I must start this newsletter with some somber news. On 11-12-2008 the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office lost Deputy Larry Canfield to a motorcycle accident. I received this information while attending Northern Region training on 11-12-2008 in Manteca. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Deputy Canfield's family and our brothers and sisters of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office.

Your Board of Directors recently met in the Sacramento area for our fall meeting. We made some personnel changes within the board at the request of members vacating positions. Bill Kidd our administrative coordinator informed me he would be resigning his position as he has other activities that demand his time. The board, after a long discussion, has agreed to maintain the board position but not fill it at this time. Bill has done an outstanding job for us in centralizing and maintaining our records as well updating the by-laws and assisting with the annual training conference. Bill has been and continues to be a wealth of knowledge for this organization. To that respect Bill has agreed to stay on as the Historian for CAHN. This will allow Bill the freedom he needs to pursue his other activities, but still assist the Board when questions arise about the CAHN. Thanks Bill for all your hard work and dedication to CAHN, you will be missed in your Admin Coordinator role, but we are pleased to have you stay on as the Historian.

The second personnel change we made was at the request of Lisa McConnell, who stepped down as the Vice President due to personal reasons. Lisa, however, wants to stay connected to the board. With the board approval, I have appointed Robyn Berlin to fill the remainder of Lisa's term as Vice President and Lisa will in-turn become the appointed co-conference chair to help Tim Hunter with this years' ATC in San Diego.

We continue to encourage all to attend the quarterly trainings and the conference as this is the primary mode of training for our membership. We realize, in this economic climate, not everyone can attend the annual training conference so the intent is to bring quality, quarterly training for the benefit of the membership.
Please do not hesitate to contact a board member if you hear of a training topic, scenario or idea that you would like to see.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for this years 20th Anniversary Training Conference, please contact Tim Hunter, Lisa McConnell or Robyn Berlin with your ideas as the planning is under way for this year's event.

As always, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me via e-mail or by phone as I look forward to your input/assistance.
Remember this is YOUR ASSOCIATION so we will always welcome your input and ideas.

Matt Thomas