Page 15 - WBG June 2023

tremendously to have one or more of the committee members join
me as we visit locations and potential hotels 2 or 3 years before
a meeting. I was elected President in 1991 in Vancouver. It was a
tremendous honor of course and at that time I was the youngest
person elected as President at 37 years old. In 1992 I organized
a luncheon in San Antonio honoring President Emeritus Stanley FEATURE
Smith and nearly 100 people attended. Stanley Smith Security
was founded in 1964 and grew to one of the largest privately
owned security companies with offices around the U.S. before
being acquired in 2005. I served until our 1992 Conference in
Brussels, and I chose Ft. Lauderdale for my Midterm Board of
Directors Meeting in 1993.

In 1996 WAD went through another change in Executive
Director. By early 1997 it became clear to the officers that this
change was not going to work. It was at the Midterm Board
Meeting in Costa Rica in March 1997 that Chairman Phil Stuto
asked me to take over as Executive Director which I accepted.
I soon determined we had less than $2,000 in our bank
account, and we owed our San Francisco printer nearly $5,000.
We also had an assortment of other bills due. I was able to
negotiate a settlement of $2,000 with the printer as his bills had
been due for months.

It was also clear to me that there was no money to pay my
meager salary. It would be December or January when I could
begin getting paid after dues started coming in. I had to
somehow get our files and equipment from San Francisco to
Denver. A moving company was very expensive. I ended up flying
to San Francisco, renting a U-Haul truck, loading everything up

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