I am a volunteer for the nonprofit Foundation, Alto al Crimen (LINK). This post is from me as a local resident and not as a representative of AaC.
Although the Alto al Crimen Emergency Hotline service has been functioning without interruption, and will continue in it's current configuration until February of next year, some AaC members (registrants) were put off by a lack of administrative responsiveness and public communication.
Then one of the early leaders of the Alto al Crimen organization decided to work with our hotline operator to setup an independent, for profit business venture - a commercial hotline service - and not renew the contract with AaC. This is fine - nothing wrong with capitalism and entrepreneurship, but it precipitated a need for some changes in Alto al Crimen. This event was a wake-up call, and Alto al Crimen had to decide whether to shut down or reinvent itself.
One board member decided to lead an effort to re-invent the organization, look for new board members, develop a new set of priorities, and hopefully set up a new hot-line service for those who didn't want - or could not afford - the new commercial service. In the meantime, I have taken full responsibility for the Alto al Crimen website - including managing website-generated e-mails, and administering our secure, cloud-based registrant database. I will continue to perform these duties indefinitely as a volunteer if asked to do so by the new board of directors.
In addition to my volunteer services, a team of new volunteers is getting organized, and we will be working hard to help make Alto al Crimen a real benefit to the community.
I have received heart-warming support from many members of the Boquete community who want to see Alto al Crimen survive and serve the community. I want to thank to all of you who have stopped by my table under the big white AaC sign at the Tuesday Morning Market and offered words of encouragement - and also made generous donations. This will help us weather the storm and get the organization back on track.
! am pleased with the progress being made at the meetings with the new group of volunteers. I look forward to that time in the near future when the re-organization is complete and AaC will announce the details to the community.
I left the bickering in another thread, and ask that you don't push for immediate answers - but rather wait up to a few weeks until the new administration is up and running, and official announcements are made.
In the meantime, know that we are working to bring this together,and that communication and database administration are in good hands. And that the hot-line is there if you need it.
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Under Mark Heyer's leadership, AAC worked with Mr. Brown and helped start the organization in Coronado, Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Rodny has a contract with them to answer their hotline. I know that Mark still is frequently in contact with Mr. Brown, but I don't know if AAC still works with him and the Coronado anti-crime organization.
We are happy to announce that the 2 guys who attacked us with fire arms at our Santa Lucia home on July 29th have been captured in David when they did a robbery. They are in jail in David and will be sentenced for 10-12 years in jail according to the DJI. We recognised them on photos. The police has a lot of photos of suspected gang members, most fro the David area-
Robert, this deserves to go out on News Boquete. Everybody will be relieved to know these people were caught.
Your comment has no relationship to the structure of Alto al Crimen, Vic. Many of us are hoping that we can get a retired executive or manager from the world of non-profit volunteer-staffed organizations on the board of directors. The level of my volunteer effort in this organization recently increased when I realized that many people in the community wanted it to survive and reinvent itself, and I had the skills and experience to help out with the internet and IT infrastructure.
There is no military style command structure in the organization - it's more like the proverbial efforts to herd cats. People volunteer, are asked to help with various tasks, including possibly serving on the board of directors. The sharing of ideas and the questioning of policies and ideas is not discouraged, much less prohibited.
I am an independent AaC volunteer who wants to help this organization be of benefit the community. Although it is unrelated to my volunteer efforts with AaC, I am also a U.S. Navy vet - I was a medic (hospital corpsman) and not an officer. And indeed, while serving in the Navy, I could not "quit" or openly question the authority of the officers - who were above me in the military hierarchy.
However, that certainly is not the case with Alto al Crimen, as you can see by my"unauthorized" independent postings that are neither requested by nor approved in advance by the board of directors or anyone else.
No one is telling me that I cannot quit, and I certainly question a lot of things.
Herding cats:
Hello...I am not sure I understand your comment. Are you indicating that this is similar to commanding troops that have no say in anything? My comments were that of encouragement and to allow them time to do what they have to do and not get into a discussion of who is right or who is wrong. There are several other threads so that you can express your concerns. Are you a member of AAC? Thanks.
David, THANK YOU for your notice to the community. This brings a sense of peace and decorum which is so desperately needed. I am new to this entire "discussion" and see that it went totally overboard.
I am certainly anxious to see the "new and improved" AAC and want you to know that I fully support your efforts to regroup and reorganize. I do hope that the rest of the community will take a "verbal backseat" and allow you all to do what you do.
My wife and I have decided to stay with the "home team" and we wish you all the best and we'll surely pray for you and the reorganization. We want you to succeed and prosper. We'll look for you Tuesday with our registration in hand.
Thank you for your volunteer spirit.
Joel