By Cheryl Konarski

Originally published in the July/August 2018 issue of APCO’s PSC magazine.
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In this article, we reached out to several members of the Nevada chapter for thoughts and comments regarding their chapter and the upcoming conference.

Nevada APCO (nvapco.org) received their charter on February 23, 1994, making them an official chapter of APCO. As of March 2018, the chapter boasts 195 members, which includes two past Association presidents–Richard A. Mirgon (August 2009-August 2010) and Brent Lee (August 2015-August 2016). In fact, these two past presidents served on the conference committee when Nevada hosted the APCO Western Regional Conference at the Tropicana Hotel in February 2003, with Mr. Lee serving as conference chair and Mr. Mirgon handling publicity.

Nevada has had several members complete the Registered Public Safety Leader Program (RPL) and proudly wear that designation. Many others have and continue to serve in leadership roles at both the state and national level.

President Elliott Davis shared these thoughts regarding their chapter: “One of our goals is to expand our chapter and expand the services we offer to the NV agencies. We’d like to provide more training, even if it’s just written material available to our chapter members. We are planning to hold a webinar about leadership for our chapter next month. Another goal is to ensure we keep our members current on ever-changing technological advances. Of course, we are very excited about hosting this year’s conference.

“It affords us an opportunity to meet so many people from around the country and learn more about the inner workings of APCO International. I want to really encourage our folks to apply for APCO scholarships. I was able to get one and used it toward the RPL program, which was a lot of work, but very useful.”

Nevada is part of the APCO Western Region, which holds an annual regional conference each year. The region includes 13 states, as well as Guam and American Samoa. This regional conference provides a more intimate setting for additional training and networking opportunities.

The Nevada chapter is proud and excited to host the 2018 APCO International Conference. Executive Council Representative Sandi Barfield stated, “We are totally excited about hosting the conference this year. Our number of active members is small, but we have huge hearts and a desire to serve. We hope more chapter members will get involved through hosting the conference.

“We are all looking forward to networking with friends new and old through other chapters. We know it’s going to be a lot of work but will be so rewarding at the same time.”

Mark Pallans, co-chair of the conference, shared these thoughts: “The Nevada Chapter is proud to host this year’s annual conference here in Las Vegas. We are looking forward to a great show and breaking the attendance records we set when we last hosted. Come on out and see a great conference, great natural wonders, and great entertainment at the conference dinner as well as throughout the Las Vegas strip. And remember—it’s a dry heat!”

Nonie McCandless, co-chair of the conference said, “It has been an awesome experience being a part of the conference committee. Working with APCO staff and seeing the amazing amount of work they do toward the success of the conference is humbling. It is pretty amazing what they are doing, all the contacts and tasks they are juggling as well. As the host committee, there are lots of tasks to complete that make up different parts of the conference schedule.

“I am looking forward to once again being at the conference, and the opportunity to serve on the conference committee is definitely an awesome new perspective of the conference.
Being a part of the conference committee is a great opportunity for all of us to meet more APCO members and see the conference through their eyes. We are so excited to head
to Las Vegas in August! Looking forward to seeing you there!”

Nevada previously hosted the APCO Conference in 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Las Vegas Hilton, which also celebrated the 75th anniversary of our annual conference. As Mark stated, their expectation is to break the attendance records set in 2009. In 2009, 5,453 people attended the conference. Everyone is looking forward to exceeding those numbers.

Cheryl Konarski, CPE, is Dispatch Supervisor/CTO, APCO and Missouri Training Partnership Instructor, APCO PSTI/CTO Instructor, Dade County Emergency Services.