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History and Origins of ASSIST
- 1980-1991
by Dale Watson, Lifetime ASSIST member
Walt�s idea for ASSIST was to eventually have a paid staff and lobbyists to handle the day-to-day operations and be overseen by the Executive Board.
A commissioned salesperson was hired to work full time selling memberships. Memberships began to come. The organization was growing. The quarterly meetings, which were mini-conventions, were abandoned for the yearly convention. A convention was planned and it was first class. The Omni Hotel in Dallas was selected. Speakers from all over the United States were brought in. These were highly paid speakers and instructors. Accountants, IRS people, classes on how to advertise and sell security services, classes on how to set up your office and do automatic billing and schedules with a new device called a desktop computer. The members finally got what they had been requesting.
Marc Hibbs and I were so impressed we went home and purchased a top-of-the-line Tandy Radio Shack 64k, 8� floppy disk computer and software at a cost of $15,000. Hibbs set up ASSIST�s first bulletin board. For those too young, a bulletin board is an early version of web site with no pictures. This was great because ASSIST members and licensees were able to view proposed legislation and other ASSIST business as fast as Hibbs could type. (Scanners were still in the future.)
Many people attended the convention and a great amount of money was taken in. The folks that had founded the association were very impressed until they found out all the monies that were received were paid out for expenses and the cost depleted the treasury. There were many complaints about the expenditures and Walt pretty much walked away.
Also during this period, the board of directors of ASSIST was sued by the Attorney General over a $5 fine we paid on behalf of a board representative. (That story is too long and complicated to write here. Catch me at the convention if you�re interested; I�ll fill you in.) Herb Kelpen was asked to fill the rest of Walt�s term. It was back to regrouping.
With no money, the lobbying effort was left up to Herb, and how he could sweet talk Kraege Polan to work on the cheap and take deferred payments. There was a lot of work to be done. All of our businesses were suffering because of the time needed to fight for and against legislation.
One of the heroes of this period, and still is, was Ann Ball, who was appointed recording secretary. She did everything from writing the newsletters to mailing membership drives. If nobody wanted to do it, it got dumped on Ball. She would come to the meetings feeling unappreciated saying she couldn�t do any more and leave with more duties. This association owes a lot to Ball.
There wasn�t much to elections. Nobody wanted to run and the general membership said �You guys are doing okay, just keep on working.�
In 1983, Hibbs became president, Bud Price stayed EVP, I stayed VP and Gary Walsh, secretary/treasurer. Herb was chairman. This was the executive committee until 1989. During this period there were the same legislative fights as in the past (reserve peace officers). The board had been placed under Sunset review. The association was now trying to keep the board alive. Many in the industry could care less if the board�s charter was renewed. The board knew they needed our help and agreed to concessions with case filings in areas of typographical errors on timely documents and job specific training requirements.
To be continued... �The bill that rocked the industry�.
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