6 Keynotes March 2025 aloa.org PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVE the members want to go. Las Vegas seems to be a popular place to go (at least from the atten- dance numbers), and it also happens to have some cheaper flights than most cities in the U.S. Reno is not as popular to attend because of the difficulty getting there from most of the U.S. Board Meetings Board meetings are open to anyone who wants to attend. This is in our bylaws. You can attend (and probably be bored to death), but to participate you need to contact the president or the chairman of the board to get added to the agenda. If the Board goes into executive session, you would have to leave the meeting during that time, but could come back once the executive session is over. There are limited reasons that the Board can go into executive session, and they cannot do it just to hide from members. It has to be something like discussion of salaries, etc., that cannot be made public knowledge. The minutes are posted on the ALOA website so any member can see them. Nothing is hidden. Scammers “ALOA should do something about the scammers and Google.” We hear this all the time. We have spent money on public education about the scam- mers, and it has done no good. The attorney general in Ohio sued one big scammer years ago and won. It took almost a year to get it into court. The leader of the organization took off back out of the country as soon as he was convicted, and the state did not collect one dime despite all the money it cost. About three months later, the group started back up under another name. The attorney general just gave up. W HEN WE RECEIVE MEMBER QUES- tions or comments, we always want to address them, so I wanted to clarify a few things for you all. Some people have questioned if the ALOA Board members get a salary. There is not one penny in salary paid to the Board members (including the president and secretary). The staff is paid, however. The Board members serve to better the profession for all locksmiths. Board members can get reimbursed for travel expenses, but most of them do not put in for that money. They pay all their expenses out of their own pocket and save the organization money. In the past, the Board was dominated by large shops. Now the majority are one- and two-person shops. We have tried to get younger members to run for the Board to get new ideas. The directors, president and secretary have term limits (set by the bylaws) so that no one can remain on the Board forever. Conventions We understand members’ financial and travel challenges and are getting the conventions away from tier one cities trying to move to tier two cities. When choosing convention locations, we have to consider if the site is big enough to meet our needs (convention floor space and number of classrooms), how easy it is to get there (drive or fly, etc.) and the cost of the rooms for attendees. Things that factor in are the availability of direct flights and their costs as well. We are trying to get away from the vacation destinations, as most of the members are not bringing their families anymore. However, we also try to look at where Bill Mandlebaum, CML President ALOA Security Professionals Association, Inc. [email protected] Thoughts on ALOA We are working on a new consumer section for www.aloa.org, and this will contain some information to help educate consumers on the scammer issue.
