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Hello to all of my fellow APCO members. My name is Barry Woodward from the Georgia Chapter, and I am announcing to you that I am a candidate to be your Second Vice President for 2008.
This is something that I have given thought to for a long time and finally made the decision in March of 2007 to take the step and run for the position. I have a lot of good friends within the Association that have encouraged and supported me to embark on this endeavor. And I would be remiss if I did not include my wife, Trish, who is the 911 Director for the City of Conyers, GA. Without her 100 percent support of this, I would not be able to begin this journey.
A Little Bit About Myself
I first got started as an operator member of APCO in 1977 as the State of Georgia’s first “Operator Member”, but my agency at that time did not support the funds for it. I let it lapse until 1984 when I moved from operations to technical, and they supported my re-joining of APCO. Since that time, I have served in virtually every position on the Georgia Board of Officers since 1985, including Chapter President in 1990-1991. I still serve today as the Chapter Treasurer. I have also been involved at the National level since 1990 by joining a number of committees including the Emergency Medical Services Committee, 911 Committee and the Emergency Management Committee. I currently serve on the Constitution and By-Laws Committee, Homeland Security Committee, and Spectrum Committee as well as a number of the Georgia Chapter committees. I am a Senior Active member of APCO.
I am a certified Communications Operator, Police Officer, Firefighter, EMT, Terminal Agency Coordinator, and Master Emergency Manager. I hold several instructor disciplines including Senior Instructor through the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council. I also served as the National President for MTUG from 2001 to 2002.
My Commitment to You!
I am 100 percent committed to APCO and what it represents…YOU who are in the communications field. Communications is the LIFELINE of any organization and is evidenced every day by the hard working men and women who man our centers and keep up with the mountainous volumes of traffic that come through each day. It is also evidenced by those individuals who do our technical work, our frequency coordination, and most of all, the training of our line personnel. All of that has to come together to make our profession the BEST in Public Safety. But, we still have a long way to go to be recognized as equals in Public Safety to our partners in the other disciplines. One of my goals if I am elected is to continue to push for more training for Communications personnel through Web Based Training and through an individual’s own agency. We must continue to strive for excellence within our Centers, and training is a major part of that. We could call this “Raising the Standard of Excellence” for all of our personnel, and for that matter, all of our members in general. I am also committed to continue to work for “parity” with our Public Safety partners because without Communications, the other disciplines could not do their jobs effectively. We also need to be pushing for wireless and VoIP to come on-line quickly so we can locate cellular callers when they do not know where they are. There are also a host of other items that we need to continue to push for that current and past administrations are currently working on for the betterment of Public Safety Communications.
See You In Kansas City
August 3 - 7, 2008