Greetings. As always, I hope this issue of our newsletter finds you well and happy in this Holiday season.
This is the final time I will come to you in print this year, and it is truly a bittersweet goodbye we will bid to 2020. This is the point where in a typical year I would recount to you our chapter’s many accomplishments, events, and projects. But that would be in a typical year. I recall some years ago, in addressing her subjects, Queen Elizabeth II spoke of the then-current year as an; “annus horribilus;” and that is what we have experienced, as the pandemic – among other elements -- upended all semblance of “normal.”
Yet we have persevered. We have received awards – gaining both the highest honor given to a chapter, and as individuals, with several of our members awarded medals for their exemplary service to others. We have assisted on multiple occasions when law enforcement officers have been injured or killed in the line of duty, and we have organized and served as a coordinating agency for hurricane relief (repeatedly) this late summer and fall. So we’ve done what we could, and we’ve obeyed the advice of experts and curtailed our group activities, all while waiting for vaccines or therapeutics to arrive and allow more typical activities to resume. And on that front, we have hope that 2021 will be far better and more productive for us in the public arena, as it appears help is on the way.
So allow me to mention a few things: we are working with the local FBI Field Office, and we should have a new Memorandum of Agreement to present to you shortly. The MoA, as you may know, is the document that we use to guide and measure our projects and activities in the coming year. And we will be operating with a largely-new slate of officers and a few new faces on the chapter’s Board of Directors for 2021. We’re also working on a couple of opportunities to work together to make the holidays brighter for some folks who could really use the help. The details should be elsewhere in this issue, or if time runs out before final arrangements are made, we’ll email the membership to let you know how you can help.
More news: we will be unveiling the new slate of officers and a few new board members at our Annual Meeting at 6 PM on 12/17. We will hold the meeting via Zoom, and further details will appear else where in this issue. Our SAC, Johnnie Sharp, will speak and we know you’ll also want to hear from our special guest speaker, board member and SEC football official, Marc Curles, who will talk about officiating in the SEC. This should be especially interesting as he discusses SEC football in the age of COVID. Again, more details elsewhere in the newsletter, but rest assured that we’ll have a lively evening.
I’ll hope to see you on Zoom on the 17th. And I want to thank you for your faith in us and your continued support throughout 2020. And please accept my wishes for a happy and blessed Holiday season for you and yours. Let’s all hope for a safe and enjoyable close to this year and a far, far better 2021 together!
--- Paul H. Franklin, President FBI Birmingham CAAA
