On Sunday afternoon, Aug. 19, APCO International President Gregg Riddle welcomed attendees to the 1st General Business Meeting. Riddle introduced the members of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors, thanking them for their service. Riddle and the Executive Committee then presented the Board of Directors with awards, thanking them for their service over the past year.

To provide for continuity, the members of the Board of Directors serve alternating terms. Four new Board members will take office on Wednesday, Aug. 22: James J. McFarland, Pennsylvania Chapter; Matt Stillwell, Oklahoma Chapter; Robin Tieman, Missouri; and Kimberly Burdick, Montana.

The Quorum then had an opportunity to vote for the nominees for Life Member, who were asked to leave the room prior to the vote.

“The ayes have it,” said Gregg. The association’s newest Life Members, Pres Thomson, Tony Harrison and Paul Mayer, then reentered the room to a standing ovation.

Bob Gurss then gave a short regulatory affairs update, discussing the progress made on the D Block and the National Public Safety Broadband Network, FirstNet and the T-Band give-back.

“APCO won a huge victory this past year in the allocation of the D Block to public safety to build out a public safety broadband network,” said Gurss. “The key piece of the legislation is the reallocation of the spectrum and combining it with the spectrum previously allocated public safety.”

Acting Secretary of Commerce Dr. Rebecca Blank is expected to speak at the Opening General Session on Monday morning, and will likely have a lot more to say about FirstNet. We’ll keep you posted, but attendees can learn a lot more about these important topics in individual sessions over the next three days of the conference.

The candidates for 2nd Vice President, Brent Lee and John Wright, each had a chance to speak to the Quorum. If you haven’t yet voted, the electronic voting will be open until 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 21.

Gregg Riddle closed the meeting by thanking those in attendance and calling the Business Meeting in recess until Tuesday afternoon.