December 10, 2013 MISA Meeting

The next MISA Meeting will be held on December 10, 2013 at the HUNAN MANOR CHINESE RESTAURANT located at 6091 Deepage Drive, Columbia, MD  21045 (410-381-1134). The meeting begins with social networking around 6:00 PM and the meal will be served around 7:00 PM.  The cost per person is $30.

ELECTIONS: We will be electing Officers and members of the MISA Board of Directors. If you are a member and wish to run for ofice, please contact MISA or President Robert Hoffman (410-977-6613 OR checkmt@attglobal.net ). You can place your name in nomination at the meeting or nominate someone else. (NOTE: If you decide to nominate someone, please contact them first so that they can accept or decline the nomination before it is presented to the members).

GUEST SPEAKER:  We will have CAROL LOVELESS as our guest speaker at the meeting. She is running for Delegate from Howard County. She is a Republican and a small business owner: she has spent  over 30 years in the Security Profession: 19 years with Pinkerton and then in 2000, she opened QUALITY SECURITY SPECIALISTS, LLC. She is obviously open to the needs of small businesses and especially to those issues that are important to the Private Detective and Security Professions.  

Dues: Dues for members have been reduced to $75.00 for regular membership and $50 for Associate memberships. This is the result of a MISA Board meeting conducted in October, 2013. We hope that this will generate more membership applications and returns the cost for memberships back to the 2000 levels when they were increased to meet the costs of our lobbying efforts that year. The 2000 increase had been intended to be a temporary situation, but was not effectively redressed until this year.

MENU:      APPETIZERS: (Everyone gets two):    Lettuce Wrapped Chicken and Spring Rolls

                      ENTREES: (Everyone gets  five):   GENERAL TSO’S CHICKEN; HUNAN MANOR SHRIMP; CRISPY FISH FILLET-HUNAN STYLE; SEASONAL GARDEN DELIGHT and : HOUSE COMBINATION LO-MEIN.

                       DESSERTS: Ice Cream and Fortune Cookies. 

To make your reservations, please contact the MISA President: Robert E. Hoffman at:

410-977-6613 or by email at checkmt@attglobal.net 

Thank you !  Robert E. Hoffman, President

Dear Members and readers:

     The next MISA meeting will be held at the HUNAN MANOR CHINESE RESTAURANT in Columbia, MD. The menu has not yest been decided but will be one of the  2 appeatizer and 5 entree meals.  We do not yet have a guest speaker.

Foremost on the agenda  are the ELECTIONS for OFFICERS  and the BOARD of DIRECTORS. Please consider running for office. Virtually all positions are open. I will not be running for office again .

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS: This year’s Board decided to lower membership rates. Regular Member dues are now $75.00 (they had been $125.00) and Associate Member dues are now $50.00 (formerly $75.00). Renewal applications and invoices  have been sent out by our Treasurer.

Please feel free to contact me at 410-977-6613 if you have any questions My email is checkmt@attglobal.net

Robert E. Hoffman, President -MISA

Dear Members & Readers:

     The October 8, 2013  MISA has been rescheduled to Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 6:00 PM. It will be held at the  HUNAN MANOR CHINESE RESTAURANT located at 7091 Deepage Drive, Columbia, MD  21045 (410-381-1134)

The Guest Speaker will be FRANCIE KOEHLER.  Ms. Koehler is a well known, highy respected,  California Private Detective who hosts a weekly radio talk show: PI’s DECLASSIFIED which airs every Thursday at 12:00 EST on Voice A merica Variety.  She is a former President of CALI (CA’s version of MISA) and has been very active in NCISS. She is also a highly respected Criminal Defense Investigator. Ms. Koehler will speak on a new NCISS program which will assist State Private Detective Associations who do not have current lobbyists (like MISA) to assist in lobbying at the State level. She will also speak on Criminal Defense Investigations.

We are also attempting to get a spokesperson from MSP Licensing Division to appear at this meeting to answer questions about issues & problems that MISA members are experiencing.

