“ Meeting ” the Needs of Our Members
By : Meghan Kalmbacher , CMP , Events Manager – California Police Chiefs Association & Brittany MacKenzie , Training Coordinator – California Police Chiefs Association
We did it CPCA ! We postponed , we rewrote contracts ,
we found new ways of doing things and ultimately , we succeeded ! After many months of uncertainty , September was a month for the history books when the Cal Chiefs team launched not one , but two multi-day virtual conferences . Thank you all for participating and for believing in us ! Also , a huge shoutout to our unbelievable staff and our WLLE & Training Committees ! You were able to create something amazing all while dealing with everything 2020 has thrown at us . Thank you for your dedication , commitment and for inspiring greatness . In case you missed it , here ’ s what we had to offer in 2020 .
Our first ever virtual event was our Women Leaders in Law Enforcement ( WLLE ) conference that was held on September 8-11 , 2020 . The event consisted of 8 workshops , 4 keynotes , virtual morning workouts , photo & karaoke contests , fun music and an overwhelming sense of empowerment . Over 450 women and men from California , Arizona , Washington and from across the United States came together to share strategies for success and find a little bit of the togetherness that WLLE is known for . The WLLE Committees look forward to planning for 2021 when we can hopefully meet in-person in Santa Clara and continue to build on what we have learned by incorporating some hybrid aspects to our already highly successful event .
Our second virtual conference of the year was our Annual Training Symposium that was held on September 21-24 , 2020 . We had almost 300 Chiefs and Seconds from across California come together for training on leadership , tech issues , critical incidents , mental health , legal issues and many other topics . We also threw in a little fun with “ Throwback Thursday ” and asked all of the participants to submit photos of themselves when they first got into law enforcement . The results were very entertaining . Due to the continuing issues with COVID-19 and budgetary concerns , next year ’ s Annual Training Symposium will also be virtual and will be held on April 27-29 , 2021 .
The pandemic presented a unique set of challenges that we had to face as an association with regards to our in-person training courses . Trying to navigate what the remainder of the training year would look like was extremely difficult . Ultimately , we decided to postpone all remaining Spring 2020 training courses to take place in Spring of 2021 . Some of the training courses have already been rescheduled , and dates are currently being determined for others . You can view the status of the courses on the Training Courses page of our website . While the pandemic has had some negative effects on the health of our training courses , it also opened our eyes to new training possibilities . We recognized that while we cannot offer certain training courses , we can help to mitigate the lack of training by offering virtual training . Virtual training is something that we hope to not just offer during the pandemic , but indefinitely . There are a variety of topics to be taught and conversations to be had that don ' t have to happen in person and we are capitalizing on that opportunity . Because leadership is always our number one desired training topic by our membership , we are currently working with Retired Police Chief , Pete Dunbar to put together a virtual leadership training series that will feature different leadership topics . Stay tuned for more information on this ! While it has been difficult to see the negative effects , the pandemic has had on our training , we are grateful for the opportunities it has presented us .
Here ' s to 2021 !
12 CALIFORNIA POLICE CHIEF | www . californiapolicechiefs . org