2013 FARA Symposium

It is 6:45 am on the first day of the 2013 FARA Symposium. The schedule for this year is jam packed with sessions that sound fantastic, so I know it is going to be a good week. Yesterday, I attended the Board Meeting and the CryWolf® Users Conference which I will describe for you later.
I will be heading down soon to sign in and take my contributions for the silent auction. I love this part--it is always so much fun to see what people donate. This year, I brought a Longaberger® tissue basket set and a set of wine glasses with a vacuum seal top with the county seal of my jurisdiction embossed on them. (The picture of the wine glasses was unusable and showed a bit too much of my jurisdiction and the basket picture isn't great--I will redo it later if I have a chance).

I am hoping that there will be some fun stuff to bid on--the money all goes to support the FARA Institute so I will bid on something, but I prefer to buy something that I really want as opposed to just bidding on random items.
I wish that everyone could be here, but I will try to capture some of the excitement and information for you. Have a good day, and I will be back with updates throughout the day and the week.

Comments

In Memory of...

I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Washington DC during National Police Week . While there, the Hubster ran the Police Week 5K and we visited the Law Enforcement Officers Memoria l. The memorial is a sobering reminder that so many have given all in the pursuit of public safety. Unfortunately, it was raining so the pictures aren't great, but the rain seemed fitting--almost as if angels were mourning with those gathered there. The memorial itself is surrounded by a beautiful park setting with trees and seasonal flowers and is composed of two curved marble walls engraved with the names of the more than 19,000 officers who have died. Each of the memorial walls is flanked by a lion protecting its cubs and keeping silent vigil. Seal embedded in center of the memorial plaza It seems that every day a new name is added to the list that will be inscribed just before Police Week begins. The park and memorial are beautiful and worth a stop if you visit DC. Al

Queen of the Dairy

Did you know that the Dairy Queen Blizzard turned 25 last year? I remember when the Blizzard was introduced which makes me officially...old. Anyway, there was no Dairy Queen in the town where I grew up but there was one where my great grandfather lived. Do you remember when a trip longer than 15 minutes lasted fuh evah? When I was little, the 65 minute drive to my great grandfather's small town felt like an eternity. Maybe it felt so long because I was hoping for that extremely rare occurrence of a stop at the Dairy Queen. My parents were teachers and the budget was always tight, but occasionally we would stop at DQ and we could get a small cone. We never got to choose--it was always just that small vanilla cone, but it was a treat nonetheless. Once I was able to drive and had a job, those stops at DQ were almost mandatory when I ventured on my own to my grandparents house. I probably tried something different each time--a Peanut Buster Parfait, this time, a Mr. Misty,

Albemarle County Ordinance Update

A dministrators of false alarm units are often called on to present information to the local government officials. In preparation for my debut briefing the Supervisors in my county, I visited Albemarle County last week for their Board of Supervisors meeting . The Albemarle County Police Department was before the board to present some updates to their false alarm ordinance so it was a good opportunity to witness public reaction. The great thing about local government is that the public has the opportunity to participate. Albemarle County and many other counties allow citizens to have their time to air their opinions simply by signing up before the meeting begins. The number of people who sign up, determines how much time each speaker is given. For this meeting, there were so many people signed up, that the time limit was reduced to two minutes each. The agenda for each meeting is generally posted in advance but the public commentary does not have to be limited to the set agenda.

The Edge of Empty

Search This Blog