Greetings. This has been a year of changes in Region 8 - some for the better of REACT, some not. The good news is formation of six new teams, one each in Central California and Nevada, and four in Southern California.

The bad news is an end to four teams in our region. Those teams accounted for 24 members but the loss was more than offset by twice that many members in the six new teams. Existing teams lost 82 members and gained 53 for a net loss of 29. The net result of all membership activity shows we just about broke even - better than most regions, but not healthy enough.

In California, the Northern Council is in the process of changing to a system of handling meetings by e-mail since there has been considerable difficulty for a long time in bringing team representatives together due to distance involved. The Central Council continues, as does the Southern Council – where several vacant offices will be voted on at the January 5^th meeting in Corona.

A Council for the two Nevada teams has not been established at this time but they can start one if they want. In Arizona there is only one team left, and this does not meet the criteria for a Council. Utah still does not have a single team in spite of having two people who were thought to be likely prospects for starting one. If any member has a lead of friends, relatives, or other likely suspect in Utah for interest in REACT, I will gladly follow up if advised.

At the risk of challenging your patience, I am going to repeat the methods used by a couple teams that are in a growth mode. These six ideas are known to work. If they don’t build your team, you are not working hard enough or not working smart enough.

1. Good team leadership.
2. Lots of monitoring {CB, GMRS, Amateur, VHF Marine, FRS}.
3. Public promotion; private promotion
4. Numerous high-visibility events
5. Interaction with other teams, in person and on the Internet
6. Seek out and invite new GMRS and Amateur licensees to a meeting.

Please keep your eyes and ears open for someone to receive the Radio Hero Award. This is co-sponsored by Cobra, Popular Communications magazine and REACT International, Inc. Here are the guidelines: It is open to U.S. and Canadian citizens 18 years and older, junior category for ages 5 through 17, employees or members of sponsors are not eligible. Applicant must use his CB, GMRS, or FRS radio to save a life, prevent major injury or property damage, or give direct assistance in the apprehension of a wanted criminal.

This is great publicity since it appears in Popular Communications where the story and photo are seen by approximately 90,000 readers.

What do you talk about at team meetings? Have you mentioned the Amber Alert? How about highway construction and traffic problems that traveling two-way radio users would want to know about? Have you talked about attending the next REACT convention? For 2003 it will be in Evansville, Indiana, and I hear for 2004 there’s a good chance it will be in Southern California.