Chairman's Corner

The Annual Seminar and Exhibits was a great success! Many thanks to all the people who worked so hard to make it happen. Brenda Knox, Committee Chair, and Co-Chair Tom Haney led their team to another winning event! The crew at The San Mateo Expo Center did their part, and The Registration Desk handled the arrival and registration process. Patrick Sharkey had a few tense moments during the time our luncheon speaker was stuck in Denver, but Ginger Graham made it back to the Bay Area to deliver a well-spoken, insightful presentation on Customer Service, along with a view of security from the executive point of view. She shared she had no idea she would be involved in the type of security challenges she has ended up facing, and she recognized the value of a strong security team that could support her. She was a dynamic speaker with a presentation everyone could relate to and enjoy. 

Seminars were well attended, although people did seem to have a little trouble getting up in the morning (or was it just the traffic)….anyway, most of the sessions sported an average of 60 attendees. The early group enjoyed a panel discussion on Technology, followed by Bob Falconi's presentation on Wide Area Integrated Systems. After Ginger Graham's luncheon presentation, Weldon Kennedy spoke to a full audience about Terrorism and his past experience with the FBI in the Oklahoma City Bombing. The seminars concluded with a panel presentation on Workplace Violence, a topic taking up a greater portion of security professionals time these days. 

The day-long Exhibit Hall featured 90 exhibits covering all areas. Popular fun spots were the Pinkerton Coffee Bar and the Acufacts card table. The Chairman's Reception the evening before was sparsely attended, so the committee will revisit that portion of the event for next year. Feedback from anyone who thought about attending that event but chose not to for any reason would be appreciated. Possibly we are all just too busy to get away on two different occasions. 

I would like to say special thanks to all of our sponsors and exhibitors, this is our Chapter's primary fund raising event of the year, and their support is crucial to its success. Please thank them next time you see them. 

Our next event is on June 15 at the Sunnyvale Hilton. In the morning at 9am there will be the next Seminar in our CPP Review Series, the topic this month is Physical Security: Barriers. Then join us for lunch, registration at 11:30, lunch at noon. Please RSVP to Kendra so we can plan accordingly, it costs the Chapter a lot of money if we have to pay for lunches that go uneaten. We are still looking for assistance in the Hospitality area so please let me know if you could help either with pre- registration of meetings or at the table on the day of the meeting. 

We are moving forward with the ability to allow you to securely register online using your credit card, so that it will no longer be necessary to reserve on-line and pay later. That capability will be available shortly. We are also in the process of putting the Directory online, with the expectation for that to be available for paid members sometime this summer. 

Once again it is time to consider Sponsoring Our Website. So be sure to think about how all of the exposure of your sponsorship to our members might help your business. Contact Mike Pinelli to sign up or to renew. 

Start thinking about the Golf Tournament which is coming up on FRIDAY, August 18th. Roni Davis, Committee Chair is looking for Registration volunteers. More info to follow soon! Have a good month! 

Kathy Goelkel
Chapter Chair- Year 2000