Conference Attendance is Crucial
by Craig Lepkowski, PCI #1180-B/EMSCI #272-B
Lake Forest (IL) Police Department (Retired)
IPMBA President
Throughout my nine years on the IPMBA Board, I have come to realize just how important our conference is to the viability of the association and our membership. While the conference is not our largest source of income, it is nonetheless important. Those who attend do contribute to the organization’s bottom line, but just as importantly, the conference enables us to continue to improve and diversify our training. It is the proving ground for new techniques and a platform for timely topics. Attending the conference, even if only once in your career, has many benefits. I encourage you to please do your best to get to Dayton this June. The benefits of attending the conference are listed here in no particular order.
Benefit Number 1: Training. This one is obvious, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the professional training the conference offers to attendees. The certificate courses – Maintenance Officer, Bicycle Response Team, Public Safety Cyclist (police, EMS, and security), PESC II, and Instructor – are arguably the best offered throughout the year. Not because courses offered elsewhere are not high quality, but because the conference attracts the broadest spectrum of attendees. It also brings a certain amount of pressure and gravitas to the classes, and instructors rise to the occasion. The Instructor Course is usually the largest of the year. With more students come more examples, experience, and input from which to learn. The breakout sessions are extremely well-done, and provide a multitude of topics for those of us involved in public safety and personal cycling. Look through all the options before deciding what to take, but don’t wait to the last minute because the workshops fill up quickly, especially the on-bike ones.
Benefit Number 2: Professional Networking. Who doesn’t enjoy meeting others in the profession, comparing experiences, sharing stories, and commiserating over the lack of support from the higher ups? But seriously, the opportunities to network among nationwide and international attendees will greatly expand your knowledge of the profession – and inspire you to perform. Meeting and learning from others in a class, a breakout session, in the vendor hall, or during hospitality times is very easy because we are all so similar in our desire to provide safety and security to the public we serve. Bring lots of business cards or be ready to cultivate contacts using your contacts app. You’ll also be able to communicate with other attendees and vendors via the conference app.
Benefit Number 3: Personal Networking. Yes, this is a professional development conference and the classes taught during it are never taken lightly. However, just because you connect with someone professionally doesn’t mean you can’t relate on a personal level. Here you will encounter classmates, random table mates at meals, and people you meet around the silent auction tables. They may turn out to be the future guest who needs a place to crash for a night, the tour guide in a town your family is visiting, or just someone who texts you funny memes because you have similar senses of humor. Be sure to welcome those personal connections into your circle!
Benefit Number 4: The Vendors. The vendor area (a.k.a. the exhibit hall) offers the opportunity to see and handle some of the technology and equipment designed and sold to cyclists and, often, specifically for public safety personnel. While this is a public safety bike conference, most of the vendors offer many different products that you might use in your personal life, or professionally, even if not while on bike patrol. Developing relationships here can help you with placing orders for your department, providing input on design features and issues, and sampling products. Make time to personally meet the vendors and see their wares!
Benefit Number 5: Individual Investment/Improvement. If your department is anything like my previous one, the training budget is usually the smallest and is often the first to be cut when finances get tight. Many times, it is incumbent upon us to seek out and provide our own training, for personal and professional development. IPMBA has taken into account the difficulties facing public safety professionals and works extremely hard to keep costs down. Holding the conference on a college campus reduces housing and meal costs. Instructors and presenters volunteer their time. Vendors donate items for the auction (though it is a fundraiser for IPMBA, so we encourage you to bid early and often!) and the hospitality areas. All of these efforts are geared (see what I did there?) to enable you to focus on the learning, networking, and overall experience of attendees. Come take advantage of all you can!
Benefit Number 6: Support IPMBA. This is perhaps the most important benefit of conference attendance. We remain the largest and best public safety cycling training association. However, the last few years have hit our volunteer organization as hard as many businesses and organizations. While we are primarily an organization run by volunteers, there are many costs involved in developing and distributing training materials, producing marketing and membership materials, maintaining records, organizing regional trainings and the conference, maintaining the website, producing the print and e-newsletter, etc., etc. We would not be the top-notch organization we’ve become without the guidance of our only paid employee, Maureen Becker. What she does behind the scenes and as the face of IPMBA for so many is incalculable.
The annual conference is not a big money-maker for the association, but it provides all of the above benefits and, with larger attendance, would more consistently bring in even more than it costs to produce. The more conference attendees, the better the experience, and the more significant impact on IPMBA’s bottom line. The better IPMBA’s bottom line, the more training opportunities can be made available and we can continue to improve and grow. It’s a circular argument, but simply put: the more attendees at the conference, the better IPMBA will be; the better IPMBA is, the better trained public safety cyclists can be.
Whether or not you attend the conference, making a monetary donation is another way to support IPMBA. Our current membership is about 2300, but each year, fewer than 50 members make a donation. If every member donated just $10, that would generate $23,000. Twenty-five dollars per member would raise $57,500. Fifty bucks brings that to a whopping $115,000! Imagine how much that would benefit our members! So, please step up and make a donation. IPMBA will be that much better from the generosity of so many.
To commemorate the end of my nine years on the Board, I pledge to make a $1 donation for every member who makes a donation of at least $50 between May and October. I’d be ecstatic to add $2300 to the potential collective $115,000. Please hold me to my promise.