Greetings one and all! I hope that your plans for 2011 will include attending this year's 49th Annual IAWP Training Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, August 21st through the 25th at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Lexington. For those of you who have never attended an IAWP Conference before, I can tell you that it is an amazing opportunity, not only for obtaining some outstanding training, but also for making important law enforcement connections with other women from around the country and around the world. It's an investment in your future, and one that you shouldn't miss. (AND, it's a tax write-off to boot!) Check out the link to the 2011 conference on the IAWP website at www.iawp.org.

For those of you who might be interested in presenting at the Conference in Lexington, their Training Committee is currently asking for a "call for papers" for people to submit their workshop proposals. The Committee is working to ensure that the 2011 workshops reflect the international interests of the IAWP membership and attendees at the event, and are looking at training to be developed along topic tracks which include the following:

Tactical/Patrol

Leadership/Supervision

International Policing

Global Terrorism

Emerging Trends/Topics - Investigations, Technology, Training

Individuals or organizations wishing to conduct a workshop at the Conference must complete and submit a Workshop Proposal Form to the Training Committee by February 1st. To obtain a copy of the Workshop Proposal Form, go onto the 2011 Conference link on the IAWP website.

The Women's Street Survival Seminar presented by Calibre Press will be held February 16th and 17th at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino at 4000 W. Flamingo Road in Las Vegas, 800-331-5334. Tuition for the seminar is $215.00 per officer and $75.00 for a spouse. PoliceOne members will receive a 10% discount on their Street Survival tuition. (To secure your discount, mention the code "P1C" if registering by phone, or include it on your faxed, mailed or e-mailed registration. If registering on the Calibre Press web site, please include this code in the "DISCOUNT CODE" section). Registration for the training begins at 0730 hrs, and the class runs from 0800-1700 hrs. daily. Instructors for the training will be Retired Sergeant Betsy Branter Smith and Dave "Buck Savage" Smith.

This training is a MUST attend for anyone in law enforcement of any rank, whether you're a rookie or a salty veteran. The skills you will learn in this training can save your life, and the dynamic instructors are riviting and will really provide you with an eye opening experience. I've attended both a "regular" Street Survivor Seminar, as well as the Women's Street Survival Seminar, and both are excellent; however, as a female law enforcement officer, there was NOTHING like attending the Women's Seminar, which addressed many issues that are specific to women. I can't recommend this training enough, and Betsy is one of the most dynamic speakers I've ever experienced. You won't regret attending! To register for this event, contact Christine Williams at 800-323-0037, extension 5161 or by e-mail at christine.williams@calibrepress.com. And for those of you living in Nevada, the training has been approved for requirements by the Nevada Commission on P.O.S.T.

Finally, the California Peace Officers' Association (CPOA) will be hosting it's 91st Annual Leadership Summit, "Developing Excellence in Leadership", at the Omni Hotel in San Diego, May 25-27, 2011. Region 10 member, Chief Sandra Spagnoli from the San Leandro (CA) Police Department, will be honored as the CPOA's incoming President! For more information, contact the CPOA at 555 Capitol Mall, Suite 1495 in Sacramento, CA 95814.

Until next time, stay safe!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one and all! I hope this new year is a happy, healthy, and safe one for all of you and your families, and that you all had a wonderful holiday season.

The California Homicide Investigators Association's 2011 Conference will be hosted by the San Francisco Police Department from February 28-March 3, 2011 at the Hilton Hotel at 333 O'Farrell Street in downtown San Francisco. During this four day event, the participants will attend notable case presentations and training seminars. In addition, the conference provides a fertile environment for networking, individual case evaluations and discussion of techniques with some of the top investigators and prosecutors in the country. For information, please contact Lieutenant Michael Stasko at 415-850-7702/cell or 415-553-1501/work or Inspector Dave Falzon at 415-553-1049/work. Let them know you heard about the training through me and the IAWP!

Please let me know of any trainings, promotions, retirements, or anything else of interest going on in your agencies or local areas so that I can pass the information along to the entire Region through this blog. In addition, as you have seen in the latest Women Police magazine, our Editor, Simon Townsley, has included a two page section in the magazine called Regional Roundup, which is an area that the Regions can report things going on that would be of interest to the entire membership and not just something that would be better off being posted on the Region blogs. Not everything submitted necessarily will be printed in the magazine; however, it is the goal of the Board of Directors that every Regional Coordinator submit something to Simon for consideration for every issue.

That being said, MY deadline for sending submissions to Simon for the next magazine is January 31, 2011, so please send me any information of things going on in your agencies or local areas so that I can pass them onto Simon for consideration. Those not printed in the magazine, I will include on the blog.

In addition, I would REALLY love to see our Region's membership grow this year. In fact, I am SO confident that we can increase our membership, that I have taken on a challenge made by Region 6 Coordinator, Diane Mueller, at the Minneapolis Conference this past September to get 100 new members to join the IAWP by next year's conference in August in Lexington, Kentucky! With your help, I KNOW we can do it! Please print off the application form for membership off of the IAWP website at www.iawp.org and send to the women in your agencies with a note encouraging them to join (and it's a tax write-off, to boot!) If you have an organizational magazine or newspaper, forward the application and information onto them for inclusion in the publications on a monthly basis. When you get someone to join, let me know their name, rank and agency, and I'll confirm with Wendy Wilson, the Membership Chair, that she's received their membership fees, and I'll send you an IAWP Challenge Coin as thanks!

So many women in law enforcement are not aware of the IAWP or the benefits they will gain from becoming a member. You helping get that information out to the women in law enforcement that you know can make a huge difference in their lives. Share the good news about the IAWP!