1998

REACT International Convention

July 20-23, 1998

Janesville, WI

Saturday

Saturday was a nice and enjoyable day.  We did a lot of setting up and getting prepared for everyone to come on Sunday and Monday.    Later in the evening Field Director James Bear reportedly received a Fax and left the convention.  PHOTOS

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Sunday

The field director election ballots have been officially tabulated. Those nominated for the two open positions include Jack Murrell from Indiana, Fred Lanshe from Pennsylvania, and Chuck Thompson from Texas.  The winners were Fred Lanshe and Jack Murrell.  PHOTOS

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Monday

The day began with the First Timers meeting held by Henry T Sahler,III with the guest speakers being:  Bill Simpson (N9NMT), Larry Fry (K9FRY), Shawn Howe, and Jesse Mauk.   There was time set aside for teams without councils to meet and the we had the Opening Session.

 

The Opening Session started with the Flags brought in by the Green Berets (GREAT JOB) followed by the Canadian and US anthems.  Larry Fry introduced the honored guests, the paster Jeffrey Wild from St. John's Lutheran Church; Steve Schieffer, City manager of Janesville; Police Chief George Brunner of the city of Janesville; and Wayne Wood, State representative.   Then the REACT President/CEO, Bob Stone, spoke on the state of REACT and explaned the resignation of Field Director James Bear from that position.  On the fun side of things, the K9 FRY hat was initiated by Vic!  PHOTOS

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Tuesday

The day started out the Commitie meetings them moved on to the big trip to Wisconsin Dells.  The following report is by Henry T Sahler III:

After an enjoyable and comfortable bus ride with Joe the bus driver from Van Gilders Transportation. The REACT grope pulled into the town known as the Wisconson Dells. We were taken to the Original Wisconson Duck ride. Here we took a ride on the the ducks which is a nick name that G.I.'s gave to the vehicles in WWII They were actualy called DUKW which is a code that I won't go into here but any one that went on the trip most probably has a book that will tell you what it means. From there we went down town to the Dells shopping area for a few hours of walking and spendding to the hearts content. All I bought is some Fudge which was very good.

After a couple of hours shopping to sharpen the appetite, the group went to the American Club for a American Polish Buffet which was out of this world, if one came away from there hungry then it was their own fault.

We then were taken into the World famous Tommy Barrlett Water and Ski Show. The show was also out of this world a full two and half hours of entertainment that was for the whole family, and I havn't laughted that hard in a long time. We were then transported through the dark of night to the hotel by a very good bus driver Joe. All in all, a very good time was had by all.  PHOTOS

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Wednesday

We had the anual Amateur Breakfast to start out the day. This was followed by a trip to Beloit to go through an actual "SURVIVE ALIVE" home - An actual home - not a trailer, over 20 people took the tour and learned more about fire safety in the home.

The seminars we held were:

• Boris Frank, a consultant, on "Marketing for Non-Profit Groups"
• Ron McCrakken, a react member, on "P.R. Ideas for your team"
• Alice Gray, an EMT who specializes in crisis debriefing, on "Crisis Intervention"
• Gil Pilz, a semi-retired consultant designer whose goal is to achive the "Worked all 50 States" award using less that 1 watt of power over an amateur radio, on "Now You Are Talking & Now We Can Hear You"

We also had available Amateur Radio testing facilities for those who wanted to try and get their HAM license. Rob "CC" Roberts of Hawaii was one of the successful upgrades.  PHOTOS

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Thursday

The Real Audio Feed from the Open Board Meeting scheduled for this afternoon didn't materialize. The hardware and the software just would not cooperate. Sorry that this didn't work out as planned. PHOTOS

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Friday

Bags were packed, folks headed home from the convention. Some had more to carry than others. Here are some shots of folks leaving the ship like drowning rats????PHOTOS

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©Copyright 1998-2001, REACT International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Special thanks to Wisconsin Council of REACT Teams & Greenhills Consulting

This site has been up since 7/19/1998 Last updated August 13, 1998.