Meredith Coon's President's Address |
July 13, 2025 - Refocusing on Our Members
I am so thankful and honored to have this opportunity and responsibility to be your 64th Chesapeake Bay IAI President. The support I have received in getting to this point today is immeasurable, and I want to begin with a thank you for your trust in me.
The past few years have been full of change and challenges, from COVID lockdowns to budget cuts, the NAS report, OSAC standards and accreditation. The need for timely communication and affordable education has never been more clear. Our duty is to provide outreach, education, and networking and meet you where you are. Your struggle today was your colleague’s struggle yesterday, and leaning on each other is how we improve and provide quality services to our communities.
We recently completed a member survey (thank you for those who participated in that) and we’re listening. It’s clear our members want networking and educational opportunities when they come to our events, but departments can’t always afford to send everyone in person. Over half of members said they want more virtual content, and said they come to CBD to get to know one another. During my year as President, my two main goals are to re-engage members with virtual content that is affordable, interesting, and relevant to your jobs; and offer social events throughout our 5 state region to let the members step away from the day-to-day and re-engage with the officers, committees, and each other.
In the next year we are offering a virtual fall seminar hosted by 1st VP Jessica Roberts that will break into specialties over two days to allow attendees to focus on either crime scene investigation or laboratory studies. The annual conference will be held in Fairfax, Virginia February 10-12, 2026. For many years our conference has been hosted away from the DMV to allow members to disengage from their daily stresses, however this puts a financial strain on our members and their agencies. I want to bring this event closer to home for many of our members, and for those who want to receive our amazing lecture content from the comfort of their living rooms, that will be an option for the first time.
I also want to initiate more social interaction on evenings or weekends by meeting in each of our states at parks, restaurants and family friendly gatherings. The personal connections we can make when we’re with our fellow practitioners help build our contact list for those who can help us through a hard problem at work. I genuinely believe that the first chat, conversation, e-mail or text can snowball into a system-wide improvement in the way we all do our jobs, and it all begins with the connections we make here.
I want to thank you again for your trust in me and our officers, and please, please please tell us how we can make Chesapeake Bay IAI work for you.
Kind Regards,
Meredith Coon, President-Chesapeake Bay Division of the International Association for Identification
I am so thankful and honored to have this opportunity and responsibility to be your 64th Chesapeake Bay IAI President. The support I have received in getting to this point today is immeasurable, and I want to begin with a thank you for your trust in me.
The past few years have been full of change and challenges, from COVID lockdowns to budget cuts, the NAS report, OSAC standards and accreditation. The need for timely communication and affordable education has never been more clear. Our duty is to provide outreach, education, and networking and meet you where you are. Your struggle today was your colleague’s struggle yesterday, and leaning on each other is how we improve and provide quality services to our communities.
We recently completed a member survey (thank you for those who participated in that) and we’re listening. It’s clear our members want networking and educational opportunities when they come to our events, but departments can’t always afford to send everyone in person. Over half of members said they want more virtual content, and said they come to CBD to get to know one another. During my year as President, my two main goals are to re-engage members with virtual content that is affordable, interesting, and relevant to your jobs; and offer social events throughout our 5 state region to let the members step away from the day-to-day and re-engage with the officers, committees, and each other.
In the next year we are offering a virtual fall seminar hosted by 1st VP Jessica Roberts that will break into specialties over two days to allow attendees to focus on either crime scene investigation or laboratory studies. The annual conference will be held in Fairfax, Virginia February 10-12, 2026. For many years our conference has been hosted away from the DMV to allow members to disengage from their daily stresses, however this puts a financial strain on our members and their agencies. I want to bring this event closer to home for many of our members, and for those who want to receive our amazing lecture content from the comfort of their living rooms, that will be an option for the first time.
I also want to initiate more social interaction on evenings or weekends by meeting in each of our states at parks, restaurants and family friendly gatherings. The personal connections we can make when we’re with our fellow practitioners help build our contact list for those who can help us through a hard problem at work. I genuinely believe that the first chat, conversation, e-mail or text can snowball into a system-wide improvement in the way we all do our jobs, and it all begins with the connections we make here.
I want to thank you again for your trust in me and our officers, and please, please please tell us how we can make Chesapeake Bay IAI work for you.
Kind Regards,
Meredith Coon, President-Chesapeake Bay Division of the International Association for Identification