"Talk to Me"

I'm in Norman, Oklahoma where I just finished the first two (of three) phases of training to become certified as a Hostage Negotiator with the International Association of Hostage Negotiators.  Our trainer was a retired NYPD cop and hostage negotiator named Dominick;  If I had a dollar for every time he used the word F____ or Sh___, I could retire now and live my life out on some island in the Bahamas.  At the end of the class this morning Dom asked me if I'd been offended by his language (he knew I work with churches and missionaries).  My answer was, "Dom, you are who you are.  It's no big deal".  The woman sitting next to me said, "Oo, way to answer without answering!" -- maybe I learned something this week after all!

There were 23 trainees, and I was the only one who was not a police detective or with military intelligence.  Several of the guys work here in Oklahoma with Native American Tribal Police forces (something I'd never heard of); apparently, each tribe has their own, internal police force that handles security within the tribal area.  The place where we met all week is called the Absentee Shawnee Tribe Resource Center... absentee Shawnee tribe??  Turns out that there are three or four different clans of the Shawnee tribe that split up, and each became their own "tribe".  Huh, sounds kind of like Muslims.  I will finish the certification process next month in Indianapolis, IN.  There are several more certifications I intend to do over the next few months - in Emergency Management, Risk Assessment etc.  I have quite a bit of experience - but it would help me to have some official certifications to back up the experience.

It has become clear that the original plan that I would work with Crisis Consulting International will not be possible - for a number of reasons.  I'm still hoping that I can partner with CCI down the road, as they have a great deal of experience in this field and I would love to learn from them.  In the meantime, I've begun working with my board members on setting up our own non-profit crisis management consulting organization.  I've mentioned before that I've chosen the name Storm Guides, and now begins the work of setting up a business plan and then registering the new organization.  The greatest challenge I face right now is just getting my foot in the door with a large church; once I can actually start doing training and consulting, I know that things will grow by word of mouth.  I'm hoping to have a rudimentary website up and running soon as a means of marketing Storm Guides and what I can offer.