Stepping Out of the Darkness
by David Millican, PCI #1006T/EMSCI #343T
Denton (TX) Police Department
IPMBA Treasurer
A Scotsman, an Irishman, and an Englishman are each sentenced to a year in solitary confinement. Before being locked away, each is to be granted a year’s supply of whatever he wants to help him get through the long, long spell alone.
The Scotsman asks for a year’s supply of whisky; it is given to him and he is locked away. The Irishman asks for a year’s supply of Guinness, so he is locked up with several thousand bottles of it. The Englishman asks for a year’s supply of cigarettes; he is given a pile of cartons and the cell door is shut on him.
One year later, their doors are all unlocked.
The Scotsman staggers out and shouts, “I’m free!” and then keels over dead from alcohol poisoning. The Irishman is dragged out into the light, whereupon he promptly dies of liver failure. When the door to the Englishman’s cell is opened, everybody watches eagerly to see what sort of a wreck the man has made of himself.
To their surprise, he walks right out the door, sidles up to the first person he sees, and asks, “I say, you wouldn’t happen to have a match, would you?”
We here at IPMBA feel like we have been locked away for the past year. Over the past year many things have been affected by the COVID virus. Everyone has been forced into making difficult personal decisions and adapt to many new changes.
Our members have been forced into isolation, often having to quarantine from others. We have not been able to interact with this organization as we have in the past. We have relied heavily on technology for this long spell alone. Sales of computers, cell phones, iPads, and internet services have all skyrocketed.
Times are rapidly changing and IPMBA must adapt like many others. This change does not come without a cost.
For the first time in the history of IPMBA, we had to cancel the annual conference – not once, but twice. This created several unforeseen consequences. First, with the loss of a conference comes a loss of training opportunities. We have addressed this by increasing the number of regional courses offered, such as the Instructor Course and the Maintenance Officer Course, but we cannot offer a full complement of courses and workshops This, too, has been challenging because of unforeseen closures and cancellations due to the virus.
Secondly, the loss of the conference brought about the need for technology to bring us back together. The conference unites public safety personnel from across the country to engage and socialize with one another. Attendees share experiences and pass on knowledge that will later be taken across the North American continent. Our use of technology increased to help bring us back together, but it is no substitute for in-person events.
Financial challenges are also always at the forefront. Nonprofits are placed in a unique position of having to fulfill their missions while being fiscally responsible and profitable in order to remain viable. With the loss of training opportunities comes reduced income, but the demand for more technology means the need to spend more financially.
As concerned members, there are several ways to give back to IPMBA. The first way is to renew your IPMBA membership (preferably after your first renewal notice) and ensure your memberships stays active. Your dues are essential to keeping our organization afloat.
If you would like to overtly display your pride in and support for IPMBA, you can purchase merchandise from the IPMBA website. Purchasing merchandise will provide additional resources to IPMBA while at the same time enabling you to look professional.
Conference socks are always a hit (I hate to match up my socks), and so are Instructor shirts. The popular lapel pin has been redesigned, so even if you have one, it may be time for an update. All three are available on the IPMBA merchandise page, along with other items.
There is other exciting news out there. Under the CARES Act, individuals who do not itemize their tax returns may still be able to deduct charitable contributions to non-profit organizations. Need more write-offs at the end of the year? Send in your tax-deductible donation to IPMBA. It can help in many ways. (Individuals who plan to take the standard deduction for their 2021 tax returns may claim an above-the-line deduction of up to $300 for cash donations to qualifying public charities. This above-the-line deduction is increased to $600 for cash donations for married couples filing jointly who do not itemize tax deductions.)
Donations help us create new curricula and update existing course material. They help with developing forums for public safety cyclists to share best practices, new ideas, develop resources, and conduct research.
We also make every opportunity to keep bike training affordable and accessible to the public safety community, while educating the public and elected officials about its benefits. Until this past year and a half, I often took the aspect of educating the public and elected officials for granted.
We should not forget about our Corporate Members, partners, and sponsors. We could not perform many aspects of public safety cycling without the dedicated support of these companies. The support they provide is invaluable to accomplishing our mission, so be sure to purchase your equipment from them whenever possible.
Of course, there are also non-financial ways to give back. You can write articles and product reviews for IPMBA News and the website. You can contribute blog posts and help develop resources. You can pass on your time, experience, and training by becoming an instructor.
You can also promote the association within your department and region. Instructors are encouraged to build certification into their fees and purchase the Complete Guide to distribute to their students (IPMBA earns a royalty on every copy sold), which add value to their classes and provides students with tangible, nationally recognized evidence of their accomplishment.
The best resource IPMBA has for advertising is our members, so please become an ambassador for the cause of public safety cycling and IPMBA!
David has been with the Denton Police Department since 1999 and on the bike team since 2002. He is currently working as a detective in the Criminal Investigations Division. He has completed the Police Cyclist, Public Safety Cyclist II, NO-FATs, MOCC, and MMR-IPMBA Core Skills and Scenarios Clinic. He was certified as an IPMBA Instructor in 2007 and earned the status of Instructor-Trainer in 2017. He is a TCOLE defensive tactics and firearms instructor and has served as an FTO. He holds a BA in Biology from the University of North Texas and attended paramedic school at North Central Texas College. He was elected to the IPMBA Board of Directors in April 2019 and currently serves as Treasurer after having served as Education Coordinator. He can be reached at dsmillican@gmail.com.
(c) 2021 IPMBA. This article appeared in the 2021 Board Issue of IPMBA News.