View from the Chair

Brad Minnis, CPP

View from the Chair

Ready for a Great Year!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday.

What an exciting finish to 2002 we had, with a fabulous holiday luncheon at the Aviation Library and Museum at San Francisco International Airport. We made our annual donations to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, and to the San Francisco Food Bank, which helped feed more than two thousand individuals served by these organizations. We also had a great response to the Marines Toys for Tots Drive, with numerous people donating toys. The food was great, as was our guest speaker, Mr. Ed Gomez, Transportation Security Administration Director for SFO. The event was a sell out with almost 100 members and guests in attendance.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank outgoing Chairperson, Connie Vaughn, for her hard work in 2002, which resulted in a very successful year for the Chapter. Connie will be at the January meeting, so please come and say hello and help thank her for the wonderful year it was. I would also like to recognize JR Rucker and Julie Snipes for providing outstanding hospitality at the events. Plus thanks to all of the Committee Chairpersons and committee members for bringing several excellent events to the membership.

We now head into 2003, and your Executive Council and Committee Chairs are hard at work to continue to bring outstanding programs and speakers again this year. In fact, most of the volunteer positions within the Chapter have been filled, with only a few left vacant. (See www.sfasis.org for a list of volunteers and volunteer opportunities.

Starting with the January meeting which will be hosted by Symantec Corporation in Cupertino, we will have an excellent speaker with a very timely topic – Business Continuity Planning 101, presented by Xochital Monteon, Senior EHS consultant from EORM in Sunnyvale. Mrs. Monteon has over 10 years of Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) experience in the education, government, semiconductor, hospital and manufacturing industry sectors. In addition, she has over 6 years experience developing comprehensive emergency response, crisis management and business continuity programs for multinational organizations. The development of such programs has consisted of obtaining executive support, project initiation and management, conducting risk assessment and business impact analysis, recovery strategy determination and implementation, written plan development, plan testing, team exercises, and integration of plans into existing organizational processes.

This program is a must for those security professionals responsible for emergency response and disaster recovery for their respective companies.

Planning is also well underway for the annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Luncheon on March 20th. This years’ event, chaired by Art Lesser from Merit Security, will be held at the San Mateo Marriott Hotel and will feature some exciting speakers and displays, including pieces from the National Law Enforcement Museum currently in the construction planning process in Washington, DC., and will feature Mr. Craig Floyd, Executive Director from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

Also in March, ASIS National is bringing the CPP Review Course and the Assets Protection Course I to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in San Francisco. The SFBA Chapter will be granting funds for 4 members of the Chapter to attend these courses, using moneys from our Jack Buckley Endowment Fund for these important courses. Look for more scholarships and grants throughout the year, as we move to expand our foundation activities.

Planning for the May Seminar is also proceeding well. Mr. Doug Nunes, retired inspector from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is chairing the event, and will again be held in the Parkside Hall at the San Jose Convention Center. Bonnie Michelman, Chairman of the ASIS Foundation and 2002 ASIS Chairman of the Board will be the featured luncheon speaker, and look forward to some excellent seminar speakers and topics.

As you may have noticed, we listened to feedback from our San Francisco members, and have worked to hold more meetings in the San Francisco area, both the November membership meeting and the December luncheon, which were very well attended. We will continue to try to spread out the locations to make it more convenient for members to attend the meetings. Membership at our monthly meetings has been increasing over the last year, and our objective is to see that continue.

So a great start to the year already, and it is only the 7th of January! We will be looking for more opportunities to reach out in the Bay Area community and expand the activities and contributions of ASIS in our community. Improvements in the newsletter are forthcoming, as are the activities of our committees. Suggestions are always welcomed, and I encourage all of you to get more involved in the Chapter to help make 2003 the best year ever for the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.

Suggestions and feedback should be directed to me at chair@sfasis.org.

I look forward to seeing you at the January meeting and throughout the year!

Sincerely,
Brad Minnis, CPP
Chapter Chairman