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 ASSIST
CONVENTION 2009
A five star performance
By Alan Trevino, Central Texas
Region ASSIST President
The Central Texas Region had the pleasure of hosting the 2009 ASSIST Annual Convention just four short years after becoming a region. An event like this has a way of bringing people together for the good of the cause. Our theme was “LEAPS - Into the future,” and we could not have had a more charged group of speakers from our law enforcement community.
The pre-convention festivities included the annual golf tournament and the highest attended Top Gun Competition in convention history. A big thank you to Fred Gardenour with Windsor Insurance our annual sponsor for the Golf Tournament and to the many individual golf hole sponsors. Attendees included several vendors, Houston Assistant Chief Timothy Oettmeier and Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton and four of his command staff. The Top Gun Competition was a huge success and sticking with our convention theme, seven Travis County Sheriff Deputy officers participated in the open class. All attendees had a good time. Thank you to the Rio Grande Valley Region for sponsoring our shooting competition and to Rodger Woods from the LCRA for being our last minute range officer.
Friday’s opening ceremonies began with a mixed Law Enforcement Color Guard posting the colors. The Travis County Sheriff’s Department, Austin Police Department, University of Texas at Austin Police Department and the Department of Public Safety each had one officer participate. My lovely wife, Kathy Trevino sang the National Anthem and Pastor Josue B. Sanchez gave the opening prayer. Austin Assistant Chief Jeffry Adickes and Sheriff Hamilton then welcomed the group to Austin. Both lawmen gave encouraging remarks regarding their support for ASSIST and LEAPS.
Throughout the day we attended a great selection of continuing education classes taught by professionals and had the opportunity to visit with a wide variety of vendors with their product on display. Thank you to both our Instructors and our vendors.
Thank you to our annual platinum sponsor Michelle Ellis with Worth Casualty for generously sponsoring the Legislative Luncheon. This star-studded event included: Keynote address by Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw, remarks by El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles, Sheriff Greg Hamilton, Assistant Chief Oettmeier and UT Austin Chief Robert Dahlstrom. Many other elected officials and dignitaries attending included: Senator Mike Jackson, Representative Joe Driver, Private Security Board Chairman John Chism and Commissioners Howard Johnsen, Mark Smith and Charlie Crenshaw.
We held our annual meeting on Friday afternoon and had elections for our state board. Congratulations to all of our newly elected state board members.
Our convention could not be complete without the President’s Gala. Thank you to annual platinum sponsor Josh Ring with El Dorado Insurance for their generous sponsorship of the Gala. Many awards were given out but none more impressive than the Officer of the Year Award given to Jeremy Gonzales for his selfless act of bravery. Congratulations Jeremy and thank you to Peter Costanza with Costanza Insurance for sponsoring the officer of the year. Walt Roberts was recognized and added to the list of lifetime members. Well deserved and congratulations Walt! The evening ended with David Hira’s comedy magic show. David wowed the crowd with his magic and was very interactive with the performance, engaging many members throughout the event.
The Hospitality room proved to be a popular place to mix and mingle and get to know one another better. Great job with the hospitality room Emerald PI. The closing ceremony ended convention 2009 when a color guard made up of two security officers from ATX Protection and Investigations and two security officers from Sentry Security & Investigations retrieved the colors.
Once again I would like to thank all the convention vendors and sponsors. Your continued support and efforts are much appreciated. Members, please show your thanks to these vendors and sponsors by utilizing and supporting their businesses.
Finally, thank you to you, the Central Texas Region board and members that helped in any way to put this convention on. It was a pleasure working with you. Now lets all get behind President Jim Prock and the South Texas Alamo Region as we turn our attention to convention 2010.
Steve McCraw Award
Golf Awards
Joe Driver Award
Michelle Ellis Sponsor
VIPs
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Josh Ring Award
Senator Kel Seigler Award
Justice David Medina Award
Presidents Gala
Presidents Gala
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