NAPPS has 37 members in the three states which were devastated by the winds and floods of Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, however, in telephone conversations with all these members, the NAPPS office learned that most of our memhers did not suffer the loss of their homes, cars and other property, but a couple of our members did lose virtually everything they owned.
Member Jeffrey Johnston(Mobile, Alabama) and his wife escaped through an upper floor window of their flooding home with only the clothes on their backs. Their five children were with friends in a vehicle which became part of the miles-long caravan of evacuees fleeing to safety. Johnston and his wife were subsequently reunited with their children. The family now lives in a state-provided residence in Florida. Johnson's current address is 17214 Front Beach Road, T-20, Panama City, FL 32413, Phone 850-234-1477.
Joe Gillis, a new member in Gulfport, Mississippi, also lost his car and had major water and structural damage to his home. Joe recently put a posting on the process server forum that he was back in business and could accept assignments. His mailing address is: PO Box 8281, Gulfport, MS 39506, Phone 228-209-0661.
The NAPPS Board of Directors held a special meeting by telephone on September 29 to determine what measure of relief could be given to members affected by Hurricane Katrina It was determined that all 37 members would be refunded their dues checks for the 2005-2006 fiscal year. (See below for copy of Resolution adopted by the Board.)
Several of the recipients returned their checks and explained their reasons for doing so.
PI Magazine's World Investigator's Conference
This was one incredible event. We've all been to conferences where several hundred people were in attendance, but in my 45+ years as a legal investigator and process server, I've never heard of-much less attended-an industry conference where more than 1,000 attendees listened to a host of speakers and were exposed to the offerings of several hundred exhibitors. The conference was the brain-child of Jimmy Mesis, owner and publisher of PI Magazine. He was totally hands-on in overseeing the success of this 4-day event. Jimmy was also a speaker at this year's NAPPS Conference in Scottsdale.
NAPPS was well-represented at the conference. I was on the program as a speaker (Process Service for Investigators) and NAPPS had an exhibit booth that attracted much attention. Larry Roth designed the booth so that it illustrated the benefits of membership and graphically displayed why the NAPPS website www.napps.org is the place to go for finding process servers. Larry was assisted by Stu Perlmutter. Other members who participated in staffing the booth were Sue Collins and Linda Perlmutter. Numerous NAPPS members attended the conference for its educational benefits. Included in this group were President John Perez, Gary Crowe, Robin and Doug Martinelli, and Cara LaForge. We have so far received six new member applications from individuals attending the conference. Three of them are from countries outside the United States.
The Life Saver Of The Year Award Goes To....
Another NAPPS member who attended the World Investigators Conference was Alan Goodman of Portland, Maine. He arrived in Las Vegas on an empty stomach and missing his luggage. He proceeded to the MGM Grand exhibit hall where he set up the NALI booth and then subsequently met up with Danny Vara, a PI from New Orleans.
The two of them, along with Danny's girl friend Nicole Bocra, went in for a bite to eat at one of the hotel's ritzy restaurants. Alan was famished. He ordered a sumptuous steak and proceeded to dig in. At this point he's not sure exactly what happened. He put the first cut of steak in his mouth and the next thing he knew the steak somehow got lodged in his throat and wouldn't budge-up or down.
Danny, seeing that Goodman was choking and turning color, jumped up and went behind his chair and slapped him hard on the back. Nothing happened. He then reached his arms around the agonizing victim. After locking his hands into a tight fist at the base of Goodman's rib cage, he gave a single massive jerk upwards that felt to Goodman like he had been hit in the stomach with a cannon ball. But it did the trick. "That piece of meat shot out of my mouth like it came out of a gun," Goodman commented.
The remarkable part of this story lies in the disparity of the physical characteristics of both men. Goodman is at least a half-foot taller than Danny and easily outweighs him by more than 100 lbs. And Goodman was in a sitting position and not standing when the Heimlich maneuver was performed on him. "Danny saved my life," said Goodman. "I'm truly lucky I was with somebody who was physically fit, very strong, and knew exactly what he was doing."
Austin, TX - New Site of NAPPS 2006 Conference
Hurricane Katrina has made it impossible for NAPPS to hold its 2006 Conference in New Orleans. The new site of the conference will be the Marriott at the Capitol in Austin, TX.
The current dates of the conference are May 18 -20 but we suggest you hold off making your travel reservations until after the November board meeting. There has been talk about adding another day to the seminar program but no decisions have been made. That information will be posted on the website as soon as we have it.
Hurricane Katrina Relief Resolution Adopted by NAPPS Board of Directors in unanimous vote September 29, 2005
Motion by Andy Estin:
"That NAPPS send a check for $150.00 as a refund of dues paid for the current year to all members in good standing in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
The checks are to be accompanied by a letter stating that NAPPS is refunding their current dues to help them through the difficulties caused by Hurricane Katrina and that if they were not damaged and want to return the check they may do so.
Further, the next newsletter to members is to give information to the members that IRS regulations prohibit NAPPS from giving cash grants to members so the Board of Directors voted to refund the dues for this year to members in the three states hit hard by Hurricane Katrina as the most that could be done by NAPPS to help its members without jeopardizing the non-profit status of NAPPS. The notice to members should point out that the Board recognized that this was an extraordinary event and the members should not consider this a precedent that will be followed in the future. The Board discussed that there are many hurricanes, tornados, floods, fires and earthquakes and NAPPS simply cannot afford to refund dues to members each time there is a natural disaster, terrorist event, or personal tragedy.
In addition, the Administrator is to contact all members in these 3 states and ask if they want to be listed in the next newsletter with a current address and phone number so that other members can send personal contributions to assist them with their current difficulties. This notice is to advise all members that the listed members are able to handle services forwarded to them and to complete proofs of service and appreciate any business that can be sent to them. If any member states they are not currently serving process that will be noted for those members only."
