ASIS Boston Chapter Q3 News
Greetings from the Chair,
It's with a heavy heart that I write to all ASIS Boston Chapter members that we and IAHSS lost an unsung hero, mentor, and visionary, Connie Packard. Connie was a long-time member of the ASIS Boston Chapter and the current President of IAHSS International. She was a friend to many in not only the healthcare arena, but in security and public safety across the board. She served the residents of Boston and surrounding cities and towns as the Senior Director Chief of Public Safety at Boston Medical Center. Keeping patients, staff, and visitors safe every day. We all who knew her, will miss her guidance, friendship, and wisdom. May she rest in peace.
This has been a challenging quarter for the Chapter. We continue to work as a Board to bring best in class speakers and subjects for our members. What we are finding is that we don’t have the same degree of attendance thatwe had prior to the pandemic.
For that reason, we started holding luncheon meetings. We are also trying to grow our Chapter though participation with other organizations. One of my biggest goals as the Chapter Chair is to grow the Chapter with new members, especially young professionals, and women in security. We can’t do that without the support of all members. The future of the Boston Chapter is with people like Kelsey Carnell, Matt Gagnon, and Elliot Perkins, all under 30 security professionals who have volunteered for Board Positions, along with Justin Tomlin and Juli Sampson who volunteer their time as Committee Chairs.
Now is time to hold the 2024 elections for board positions and I hope to see some young professionals and others step up for positions. Nominations are open for Chapter Chair, Chapter Vice-Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary. If interested, please send a note to Shannon Roddy at sroddy@rsiginc.com stating the position you wish to have your name put into the election. The time is now for others to step up and take on the Boston Chapter Board positions, including anyone interested in chairing a committee. I had the honor of serving for 5-years on the Board with some incredible people and its time for others to take the helm. We need new ideas and new blood to infuse the Chapter. We will only survive by getting new people to step up and take on the challenges and infuse new ideas into the Chapter.
This was a busy quarter. We held an event in August at the Flight Club in the Seaport for Women in Security and Young Professionals. This was a great event that Juli Sampson volunteered to arrange. September’s meeting was held at Il Massimo, Dedham, MA as a luncheon meeting. We heard from Tastery Reed, Jr on Police Reform. October, we held our joint Boston Chapters ASIS/IAHSS meeting with a guest speaker, Latisha Balogh-Robinson. She discussed Verbal Judo: Communicate with Empathy. Axis Communications hosted our annual CPP, PSP, APP review and we had 37 attendees at their Chelmsford Axis Experience Center at the end of October. Thanks again to Axis and the entire New England Business Area leaders and members of the Chapter for supporting this important event again! Special thanks to Chapter members, Nick Biagioni and Steve Beaudry who are always willing to support our Chapter with the review and of course support to our Annual New England Security EXPO.
Speaking of the EXPO, we are underway already planning for 2024 and working hard to gather best in class speakers and continue the practice of holding a partner pavilion for our solution partners. Keep an eye out of more information right after January to see how to be part of the event, host a booth, and be a corporate sponsor. We are excited to hold the 2024 New England Security EXPO again at the Boxboro Regency Boxboro, MA. This is our marque event and a must to attend for CPP, PSP and other members from our fellow New England Chapters. We hold this annually and hope to continue the tradition of networking, incredible speakers and education and of course support from our partners.
Ashley Ditta chairs the EXPO Committee, as well as the newly elected IAHSS International Vice Chair/Treasurer. She will be busy with all that she does to support the Boston Chapter and taking on her new role at IAHSS. Congratulations to Ashley!
Other Chapter news -our former ASIS Boston Chapter President, Former ASIS President, former Boston IAHSS Chapter, former IAHSS President and current Chair of the IAHSS Foundation, and SIA Insightful Practitioner Award winner, Bonnie Michelman, CPP, CPHA has been promoted to Vice President and Chief Security Officer for Mass General Brigham. Congratulations Bonnie!
ou can register for Boston Chapter upcoming events at www.asis-boston.org and we have two events left scheduled for 2023.
On November 16th we will hold a joint meeting with the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP). Our speaker will be FBI Special Agent Sarah Wheeldon. The topic of the meeting will be on the Mass Bay Threat Assessment Team. The meeting will be held at Takeda Pharmaceutical in Lexington, MA. Thank you to Craig McQuade for hosting this event.
On December 11th we will be holding our annual Christmas/Holiday Party at Rasso’s Medford, MA 5:30-7:00 come by and join us and fellow members for some great Italian food and drinks. Thank you to Richie Raso and Thiago Teixeira for hosting our Chapter’s holiday event.
In closing, its very important for the sustainability of our Chapter for our members to attend meetings, support the Chapter through volunteer efforts, and serving on the boards. Thank you to Kelsey Carnell, Vice Chair, Matt Gagon, Treasurer, and Elliot Perkins, Secretary for serving in 2023. Looking forward to closing out the year with a great election and attendance at our closing meetings and holiday party.
Paul Baratta
Chapter Chair
ASIS International Boston Chapter