Prince William Chapter is growing slow and steady

Dec 19, 2012

It started back in August with six.  Six people that wanted to have their voice heard.  Not just heard, but listened to.  After that first meeting we hit the ground running.  We knew we'd be taking a risk, but we realized the benefits of the VAPBA far outweighed that risk.  We recruited individually, hosted recruitment meetings, and today we have reached a chapter membership of 47!  We would like to express our sincere thanks for your membership.  It is our goal to reach 50 by the end of 2012.

You may be asking, "Why is recruiting so important?"  We need to get the membership of the VAPBA as high as possible.  An association of high numbers (where members support the same agenda) can be a very loud voice in our state and local legislatures.  This is important when it comes to issues such as compensation, retirement, health care, and staffing levels, to name a few.  In the upcoming months our Virginia Executive Director, Sean McGowan, will be in Richmond everyday lobbying on your behalf.  Sean is an experienced lobbyist and his efforts in the General Assembly will be in your best interest.

The steering committee will soon decide when to make the switch from committee to having a board of elected representatives.  You will receive emails and postal mailings concerning that switch in the next few weeks.  Please consider becoming more involved in the chapter. Our success as a chapter revolves around members being involved.  However, your involvement at any level will be appreciated.

The second item we are exploring is hosting a large scale recruiting session.  Preliminary plans are already in the works with the Fairfax Chapter.  In order to do this right, because of the logistics, we are looking at late February or March.  Our goal is to reach as many law enforcement employees as we can and sign them up.

The steering committee has several ideas that we would like to research that directly affect our chapter such as staffing, compensation, and benefits.  With that, it is important to note what we are still in the infancy stage of growth and many of the noted issues require a lot of research before we can accurately present an opinion to the department and elected officials.  Lastly, it is important to note that we are not an adversarial group.  We must continue to represent the VAPBA in the most professional manner we can.  In closing, we would like to welcome you to the Prince William Chapter of the VAPBA and look forward to hearing from you.