A GRAND Junction Experience For Rocky Mountain Women in Law Enforcement!
The 2009 Conference Committee for RMWLE
I had the privilege of being one of the presenters at the annual conference for the Rocky Mountain Women in Law Enforcement in Grand Junction, Colorado this week. What a great (grand!) experience!
The photo is of the conference planning committee–and they deserve tremendous thanks for all they did. Felicia Low, president of the association and every association officer and volunteer also deserve applause. I know those women and men would agree that the quality of the conference would not have been possible without vendors, corporate supporters and the chiefs, sheriffs and directors who allowed the participants to attend.
All of the work for the conference centered around the 170 or so professional women and men from the Rocky Mountain states (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and even from Florida) who attended and participated enthusiastically in the training. They were inspirational, fun and joyfully dedicated to their professions. You would have liked to be there!
Grand Junction was the perfect place for the conference this year. It is a welcoming city that is close to many attractions and beautiful on its own. I love to walk in the downtown mall area, stop for coffee, shop a bit and just enjoy the great weather (it’s nearly always much more mild than elsewhere in the state.) Grand Junction City Manager Laurie Kadrich was an uplifting and motivating speaker on Tuesday night. She was the perfect person for the role, because she started her career in public service as a police officer in Gillette, Wyoming, in the late 70s.
I’ll write more about the conference over time, but had to report its success immediately. One of the recurring themes of every speaker and trainer had to do with building relationships with officers and employees at all levels of the organization as well as building relationships with individuals and groups in the community. This conference was a great model for the concept!
