MN Chapter of ALOA at the Doyle Show

The Minnesota chapter of ALOA had a booth at September's Doyle Security education weekend and trade show.

The event was well attended, the food was good and it was a great opportunity to connect with locksmiths from throughout the region with attendees from at least 4 states.

Alan and Pat man the chapter booth - speaking of which, that back-drop is courtesy of the clever Mr. Moseng and we're looking forward to seeing more of it at future shows.

And a suprise appearance from the Miracle on Ice gold medal from the 1980 Winter Olympics escorted by Herb Brook's son (who attended the Games with the team - he was 12 at the time  - what an experience!)

Thanks to Doyle Security for hosting a great event and we are already looking forward to next year.

September meeting presenters

It was great to see so many people at the meeting last night - and welcome to several new attendees, we hope to see you again!

A couple of news bites from the general meeting:

• There wasn't enough interest to put together a Swap Meet for 2013, but there is talk of doing something in conjunction with the education weekend in February.  
• The February Education Weekend is totally on - start your engines and get ready to Commit-Well-In-Advance to taking a few classes.  Additional information will no doubt be forthcoming - for now, you can count on it being held once again at the Kelly Inn in Plymouth around the third weekend in February or so.
• The Annual Banquet will be included in that weekend with the same format as the past few years (it's been such a blast - kudos to Rosemarie for keeping a good thing going!).

Following the meeting we had a product update presentation from Assa-Abloy Reps Paul Davis and Dean Paulsrud;  as usual, they did not disappoint.  They covered a great deal of material clearly and efficiently bringing us updates on:

Online education resources (fantastic!) at Assa Abloy Americas University 
New Patented, Security and High Security cylinder families from Corbin and Sargent
Aperio wireless electronic access control
Arrow product line update including exciting developments in locks, closers and standalone EAC

A big Thank You to Paul and Dean who brought a ton of product and stayed after the presentation to answer questions - you are a great resource to our industry!

 Assa-Abloy Reps Paul Davis and Dean Paulsrud flank Education Chair 

Dana Lee before the meeting, September 4, 2013 at O'Gara's in St. Paul.

Low Voltage CEU Class, October 23rd

The MN chapter of ALOA and Tri-Ed distribution are offering a state CE certified class for Power limited Technicians which will be held October 23 at the offices of Tri-Ed at 1325 Eagandale Court., Suite 100
Eagan, MN 55121.

The class is for ALL Power Limited Technicians (membership not required).
$135 ALOA/MNALOA Members in Good Standing - $175 non-Members.
Instructor: Dick Johnson - PLT Services.
Coffee, donuts and lunch will be provided.
Pre-registration is required, class will be limited to 14 participants.
Registration form must be received by 10-20-2013.  Open registration form.

The Pre-registration is a requirement of Minnesota's state certification for PLT Continuing Education - their rules, not ours - if you are not registered by October 20th, we cannot get you into the class.

Next meeting September 4, 2013

The summer break is winding up and we'll be convening our monthly meetings again starting September 4.

The location is still O'Gara's Bar & Grill in St Paul where we have use of their side room.

Social/dinner hour is from 6 pm - 7 pm during which time you may order dinner from a limited menu in the meeting room.

The general meeting starts at 7 pm until about 7:30/7:45 pm and then we will have Paul Davis from the local Door Security Solutions office to discuss everything new and fantastic from ASSA Abloy.

Hope to see you there!

MN ALOA at E.L. Reinhardt's event under the tent

The chapter had a booth at EL Reinhardt's annual customer appreciation and trade show event yesterday.

The weather was perfect, the show was well attended and the food was fantastic as always - Ken Stemig throws a great party and we're lucky to be invited.

Below, Phil, Pat and Henry at the show.

No meetings in July or August

Last night's meeting was unusually well-attended for June - probably owing to the very un-June like weather. Attendance was about 20 members. 

Thanks to Bill Wood of Nob Hill for giving a thorough - yet still concise - introduction to the Salto product offering. He covered tiers of distribution, their current integrated access solutions and some really exciting upcoming innovations in wireless, web based access solutions. 

Be sure to check the manufacturer website linked above and contact Bill Wood at Nob Hill for information about local sales opportunities. 

It's our annual summer hiatus at the Minnesota Chapter and we will not have meetings in July or August. Check the calendar for locksmith events during that time - especially the EL Reinhardt annual Event Under The Tent on Thursday, August 15th.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, September 4 - see you then!

Marketing and Locksmith Scams

Part of the inspiration for the Marketing Arm of the local chapter is the growing prevalence of Phony Locksmiths and Copycats throughout the country and in our region.

In the case of the Phonies - these are businesses (often national) who advertise services that they do not have the expertise to deliver; nor do they have the intention to deliver.

Minnesota has no specific locksmith licensing laws and the victims of the scams do not report the violations to the proper authorities so it is actually nigh impossible to mete out any sort of justice against the Phonies.

The Copycats are out-of-town concerns who deliberately register their business under a name that is very similar to that of an established lock company. Sometimes they even co-opt the address of a fast-food restaurant or gas station nearby to make it appear that they really are that company, or that they are located very nearby.

This is a very difficult situation because as long as the business name is not identical, what they are doing may not actually be illegal. Especially if their 'local address' is a PO box or UPS store.

Copycats may also hijack any internet listing, rerouting the search engine results to their own websites. This is not as difficult to address as the former situation - it may be resolved by password protecting your listing with the major search engines.

The important thing to remember is that there are more properly trained, Professional Locksmiths in this country than there are Phonies and Copycats by a factor of at least 100.

We have the advantage of numbers and integrity; this should not be that hard. Right now an handful of scam artists are damaging the reputation of every professional locksmith in the country and we've only got a handful of professionals giving 110% to try to pull our entire industry out of the mud.

Get involved: Join ALOA, participate in your local chapter, particpate in grassroots campaigns like Legal Locksmith, write an article, tell a friend, link your websites.