May 15, 2006

Greetings to all our IPA Region 30 brothers and sister, family members and friends!

A quick introduction may be in order here, before I begin. My name is Rick Moran, and I have been asked to edit the Region 30 Newsletter. I am a life member of the IPA, a member of the IPA Radio Club and way back when we rode dinosaurs to calls; I served as the editor of New York’s Finest magazine, the official publication of the NYPD’s PBA. I come from a long line of police officers in New York, four generations and among the family it was often said that as a cop, I was a good social worker! That profile fit pretty well back then, I think. Today, I am retired, well semi-retired, I still write and do some press photography for a variety of newspapers and magazines, and enjoy talking to officers around the world via Ham Radio from my roost in The Colony. Well, short and sweet, that is the story of my life!

Now to my editorial.

I attending the recent meeting of the Texas Chapter of the IPA in Dallas, presided over by Region 36 president, Clarence Hightower. Region 30 was well represented at this meeting, which seems to be good news considering the minutes of the previous Regional meeting in Houston drew only one member and three officers.

The meeting was centered on the reinstatement of Region 30 to full status within IPA. President Hightower agreed to send the national officers a letter endorsing and supporting this action, but there seemed to be some confusion or perhaps resistance from the chair when it was moved that a motion be passed to petition the national for that reinstatement. I personally asked the chair to clarify why the motion was not being entertained and the response was rather fuzzy in logic. The item was eventually carried, requesting the national organization to immediately reinstate our region but President Hightower stated he would not personally sign it.

It might be a good time to note that President Hightower was never duly elected to his office, he was appointed. It is also noteworthy that when Region 30 was temporarily frozen due to the fact that we had not met guidelines for timely reporting (due to a computer crash) of paperwork, it was agreed that we could request reinstatement at any time before the next national meeting, which we have done. It is also noteworthy that while some paperwork was not filed, all dues were paid to the national. To date, I am told, the national has not responded to our vote at the last meeting for reinstatement, nor have I personally seen the letter from President Hightower supporting this motion.

Personally, I hate politics, probably because I have lived with it all my life. I especially hate politics in fraternal organizations. I personally suspect some political motivation involving the region’s reinstatement, after all the dues were paid and judging from the turnout in Dallas, region 30 seems more motivated to get in the game than region 36, yet there appears to be some foot dragging going on.

The nice thing about writing an editorial is that you get to say what you think and what I think is that we have to send a clear message to all concerned that we want our region reinstated immediately. I also think that we have to remind the elected officials of our organization that we elect them and that if they do not respond to our stated wishes, we might take action to elect people who will. That might sound a little rough, given the fact that the stated purpose of our organization should be far from politics, but it is nevertheless, necessary at this point.

I urge all the active Region 30 members to send your e-mails to President Hightower and the national board supporting our official reinstatement and reminding them that we are the people who elect them all.

Fraternally,

Rick Moran