.  Michigan State Police will present their findings from the 2019 vehicle testing and talk about vehicle, tire and brake testing.  We will be the first to hear the findings before they are published!  We will have presentations from Dale Stockton, one of the founders of Below 100,  on Risk Management.  John Born former Colonel of the Ohio Highway Patrol and Ohio Director Of Public Safety, will discuss private partnerships for EVOC training locations.  We will have a legal update presentation and push bumper discussion by the Colorado State Patrol. For the first time we will have NHSTA presenting at our conference.  There will be a presentation about autonomous vehicles.  We will have a panel discussion with question and answer session form EVOC Instructors from Federal, State, and Local agencies to give an overview of what each one is doing in the area of Emergency Vehicle Operation Training.  And finally on Wednesday we will have a powerful presentation about the response to the Aurora Colorado Theater Shooting. On Thursday there will be an optional Below 100 Train-the-Trainer session.    If you know how much law enforcement training cost, this training individually would cost your agency over $2500.  This makes our conference a bargain!  Let's start passing the word and make this our biggest Conference to date!! 

Click  here  to see Conference Agenda.

Click here to complete your Registration to attend the Conference.

 

Board Position Vacancies

       We are still accepting  "nominations" per requirements of ALERT International's ByLaws for the 2019-2021 Board of Directors positions of President and Secretary. Plus, since the current Vice-President assumed the President's position to complete the term for the vacant President position, the Vice-President's position needs to be filled for one year (2019-2020). If you who would like to throw your hat in the running, or someone else's hat in as a candidate nominee, forward your/their name to  [email protected]  by April 15, 2019. If you are submitting your name please include your resume.  If you are nominating someone else I will reach out to your nominee.  If you are motivated and want to help make a difference this is your opportunity!

 

Z man Award

     Mark Y. Zylawy, "Z-Man", a highly regarded Portland police officer, died January 27, 2008 in a tragic and untimely accident at the age of 40. He worked as a district officer in Northeast Portland for 17 years with passion, dedication and enthusiasm throughout his career.

 

    Kenneth Lester, EVOC Coordinator at the Ontario Police College said this about Mark:

"In the small amount of time that we knew Mark, it was quite noticeable that his passion was Police Driver Training. He was a true advocate of innovation and improvement. He was also very outspoken with his positive views on networking with other training personnel, to always ensure that we were all using the latest and most innovative training material available. He knew that this was made possible by simply getting together and sharing ideas, including training triumphs and failures."

 

     In memory of Mark and what he stood for in regards to Emergency Vehicle Operations Training, ALERT International has set up the ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. This award is presented on an annual basis for the best innovative idea in Police Driver Training in the past year.  We give out this award at our annual conference on the last night at our banquet.  Do you know of a training unit or an individual that has made an impact on EVOC? It's not too early to start thinking about someone to nominate.   We welcome your submissions at  [email protected]. Click here to learn more information about submitting a nomination. 

 

 

Bruce Cabral Memorial Scholarship

       ALERT International issues educational scholarships each year to children of ALERT Members.  Applications are received between May 1st and August 1st each year.  Applicants must (1) be a son/daughter whose parent has been a member of ALERT International for at least the 12 previous months (United States and Canada), (2) be a graduating senior (3) have a scholastic average of at least a B, or 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (4) plan to attend a college, university, trade or business school.  Please email your application or questions to:   [email protected]   c/o Bruce Cabral Memorial Scholarship. Click here to learn more information about submitting a nomination.

 

     As many of you know we have a raffle on the last night of the conference to help fund the Bruce Cabral Scholarship.  Last year we had many great items including TV's, Yeti Coolers, and many items from Cabela's outdoors.  So we have lots of items to raffle off we like to have everyone attending the conference bring something from their agency to contribute to the raffle.  Again it's not too early to start gathering coins, hats, shirts, or anything of interest to a police officer or trainer to bring to the conference.   The more items we have the more successful the raffle will be!

 

ALERT International Business

      Effective February 20th Board member and Region 3 representative Curtis Pote resigned his position from the Board of Directors.  As President, and per the By Laws, I appointed Mike Brady, Region 1 representative, to fill his spot on the Board for the remainder of Curtis's term.  Mike had already been working with the Board to assist from the west coast on the planning of this year's conference.   Being without a Vice President has increased the workload of the remaining Board members, and Mike has been a tremendous asset in getting this year's conference in motion.

 

     We are exploring partnerships with NHSTA and IADLEST to update the Law Enforcement Driving Reference Manual.  The last update was 2007.  We all know what a valuable resource this has been to EVOC trainers, but also how much has changed with vehicles and training since 2007.   This will be an extensive project that undoubtedly be time intensive and will require a lot input and involvement form ALERT membership.  If you were part of the original project please reach out to me I would love to hear from you.  We will keep everyone posted on the status of this project.   

 

     

Social Media

      Folks, our Facebook page is constantly being updated with new information, articles, stories, ect.  If you haven't already done so please "Like" ALERT's page.  Ask all your LE friends to "Like' as well.  If you have any information you would like posted please send to me. I wanted to have pictures of EVOC training being conducted by our members from around the country and Canada.  Next time you are doing training snap a few pics and send to me so we can all see EVO training in action. 

 

Regional Events

      2019 ALERT Region 3 Conference May 20-21, 2019 Green Bay, WI.  For more information contact  NWTC - Public Safety Jason Weber Training Coordinator Jason Weber at  920.498.7175   [email protected]

 

     Peel Regional Police in Canada is tentatively putting together a two day symposium on May 29 & 30, 2019.   For more information please contact Hugh Anderson Specialist - Police Vehicle Operations Peel Regional Police  (905) 453-2121 Ex. 3823   [email protected]

 

 

Closing

       In being new in this position,  I am still working through some communication and email issues.  If for some reason you reached out to us whether by phone, email, or through the website and have not gotten a response, please reach out again.  I know it shouldn't be that way and I apologize, but we are doing our best to keep up with some of the recent Board changes, communication changes and being able to respond to all correspondence and requests.    

 

     Finally,  I'm asking all ALERT members be an advertiser and an ambassador to the organization.  We are all involved in training and there are hundreds if not thousands of trainers out there who we can connect with.  We as trainers have a passion for saving lives and making things better.  Unfortunately Law Enforcement related crashes are not on the decline.   There are still many folks who have never heard of ALERT, "the driver training organization".  Our organization believes in making training better so eventually crashes in our profession will decline.  We need to ALL work together to push the word about our organization and this year's annual conference.   I never want to say one event can determine the future of an organization.  But the success of this year's Conference will definitely affect how our unique organization, which is 30 years strong, will continue to be able to make an impact in our beloved profession. Encourage your contacts, friends and anyone connected with Public Safety to browse ALERT's website at www.alertinternational.com 

 

    Thank you, stay safe , and God Bless,