The Olds and District Rural Crime Watch Association is looking for cash to upgrade its aging communication system.
Members of the association discussed the need for an upgrade at the association's annual general meeting in Olds earlier this month.
Judy Schlichenmayer, the association's secretary-treasurer, operates the communication system, which allows her to phone, fax and email members.
“It's only used for policing information or events,” she said. “For example, I just sent one out today (April 2). It was to do with somebody shot a transformer in the Sundre area. So the Sundre RCMP are asking us to fan it out and saying, if this happened in the Bergen area, has anybody witnessed it or activity going on there that they should be aware of.”
But the programmer who designed the system has advised the association to modernize the system and “upgrade the hardware to a little more of a commercial standard,” Schlichenmayer said.
The hardware for the system, namely a server and software, is located at the Olds RCMP detachment and although Schlichenmayer can access the system remotely, its age and location have created the potential for a number of drawbacks.
“If there's a power failure, then someone needs to get into the system and because it's at the detachment and the security issues around (entering that building), it becomes very, very difficult (to access),” she said.
So, along with upgrading the hardware, Schlichenmayer wants the system moved from the RCMP detachment to her office on 49 Avenue.
She projects the cost of the proposed move and upgrade at roughly $8,000 and although the association has enough cash to cover such expenses in its coffers, Schlichenmayer wants to pursue a number of grants to save the association some money.
She told the gathering of roughly 30 people at the meeting, however, that she was skeptical about the possibility of obtaining grant money.
Having an upgraded system would allow the association to distribute information more effectively, Schlichenmayer said.
For example, new software would prevent any “incorrect connections” where voice mail messages to members are sometimes cut off depending on how old a particular answering machine is.
Upgrades could also lead to the option of sending information to members via text message.
“We need to look at that before we say yes or no because not everybody has a texting plan on their phones.”
She added she hopes the upgrades and move will take place in the next few months.
The association, at the meeting, also passed a motion establishing a $25 membership fee for non-profit organizations with an interest in community policing activities that want to join the organization.
At first, the association was looking at waiving its $300 corporate membership fee for other crime prevention organizations such as the Olds Citizens on Patrol and the Didsbury Community Policing Advisory Committee that are looking to use the association's communication system to advise its members of meetings.
But association members felt any group joining the association needs to have some “responsibility” for becoming a member and the association's expenses also need to be recovered.
Members also debated how the association would determine which organizations fit the criteria of a crime prevention agency and it was ultimately determined the association's executive committee would need to decide such questions on a case-by-case basis.
Association member Bonita Bellamy made a motion to amend an original motion of waiving the $300 fee to instead make organizations that fit the criteria pay $25 for membership.
One other issue addressed at the meeting was concerns about the size of the provincial crime watch zone where the Olds association is located.
Olds is located in provincial Zone 2, which stretches from the B.C. border in the west to the Saskatchewan border in the east and includes Grand Cache in the northwest, Consort in the southeast and Jasper in the southwest.
Schlichenmayer said the association will send a letter later this year to the Alberta Rural Crime Watch Association stating the size of the zone makes it difficult for representatives to get together for the purposes of collaboration.
“So it makes it hard to get a lot of interactive meetings with a lot of people attending so that we're getting a lot of communication between the different organizations,” she said.
The Olds association would like to see Zone 2 split into two, but Schlichenmayer said there are no current suggestions about where a new boundary would be created.
