Greetings.

I had a bit of a mind-snapper yesterday. I logged on to our monthly Regional Leadership call, as hosted by our FBI National CAAA organization, and honestly, I just expected to spend a quiet hour listening to faraway people talk on faraway topics. Not so. Our Regional rep introduced Alicia Wadas, our national organization’s president, who greeted the dozens of attendees and immediately said; “Today I’m putting the spotlight on the Birmingham chapter.”

She specifically cited the recent training session on explosive precursors that SA John Bates conducted in Huntsville in May (wherein he trained industry and retail types on recognizing efforts to secure potentially explosive or incendiary materials), and then she told the attendees about our newly-launched monthly Counterintelligence briefings (important news and updates to defense contractors and researchers concerning spying and hacking efforts) – both of which we are proudly co-sponsoring and on which we work alongside our FBI partners. She noted that no other chapter in the nation has ever attempted even one such project, and here we are, launching two major such initiatives in partnership with our FBI Field Office in the space of a month. She held us up as an example of innovation and dedication to our mission.

Pretty much made my day.

Seriously, this indicates the respect and esteem in which we are held nationally – we are the chapter that TRIES stuff – we take on projects and we get things done. We always have and I hope we always will. When it came my turn to talk, I attributed it to two factors: our willingness to partner with the FBI and others to achieve progress and perform service to the community, and equally importantly, an unparalleled level of communication and cooperation with our Field Office. We are truly blessed in these regards.

Okay, back to the fun stuff: we’re back to having in-person board meetings as of June. And we are launching in-person members meetings in July. We will have our first gathering in a private dining area at the Fish Market in Birmingham on Thursday evening, July 22nd. You’ll hear much more about that shortly. We’ll follow that up with a similar event in Huntsville. We’re working on the details now. And look for a few other public events this summer, too – like a tournament at Top Golf in August to benefit human trafficking survivors at The Wellhouse. Please come out and support these events when you get the official notice. We have missed seeing one another terribly this past year, and we are eager to get back together and put things right!

I truly hope to see you in the very near future at one of our upcoming events. Please stay tuned for further details.

Best wishes,

Paul H. Franklin

President FBI Birmingham CAAA