DO YOU KNOW. . . That even more responsibilities and requirements may come out of Congress wrapped up in a revised PATRIOT Act? If your financial institution is paying claims it shouldn’t — and not going after claims it should? If your corporate insurance is truly sufficient? If your training sessions are complete—or effective? And how you can be sure that they are? That MSB and SAR problems could effectively shut down your financial institution? What your examiners are really looking for? How to go about proposing a budget, and what should be included in your proposal for the year ahead? How to measure your workload, and justify getting help? How to work with local law enforcement in case a major disaster strikes? What the difference is between an ‘incident’ and a ‘foreseeable incident’? What regulations require training, how often, what type, to whom, and how? DEAR SECURITY OFFICER: Have you noticed that your job has become more all-encompassing, more complicated and that you have more liability than ever before? Are you one of the majority that is expected to handle all your additional responsibilities without any additional staff or help? Have you realized that bank examinations have become more in-depth, and examiners more knowledgeable and quicker to criticize than they used to be? Are your losses from robbery, fraud, counterfeits, identity theft and overdrafts increasing? And are you really satisfied that all your Suspicious Activity Reporting is being done—and done correctly? If some of these problems are yours, please be aware you have a lot of company. When we went to put the agenda together for this year’s Workshop, we had to choose which problems were the most common. We didn’t have much trouble discovering what is troubling you most—which is why we’ve asked two of the most important Bank Secrecy Act attorneys in the country to host the Pre-Workshop Session. Ian Comisky and Charles Intriago will be instructors at this session that is a “must” for every BSA Officer. In the meantime, I will teach the other Pre-Workshop, which will be our standard Basic Security Officer “How-To” for the newly appointed Security officer and staff. During the Update session on the first day we'll hear from Jim Hudson who will explain how BankersOnline's CrimeDex works. Then Steve Hecker will share what has happened since the murder of bank employees in his home town and talk about how to work with law enforcement. Honey Shelton will illustrate how you can accomplish really successful training sessions, both in compliance and security. Finishing out the first day, David Battle is returning to share advice on running a security function successfully—without undue stress! On day 2, John Atkinson from Fed will fill us in on regulatory problems that affect the Security Officer. John Byrne and Peter Djinis will catch us up on what is happening with the new BSA Exam and try to explain what is going on in Washington with the SARs. Mary Beth Guard will explain how you can stop paying out on unnecessary claims, using all defenses available to the financial institution, including case law and the UCC. And Patt Ardis, who is back on our agenda by popular demand, will discuss what can go wrong with your job—what happens when it does—and how you can avoid it. For those of you reading this who have never attended one of our Workshops, please know you will not find vendors or exhibitors—although many of them will be sending material so you can keep up on “what’s new.” You won’t find wine and cheese parties or activities for spouses—although we’ll probably run the trolley downtown again on Wednesday night for a visit to “South Street.” What you will find are expert instructors, intensive training, and dedicated security officers seriously seeking solutions to an ever-increasing burden of responsibility and liability. To promote the best learning atmosphere possible, we expect you to dress casually—jeans and sneakers are fine. We attempt to inject as much humor as possible, to make the learning as painless as possible! We’re the only national Workshop left exclusively for financial institution Security Officers. We’ve been here for you for 10 years, and this year’s program is shaping up to be even better than the last. And we’re doing all this without raising the price (same as last year!) or the location. Evaluations tell us you like getting off the airplane and walking into the Marriott Hotel at Terminal B, and the parking is easy and convenient, too. If you’re looking for highly intensive security training, great information and networking, low price, and convenience, come to the 11th Annual BANKERS’ Hotline Security Officers Workshop in Philadelphia. Call, email, or register online today! We’ll be glad to see you in September. Warm regards, Barbara E. Hurst Editor, Bankers Hotline