APCO 2021 wrapped up Wednesday evening with the Connect and Celebrate Dinner in San Antonio’s Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The 2021-2022 Executive Committee was sworn in, new life members were introduced, president’s awards presented, and the top officers surveyed goals for public safety communications.
The new executive committee consists of Becky Neugent as second vice president, Angela R. Bowen as first vice president and Jason Kern, who assumed the presidency. Margie Moulin became immediate past president.
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Derek Poarch brought 2020 and 2021 life members to the stage, recipients of APCO’s highest honor. The 11 members are “individuals who have demonstrated dedicated service and made major contributions to the association and to the field of public safety communications,” Poarch said.
Poarch also thanked the APCO professional staff who worked from home for 75 days during the pandemic. Poarch said staff worked harder than ever as the association instituted a hiring freeze and they sacrificed pay raises so the association could close a $1.5 million deficit that was created by cancellation of APCO 2020 in Orlando.
Margie Moulin took the stage to announce several awards recognizing members for service to the association and to a law firm working pro bono on behalf of APCO. Moulin said Washington, D.C.-based Hogan Lovells has offered free legal work and strategic advice as the association aims to change the federal classification of public safety telecommunicators and reverse Federal Communications Commission decisions harmful to public safety communications.
Moulin singled out for points of emphasis APCO initiatives over the past year to:
- Develop a health and wellness committee;
- Create a course addressing diversity, equity and inclusion in the ECC;
- Work with a military taskforce to help military members and their spouses;
- Lobby for passage of legislation with $15 billion for NG9-1-1 while assuring 9-1-1 interoperability; and
- Changing the federal classification for public safety telecommunicators.
Kern followed Moulin on the stage, and he stressed similar goals for his own term.
“In this coming year, we will continue to forge ahead to meet the needs and expectations of our 35,000-plus members, in addition to the agencies and communities we protect,” Kern said. “I will ask the hard questions and make the tough decisions. And, as we do daily as public safety telecommunicators, we will adapt and pivot when needed.”
Following the presentations, comedian Kermet Apio took the stage and had the audience rolling with his jokes about family life and growing up in Hawaii. Poking fun at his culture and what it was like being named after a frog, Kermet closed out the evening on a high note with everyone falling out of their seats in laughter.
