​LANGER TAKES THE HELM

The incoming President of ASIS International Thomas J. Langer, CPP, will lead a Society in transition. The retirement of longtime CEO Michael Stack and the selection of incoming CEO Peter J. O’Neil, CAE, in 2016, set the stage for numerous changes in the years ahead. Langer spoke to Security Management about his experiences in ASIS and his plans for the Society’s future.

Langer says that he first became aware of ASIS through the Granite State Chapter in New Hampshire. “I worked for Joe Reynolds, who was the head of security at the time at Sanders Associates, and he had served on the ASIS Board of Directors and was a big proponent. So I joined the chapter and became more active through the councils. The ASIS Defense and Intelligence Council was where I spent a lot of time starting in the early 1990s,” serving in every leadership position at least once.

When Langer first encountered ASIS he didn’t see the big picture. “I was so focused on government security that I didn’t have a real appreciation of the other aspects of the Society—of the other disciplines that are represented. With my involvement in the Board and at the council level—especially the Volunteer Leadership Conference each January—I got to see how much bigger the organization is and how many different industries it encompasses. I realized that there was so much I could learn from other members based on the experiences they had. I found it to be so helpful for me professionally,” Langer says.

However, Langer did immediately grasp the significance of his involvement with the Defense and Intelligence Council. “Through the council, ASIS was one of the first organizations in the defense and intelligence industry to bring in other cleared people from different countries. What I found by doing that—we had some support from the Canadians and the United Kingdom—is that we all had similar problems in bridging the gap between government and private industry. We also had a lot of government members who were willing to come in and share their knowledge.”

Once involved with ASIS, other volunteer leaders mentored Langer, encouraging him to get more involved. “I credit [former ASIS President] Cindy Conlon, CPP, with inspiring me to get more involved in ASIS. Cindy was the one who kept pushing me to become more and more involved. Every time I ran into her, she wanted to know what I was doing with ASIS and what I was going to do in the future. She really pushed me.”

While Langer was active in other associations, such as the Aerospace Industries Association, at the time, Conlon kept reminding Langer that ASIS welcomed quality leaders. “Cindy kept steering me right back to ASIS International. In the late 2000s, a spot opened up on the Board and I asked to be considered. It’s been a great run,” says Langer.

According to Langer, the ASIS Board of Directors is unified in its vision for the Society as it seeks to deliver value to existing members, draw in additional members, and serve international constituencies. 

Value. “I think the most important piece we need to deliver is the value proposition,” says Langer “We want a member to be able to look at ASIS International and conclude ‘I see the value in what this organization offers to my job,’ no matter where they are on the career spectrum from entry level to CSO.”

According to Langer, the value proposition can be showcased in many services ASIS offers from “delivering great educational opportunities and content to the members to helping them form the communities that will help them and to be responsive to their needs no matter where they are.”

Langer says that it’s critical for the Society to present tools and educational opportunities that help members reduce risk in their organizations. “We want their employers to also understand why this is an important membership,” he says, “why it’s important to professional development for them.”

Growth. The key to future growth, says Langer, is to leverage ASIS’s professionalism to garner new members. “We want new members, but for the right reason,” he says. “If we increase the value proposition, growth in the membership will follow that. People will see ASIS as the organization they want to belong to and as the best bang for the buck.”

Membership growth also follows the rising competence of the industry, according to Langer. “Part of what we need to do is to get people to understand that this is a profession. Something to aspire to,” he says. “You look at the Paris attacks­­—the security folks at the stadium were actually quite good at countering people who were trying to get in. There’s a lot of good that our profession does, and we need to get better at getting it out there so people see this as a true profession, as a calling—not just as a second career.”

Internationalism. The next step, according to Langer, is to address the needs of members worldwide. “From New York City to Nigeria to the Middle East and all the places in between…security professionals have different circumstances, a different set of challenges.”

To serve these members, Langer says the Society can form strong, professional communities that members can draw on to help counter their challenges and to progress their own careers. However, this challenge will be significant. 

“We’ve got even more to do,” says Langer. “There are opportunities in many countries for the security profession. We want to get away from being an American-centric organ­ization. The Board is focused on that.”

Langer says that convincing more international members to serve as volunteer leaders is a good place to start. “We want to have more international members on the Board. We want geographic, race, and gender diversity on the Board. We think that any organization with that kind of diversity, that actually looks like its membership, is going to be far more successful. And the ideas and experiences they share are going to benefit the entire organization.” ​

KANSAS CITY WINS SIMEONE AWARD

At ASIS 2016 in Orlando, Florida, the Law Enforcement Liaison Council and the ASIS Foundation awarded the 6th annual Matthew Simeone Award for Public-Private Partnership Excellence to the Kansas City Chapter for its partnership with the Overland Park, Kansas, Police Department. The award-winning Overland Park Residential Security Initiative brought law enforcement, private security, home builders, and educational institutions together to develop a program based on sound security principles, targeting criminals’ behavior and identifying products and companies that best serve the interest of the community.

Additional information on the award and this winning partnership can be found at https://foundation.asisonline.org/Simeone.​

LIFETIME CERTIFICATION GRANTED

The following security professionals have been awarded lifetime certification status.

• Michael A. Pepper, CPP, PSP

• Peter Stella, Jr., CPP

• William F. McCarthy, CPP

• John D. Twiggs, IV, CPP

• David A. Brondyk, CPP

• Kevin R. Sexton, CPP

• Robert A. Currier, CPP

• Terry L. Boone, CPP

• Fredrick G. Roll, CPP

 

STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES UPDATE

ANSI/ASIS PSC.1-2012, Periodic Maintenance/Evaluation 

The ANSI/ASIS PSC.1-2012 Standard is approaching its fifth year as an American National Standard. Consistent with ANSI requirements, this project involves evaluating the standard to consider changes to applicable laws, regulation, and/or international agreements impacting the standard’s use, including industry good practices, lessons learned, and implementation feedback. The PSC.1 Standard establishes a mechanism for private security providers and their clients to provide demonstrable commitment, conformance and accountability to the principles outlined in the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers and the Montreux Document.

If you are interested in serving on this committee, contact [email protected]. Applications are being accepted in the User/Manager and General Interest categories.

For additional information on ASIS’s Standards & Guidelines project, visit: https://www.asisonline.org/Standards-Guidelines/Pages/default.aspx.