Other topics that will be discussed will be the new MISA Web Site page directing readers to agencies listed by County and also identifying those who are licensed in other jurisdictions. This will also contain a VERY BRIEF  blurb about that agency’s area(s) of expertise. This is being worked on at the present time. All members are urged to submit their office information (county location, address, ph #, and any out of state Licensing Information) to the MISA President as has been requested on the news group.  Membership, and Fund Raising will also be discussed. We will also be taking Nominations for the December MISA meeting 2014 elections.

The menu will be as follows:

APPETIZERS;  (Everyone gets two):

     1. Beef Egg Roll

     2. BBQ Spare Ribs

ENTREES (Everyone shares all five):

     1. Honey Sesame Chicken

     2. Walnut Shrimp

     3. Beef with Mixed Vegetables

     4. Supreme Crispy Eggplant

     5. House Combination Fried Rice

DESSERT: Sliced  fresh oranges & Fortune Cookies

Hot tea and water will be served with the meal. A CASH bar is available for attendees who wish to purchase different beverages. The COST is $25 per person. Make your reservations by emailing MISA President Robert Hoffman at checkmt@attglobal.net  or calling him at 410-977-6613.   

Dear Members:

     As all of you know, our agencies are licensed through the Maryland State Police. If you feel that you have an unresolved issue with MSP Licensing, then please contact MISA. Our MSP Liason Representative is Kathy Morris. Kathy is also the MISA Legislative Chairperson. She has many years of experience in working with MSP Licensing and has successfully resolved many issues /problems with Licensing Division. This is not to say that Ms. Morris makes policy decisions for MISA: that can only be done through actions of the MISA Board of Directors and by the members of MISA through motions made, seconded, discussed and voted on aand passed at official MISA  meetings. If any member of MISA wants to become active in these areas, please contact MISA and join our Legistaive Issues Commmittee: MISA needs your input and assistance !
     Per MISA By-laws, The President of MISA is the official spokesperson for the association. However, our legislative Chair and MSP Liason Representative is authorized to discuss and try to resolve issues with local and State government legislative entities and MSP Licensig Division. Members are NOT prohibited from contacting MSP directly, we are only suggesting that your issue may one that other members share and that we may already be working on. In addition, we STRONGLY encourage all members to keep in contact with their legislative representatives at all levels of government.

     If any members want to cotact the current MISA President (Robert E. Hoffman) concerning an issue or need for information, please feel free to email him at checkmt@attglobal.net  or telephone him at 410-977-6613. Kathy Morris can be reached by email  at  inquiry@misahq.com . When emailing  please give a terse synopsis of the problem/issue/question and leave a telephone number for her to contact you.  Contact information for other members of MISA’s Board of Directors can be found at the appropriate page of this website.

     We look forward to hearing from you.

        Sincerely, Robert E. Hoffman, MISA President.

Dear Members and Readers:

     The next MISA  meeting is currently scheduled for Tuesday, October 8, 2013 at 6:30 PM. The location and consequently, the menu, has not yet been finalized: We are waiting on input from members about alternate meeting sites/restaurants. If no suitable alternate location is agreed upon, then the default location will be the HUNAN MANOR RESTAURANT in Columbia, MD. We will post the meeting site, menu and cost information within the next 7 to 10 days. We are also attempting to get a guest speaker.  If you know of anyone willing to be a guest speaker at a MISA meeting (free meal is all that we can afford), then please contact the MISA President with that information.  If you know a restaurant that is willing to host a MISA meeting (usually 15 to 30 attendees) please contact Robert Hoffman (MISA President) at 410-977-6613 or by email at checkmt@attglobal.net . Be sure to have the following information available:

1. Name & Location of restaurant plus contact information (name of manager, telephone etc.).

2. cost per person.

3. any additional fees (cash bar, room fee etc.)

4. menu options.

5, Are they available for the 2nd Tuesday of October ; October 8 2013 (and/or the 2nd Tuesday of other months) ? If not, what date (s) are they available ?

6. Do they require a deposit in advance ? If so, how much $  ?  Can a meeting be postponed without penalty ? Is there a minimum number of attendees required and, if so, how many? 

7. What size room can they provide for us ? How much privacy will we have ?

8. Will they take a MISA business check as payment ?

These are all key pieces of information that we need before deciding on a meeting location.

     We will also provide more details about the discussion issues that will be highlighted at the October meeting in future posts and also on the newsgroup.