The Executive Committee of the Peace Officers’ Association of Georgia, Inc. held a meeting at 10 A. M., December 5, 2000 at the Macon Police Department Training site, Jackson Street, Macon, Georgia. Committee members attending included President Bill Hitchens, Vice President Wayne Avery, Board Members Harry Colbert and Homer Bryson, Secretary-Treasurer John Conley, Legislative Chairman Bob Brown and Executive Director Marion Conley. Public Relations Director Jimmy Jones, Attorney Frank Childs and Chaplain Jimmy Waters were unable to attend. Visitors included: Ken Suddeth, Jim Redmon, Harold Groover, Bob Carter, Dottie Harden, Su C. Lee, Bo H. Lee and Gene Stuckey as the representative of Senator Max Cleland and also as a friend of law enforcement.

President Hitchens called the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance. He also expressed the appreciation of all to Mickey Pearce for deep frying the turkey for lunch and to Marion Conley for preparing the balance of the meal.

Vice President Wayne Avery gave the invocation. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Board Member Harry Colbert.

President Hitchens reported that Chaplain Jimmy Waters was still incapacitated as a result of a stroke but he thought he was still in rehab.

A brief discussion followed on the financial report. The Committee is quite concerned that royalties continue to drop in comparison with the same period of time last year. A motion was finally made by Bob Brown and seconded by Wayne Avery to approve the financial report and minutes from November, 2000. The motion passed.

President Hitchens was happy to report that most of the errors on the website had been corrected by the Web Master. The web master has done a fantastic job of designing this web page for POAG and is certainly due the thanks of the entire membership. Bob Carter reported that the POA&B web site should be up and running by this Friday. The address will be ganet.org/poab. There will be a link on POAG’s site to the POAB site.

Bob Brown volunteered to coordinate the honoring of our "Officers of the Year" by the legislature along with the site, date and time of the January, 2001 meeting.

Whether private probation officers should be allowed active voting membership in the Association was once again a topic of discussion. Bob Brown made a motion to accept these persons pending Attorney Frank Childs’ approval of this action not violating the Constitution. This motion was seconded by John Conley and passed.

Vice President Wayne Avery reported he had eight deer waiting to be processed and given to a charity. He hopes to be able to make a presentation of this meat to a local rescue mission in January and have media coverage.

Marion Conley presented the Committee the problem incurred by the office on the active voting membership dues being $15.00 and the Associate membership dues being $25.00. The majority of our membership is not aware of the difference between active voting and associate membership. The Committee decided to have a separate application for Associate members and active voting. Hopefully, this will eliminate some of the confusion.

A motion was made by Bob Brown to give Marion Conley a $250.00 Christmas bonus and Carla James a $125.00 Christmas bonus, this being the same as the bonuses given in 1999. This motion was seconded by Wayne Avery and passed.

Bob Brown made a motion to adjourn. This motion was seconded by Wayne Avery. Accordingly the meeting was adjourned to the lunch prepared by Mickey Pearce and Marion Conley.