Louisiana Chapter
International Association
of arson Investigators 

                                                PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

I would like to start by thanking the membership of the Louisiana Chapter, for allowing me to serve as your President this upcoming year. It is an honor and a privilege to hold the office of President. I'm fortunate to follow in the footsteps of Past President Don Davenport. Due to the leadership of Past President Davenport I received a great deal of knowledge regarding the operation of the association, and it put me in a better position to hold the office of President.

The ability to work together allowed the board of directors and other members of the executive board to accomplish our goals for another outstanding year. I would like to welcome to the board three new members Northern Vice President, Todd Smith and Directors, Wayne Regis and Brian Tauzin. I look forward to working with the remaining members of the board so we can have another successful year.

Our Annual Fall Conference was held this year in Lafayette, Louisiana and I would like to thank the men and women of the Lafayette Fire Training Center as well as Fire Chief Benoit for allowing us to use their facility. Instructor Steve Carman had a wealth of information regarding vessels and I believe everyone left the conference with a little more knowledge about investigating a vessel fire. The conference was well attended and we ended up with a little more than fifty attendees. This conference drew the attention of individuals from other states as well as one international individual from Malaysia.

We will continue to maintain the training schedule as in previous years with a Northern Training Day, a Southern Training Day and the Annual Fall Conference. Remember this is your chapter and the board would welcome any ideas on topics you would like see taught. Please contact a member of the board via telephone or e-mail with your suggestions.

I would like to see our chapter continue to grow. Currently we have over 300 members. If each member would bring in one new prospective member we could double our membership this year. I believe by having nationally recognized instructors for our training sessions we should be able to bring in more members. With the additional members comes “growing pains” in the organization. The By-Laws are in need of updating and the by-law committee will be working on additional updates. Past President Davenport will be working on a policy and procedure manual.

The use of the internet for most of our business has made our work a little easier. I encourage each member to use the pay-pal account for paying your dues and registering for our training sessions. I'm working with Past President Hebert on getting a vendor to sell certain types of merchandise with our logo that can be purchased through the internet. Please visit our web site www.laiaai.org to view upcoming events, photographs from previous training sessions, a list of the executive board and directors with their contact information. Also, minutes from the board of directors meeting along with the treasures' report will be uploaded onto the website for you to view.

Louisiana State Fire Marshal, Butch Browning has opened the doors to his office to us for the use of a conference room to hold our board meetings. I will continue to hold the board meetings at the State Fire Marshal's Office in Baton Rouge. Our first board of directors meeting will be held in January of 2010 but a specific date has not been set.

In closing, I want to thank the member of the Louisiana Chapter for allowing me to serve as President of this outstanding organization. With the help of everyone in this chapter we will continue to grow and strengthen this organization.

Sincerely,

President Randy Bruff