PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVE A Bright Future job woes, a lot of people have experienced complications. Travel plans have been changed and events canceled. ALOA and SAVTA have been through I the same experience as organizations. In this column you’re reading, I nor- mally would have been urging you to make last-minute plans to come take some classes and have a good time at the ALOA convention. Sadly, we were unable to hold the SAFETECH and ALOA con- ventions, and our classes at the training center in Dallas have been put on hold. The good news, though, is you still get ALOA education opportunities! Check out the webinar offerings we have. There are several topics each week at various times, so find what works with your schedule. Your Member Benefits The good news is that we are still able to provide your member benefits, despite the economic challenge brought on by a year without conventions. As you’re seeing right now, one change we’ve had to make is temporarily suspending the printing and mailing of both Keynotes and Safe & Vault Technology. This was not a decision undertaken lightly, and we considered many options, but it was unfortunately necessary. While the WWW.ALOA.ORG t’s been a challenging year. For many, the repercussions from this pandemic are far- reaching and long lasting. From health issues to business and “The exciting part is that we’ll be adding some enhancements to the digital magazine editions.” magazine won’t arrive to you in your physical mailbox, you’ll get it sent to your digital one each month. The same informative articles and content will be available at your fingertips by the same writers and with the same quality de- sign. If you want to, you can even print it out on your end and flip through it like a regular magazine. The exciting part is that we’ll be adding some enhancements to the digital maga- zine editions. You’ll see in this issue that we are starting to incorporate more video, starting with author bios where available. If you submit an article for publication, send on some videos with it! You know your fellow security professionals love to see work in action. We’ll even give you a bit of extra payment for it, like we do with photos. Please keep reading and supporting the magazine — and the association — as usual. Read it, share with others, click on advertiser links and keep sending in articles. Have some thoughts on what we can do to make the digital magazine even better? Let us know! Email membership@ aloa.org or send thoughts to the editor at [email protected]. While you’re at it, email education@ aloa.org if there are webinar topics you’d like to see us cover. And save the date for the 2021 ALOA Convention & Security Expo! I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to go, even though it’s a year away. Plans are already moving forward, so block out those dates, and plan to take classes and walk the show floor. Change is hard, even when it’s tempo- rary. But these steps now will help enable ALOA to weather this storm and come out swinging in 2021. Thank you for your continued support of the association and for being members. Respectfully, Jim Wiedman, CML President ALOA Security Professionals Association, Inc. [email protected] JULY/AUGUST 2020 KEYNOTES 5
