PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVE Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! out there in the ALOA SPAI locksmith community. We’re starting a new year, and I hope you all are as excited as I am to kick it off. There is unknown; we have a new U.S. president, and we’re waiting to see what he’ll be doing to either help us or make us worry about him. Either way, there’s nothing we can do about ei- ther one; just keep on doing what we do to make a better life for our families. One of our strongest divisions is ALOA I Institutional Locksmiths (AIL). This group has the greatest potential to in- crease membership in a very dramatic way, as there are so many facilities out there that hire their own locksmiths to do their lock work and control not only the master keying system but also their access control systems. The main difference between the in- stitutional locksmith and an ALOA commercial locksmith is that the ALOA commercial locksmith needs to be able to work on all brands of locks and exit devices. In comparison, the institu- tional locksmith is more brand-specific hope that Santa brought you ev- erything you asked for and paid spe- cial attention to all of the little ones and only services the singular brand of locks and exit devices within his or her facility. This does make them very, very knowledgeable on those products, and manufacturers consistently ask institu- tional lockmiths questions about their products — or have them test some new products to get a full report if it is good, bad or “ugly.” I hope you have marked your calendars for this year’s special events with ALOA. First is SAFETECH, SAVTA’s convention and trade show in Albuquerque, NM, followed by the Security Leaders Busi- ness Conference directly aſterwards at the same venue. If you want to learn how to run your business better and make it “I hope you have marked your calendars for this year’s special events with ALOA.” Tom Foxwell, RL, CAI, CFDI President ALOA Security Professionals Association, Inc. [email protected] g Y shows in one trip. Last, but not least, is the ALOA Convention and Security Expo and in Rosemont, IL (the Chicago area). This is a must, especially if you do auto- motive keying, as we’ll have some very strong hands-on training. Best regards, HELP A VET. HELP ALOA. HELP YOURSELF. Hire a veteran taking classes through our GI Bill-funded retraining program and get some great incentives in return. For more information, please email [email protected]. WWW.ALOA.ORG JANUARY 2017 KEYNOTES 5
