The 1995 RI Convention was packed with lots of ideas and happenings. Held in Omaha, Nebraska at the Marriott, it was hosted by the Nebraska State REACT Council. Douglas County REACT was the local team, but the support of the other teams in the Nebraska and Iowa State Councils was readily apparent to the attendees.
Bonnie Zygmunt was elected to Field Director. Pam Hedden of Canada was appointed International Field Director. Norm Goldberg of Cobra Radio was introduced during the convention as our newest At Large Director. The states were realigned a bit, and Richard Pratz has been reassigned Texas under his list of responsibilities. There were 40 teams and 22 councils represented by delegates, with only about 110 persons in attendance.
Our 1995-1996 officers for the RI Board will be:
REACT International is now live on the Internet, using the e-mail address of react@wichita.fn.net . Immediately after the convention, nearly one hundred REACT members had been located via e-mail (electronic mail) addresses. I Three of our Board of Director members, Ken Green , Richard Pratz, and Bonnie Zygmunt have been participating in the weekly IRC Chat sessions. (Sunday 8pm CDT)
During the opening session, a letter was read from former CEO Jim Bear, who was absent due to his recuperating from open heart surgery the month before. A motion was presented by Ron McCracken of Canada to revoke the charter of Life REACT Team, on grounds of "For Cause". This was related to the scandals and fiasco surrounding recent Field Director elections, which culminated in the resignation of almost the entire board at the 1994 Convention. Before the end of the convention, both sides had made up and the matter was settled with a public apology from Life REACT to Ron McCracken for any appearance of questioning his integrity.
Seminars and demonstrations were conducted during the week on topics such as K9 Search and Rescue, Extrication from wrecked car (turned it into a convertible), Underwater Rescue, NOAA Weather Skywarn, Starting New REACT Teams, Internet, Planning a Table Top Exercise, and many other useful areas. Grand Island placed their Communications Unit on display, a converted school bus, guaranted to make any REACT Team jealous.
A week long special event station was held via computer on the Internet, with contacts receiving a custom electronic QSL card based upon a design originally made by George Grimm of Brownwood, Texas.
Several new supplies items were introduced and made available for sale, including the new Amateur Radio REACT patch ($3), and some new CB-9 patches, decals, and refrigerator magnets from Ron McCracken. Canada stole the supplies show this year, cause another team from Ontario brought in rolls of barricade tape, fluorescent orange with black REACT lettered on it. (These items were displayed at our July meeting.) Cobra Radio actively manned their display in the exhibit hall during the week, with Norm Goldberg himself sitting in on the final day.
The newsletter competition was fierce this year, with Texas strongly represented in the top prizes. San Antonio took first place in category "C" for larger teams. Bell County took 3rd in category "B" for teams with 22-31 members, while Houston Metro placed 1st and Travis County 2nd in category "A" for teams with 3-21 members. The Texas State REACT Council’s "BREAK-9" was awarded 2nd place for Council newsletters.
The annual K40 awards were presented. The Member of the Year was presented by John Boyer of K40 to Dean Enos of Sedgwick County REACT. Dean is blind and handles the radios for the Team during weather spotting and other events. Team of the Year was presented to Waukasha REACT of Wisconsin. Council of the Year was presented to Wisconsin.
Norm Goldberg of Cobra Radio announced two programs that Cobra has agreed to implement in the coming year. First was a nationwide advertising campaign for REACT, with a budget of $150,000, more than RI’s own budget for the whole year. Cobra’s New York advertising firm will be designing displays for their 3000+ dealers at Travel Stations (Truck Stops) around the nation. Each will have 50 coupons for REACT Affiliate Membership. When the coupon is redeemed by mailed to RI with a check for $25 dues, the person will be registered as an AFFILIATE MEMBER, and receive a free Cobra/Kodak disposable 35mm camera as well. RI will compile these new members names and forward them to the respective council for possible recruitment into existing teams or for starting new teams.
The second program, was to make RI a special distributor of the Cobra product line. Each quarterly Team Topics will contain an order sheet with a limited number of specially priced items. These will be prices about the level of normal dealer’s costs. Orders must be placed within 90 days thru REACT International, and shipments will be sent direct from Cobra to the team or person placing the order. You must be a REACT member to place an order, and only those items on the list will be available at those prices. The list will be updated every 90 days with new items being added, and others being dropped or changed.
In addition, all packaging from Cobra will soon have a REACT logo on the front with the words "Official Sponsor", and CB-9 brochures will be included with all CB products sold by Cobra. Norm is planning on calling other industry firms to ask them to follow Cobra’s example and join them in supporting REACT International with special programs and other support.
The 1996 dues structure was announced at remaining the same as 1995, but with the team’s renewal fees dropping to $25. This was caused by a shift of the liability insurance cost from being per team to per member. The cost per member was $2.63/year and has been absorbed into the existing $20/year regular member and $18/year family/junior member fees.
The "How to Start a New REACT Team in 14 Steps" booklet first introduced back in 1993 was given the nod of approval by the new RI Board, and will be placed of instructions) will be distributed at no charge with a Team Topics mailing to all teams and councils. The entire booklet will become a part of the Team Management Handbook when it is finished being revised. The RI handbook which was first written, I’d guess nearly 15-20 years ago.
Barbara Chuven of Life REACT in Georgia, is compiling a listing of special "STAR" numbers used for cellular phones in different states, provinces, and communities. The resulting directory will be distributed thru various cellular phone associations and state police organizations. REACT will be given credit for helping build the directory, with emphasis on types of information needed to report an emergency, just like CB-9 calls.
At the Banquet, the special guests included the Governer of Nebraska, the president of the Omaha City Council, and Roger Welsch, a CBS Commentator and humorus speaker. A local radio station DJ was the MC of the evening, and really kept things flowing smoothly. When Roger Welsch was introduced, for everyone (1 size fits all), to the amusement of all. Roger was dressed image. He told many amusing anncedotes and related them to REACT frequently.
Next year’s convention will be held in Silverdale, Washington. The 1997 convention will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (the Niagra Falls area).