Vice Views

Going the Extra Mile….(or two, or three)

Fellow SFBA Chapter Members:

March is here and we have had two excellent meetings behind us. Both meetings were very well attended. It is great to see some new faces in the crowd, and we had members come from as far away as Livermore to attend the meeting at Alza in Mt. View, which was highlighted by a very timely presentation on explosives and dogs.

My topic for the month is meeting attendance. We have received much feedback recently from members in and around San Francisco that it is difficult for them to participate in the chapter when meetings seemingly are always held in the Silicon Valley.

Going back a few years, the Chapter worked very hard to hold meetings in both regions, and regularly held meetings near the San Francisco International Airport in order to accommodate those working in the San Francisco area. One of the problems with doing this, was the level of attendance never was sufficient for the lunch events to break even, and the Chapter found itself losing money every time this occurred. Due to the higher level of attendance in the South Bay, the lunch meetings were moved in order to stop the flow of funds.

Now that the format for the meetings has changed, and we no longer do a luncheon as part of the regular meetings, I believe it is appropriate to approach some of our membership in the San Francisco area to host some upcoming meetings, and to make it easier for our membership in San Francisco to attend and participate. This SHOULD NOT mean, however, that meeting attendance drops off at those meetings. For benchmarking among our peers to be effective, and to create an environment where ideas and best practices are shared, as well as attract meaningful speakers and topics, we should all consider the value of attendance at the monthly ASIS meetings.

We are a chapter that spans the entire SF Bay. It is up to us to make it as convenient as possible for members to attend, but to hold all of the meetings in the South Bay is unfair to the rest of the membership. We will be making an effort to spread the meetings out some more this year and next. What I am looking for from you, the members, is to make a little extra effort to attend, even if you have to go an extra mile or two.

AS always, please direct your comments and feedback to me at bminnis@juniper.net and I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.

Brad Minnis CPP
Vice Chair SFBA Chapter