2008 WSATI Southern Chapter President Rick Greenwood (Riverside Police) welcomed everyone to the Santa Ana Elks Lodge. 

Rick then requested that Past President Bud Hood (Remington Elsag) lead the members in the pledge of allegiance.

Jim Williams, Vice President, Long Beach Police
John Bartolone, Secretary, DMV Investigations
Tim Glover, Sergeant-at-Arms, LASD/TRAP
Bud Hood, Immediate Past President, Remington Elsag
Richard O. Knapp, Legal Counsel, Knapp & Spurlock, LLP

Dave Petrelli, Treasurer, Project Time & Cost, was introduced, but was not present.

Rick then introduced the Southern Chapter Past Presidents in attendance: Ted Saraf (1992), Dennis Frias (1997), Gary Labb (2000), and Phil Macklin (2001), and Bud Hood (2007).

Rick then had the members in attendance do self introductions. It was great to see the great turnout of people who traveled in from Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties.  Welcome to all the new members joining us, Avis Bulbulyan (Thaxton & Associates), Roland Burgess (CHP Inland), David Efferson (CHP Inland), Roger Gutierrez (Hartford Insurance), Jeff Jones (Riverside PD), Jim Kingsmill (Westminster PD), Andrew Lopez (OCATT/UCIPD), A.P. Mehta (DMV Investigations), Chris Maxwell (Infinity Insurance),  Aristeed Powell (DMV Investigations), Edward Rodriguez (Alhambra PD), Will Ruiz (Alhambra PD), Cherryl Valdez (Infinity Insurance), Ron Weber (Westminster PD), and David Welde (OCATT/Tustin PD), as well as several people we had not seen in awhile, Brenda Brooks (State Farm), Tim Caldwell (State Farm), and Phil Macklin (Allstate Insurance).

Rick then spoke about the future of the WSATI Southern Chapter and thanked Bud for all the hard work he did while a Southern Chapter Officer.  Rick said some of the things the Southern Chapter was planning on doing are:

* Training Classes - One day classes where WSATI will take the class to the student.  The first one will probably be in April - Harley ID.
* Starting early on the 2010 WSATI Training Seminar that the Southern Chapter will be hosting, having a planning meeting possibly in August 2008.
* Possibly adding two Director positions to the Executive Board to allow people to see what is required of the Executive Board officers before they commit to running for the Sergeant-at-Arms position.
* WSATI, in co-operation with the IAATI Western Regional Chapter is posting an encrypted roster on the WSATI website that will contain contact information for WSATI Chapters, AATIA, CATI, and hopefully, BCATTI.  This will give us available contact information for all the vehicle theft associations within the jurisdiction of the IAATI Western Regional Chapter.  Once this is up and operating, each association president will have the encryption password and can supply it to its own association membership.
* Getting involved in IAATI and the IAATI WRC.  Everyone who attended the last WSATI Training Seminar in San Diego was given a one year "free" membership to IAATI and the IAATI WRC.  IAATI has a wealth of member rosters, training information, and a magazine to assist their membership.

Rick then introduced the guest speaker, LASD/TRAP Detective Rob Manning.  Rob gave a presentation on Fraud Applications, with the additional information on how the dealer will facilitate Auto Financing Fraud at times.  Following Rob's presentation, Rick presented Rob with a thank you gift from WSATI.

Rick then presided over the raffle.  There were a lot of different winners, and at the same time many were upset with repeat winners Tim Jackson and Victor Valdez.  If you want to be like them, do what they do... buy extra raffle tickets...

Rick invited CHP Sergeant Dennis Frias up to the podium.  Dennis spoke about the upcoming ATAC Recovery Officer of the Year Awards programs in San Diego County on April 9th and Orange County on May 28th.  Dennis also spoke about the upcoming North American Export Committee Summit to take place in Sacramento on April 29-30.  Dennis advised that all these events are linked to the WSATI website. 

Rick then announced that the lunch was ready.  The attendees were then served a Mexican Buffet, which everyone appeared to enjoy and take a trip back for seconds (and for some, thirds)...

Following lunch, Rick Greenwood announced that the next meeting would be on May 15, 2008 at the Mercedes Benz Training Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

The meeting was adjourned.

The Guest Speaker will be DMV Investigator John Bartolone who will be presenting a class on lien sales.

The traditional luncheon will be served at the Training Center.

Directions: 10 Freeway off at Milliken, northbound to 5th St (2nd street north of the Ontario Mills outlet), turn right on 5th eastbound approximately one block to Pittsburgh, right turn, southbound to the facility.  An easy landmark is the Ontario Mills Outlet as the facility is just north of it.  You can't miss it as the MBZ emblem is on the new building.

For a map to this location, click here.