EDUCATION Webinars and So Much More in-fighting. Oh yeah, and a disease that morphs before science can get a handle on it and has infected more people in six months than the common flu or even the flu epidemic of 1918 did in four short months. Masks, distancing, grocery deliveries, Amazon, Netflix and family game nights are common while going out to do anything is a treat… and scary. But There’s Also the Good But, as clichéd as it may be, good can al- ways be found in the worst of times; the proverbial silver-lined cloud. With the SAFETECH and ALOA conferences hav- ing to be shelved due to the health issues and travel restrictions, ALOA accelerated its online training plan from just a couple of webinars to now hosting upwards of 28 per month. These web sessions have been on a myr- iad of subjects, with a mixture of lecture only and hands-on training. Each ses- sion is one to two hours in length. As the months continue, they will be rotated to different times of day and days of the week to hopefully accommodate as many folks as possible. We have also run a nine-week master keying series, with two sessions per week for a total of 18 hours of training, very much like sitting in a classroom. We are offering the LSFDI Certifica- tion class as well as the new ALOA Fire Door Inspector training in the com- ing weeks. We will offer testing for each so you can complete your certification, just as you would in a classroom. We are beginning to offer more PRP testing through web sessions as well, as our re- mote testing sites are shut down. If you weren’t aware all of these things were going on, now you are. Check out the web schedule on the ALOA.org site. Classes will be posted on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages as well as on Clearstar and other such sites. 56 KEYNOTES SEPTEMBER 2020 “We are beginning to convert many of our ALOA- published printed books to e-book format.” Along with the webinar training ses- sion, ALOA Education hopes to launch, by early fall, an ALOA podcast dedicated to locksmiths and safe techs. The podcast will be launched on as many platforms as possible, and there will be a list of top- ics produced and posted on the website soon. We will have interviews with in- dustry leaders, help sessions with subject matter experts, news and events from the world of security professionals and all things ALOA. ALOA Bookstore Updates Lastly, the ALOA Bookstore is making some major changes. We are beginning to convert many of our ALOA-published printed books to e-book format. This means you don’t have to order a hard copy and wait for the shipment to arrive. You will be able to go to a link and download the book to your e-reader, tablet, phone or similar device as soon as your internet speed allows. As of this writing, the old PRP Resource Guide is available as an e-book download. It is a resource guide, not a study guide — and is slightly outdated in some areas — but it is still handy for PRP test prep. If you are interested in downloading a copy, email me at [email protected], and I will get you the link. Once we get more books available in this format, the link will be posted on our website, and you can use them at will. We are also in the process of develop- ing some generic boilerplate-type busi- ness forms such as service contracts, maintenance contracts, job descriptions, employee evaluations and more that you can use for your business. They will be “fill-in-the-blank” type of forms and will be generic enough that you can somewhat customize them to fit your needs and add your company name. We will have them available individually or packaged, based on the common needs of various-sized business entities. While the ALOA legal team will check the documents to assure they are in ac- cordance with the general letter of the law, you must have your local attorney review them. Your attorney must verify any items and clauses you add to custom- ize the forms for your business. They’ll also need to ensure that everything fol- lows your local and state laws. We hope to have at least some of these items available by early fall as well. Even with all of the issues that we as a nation have seen in these 212 extremely difficult days, the promise of a rainbow does exist. ALOA intends to ride it to the end and, like the Phoenix, rise from the 2020 ashes to be a better organization for our members and the industry. Stay safe, remain vigilant and remem- ber: While some media and certain groups may want you to believe other- wise, this is not a political, religious, race thing nor a low-middle-upper class thing; this is a health and human kind thing. Let’s take care of one another in these times, and hopefully that will carry on beyond this epidemic. Jim Hancock, CML, CMST, is ALOA’s educat ion manager. You can reach him at [email protected] or (214) 819-9733. WWW.ALOA.ORG
