April 2011 Newsletter of the Hospitality, Entertainment and Tourism (HEaT) Security Council

1. Hospitality Entertainment and Tourism Council
Mitchell R. Fenton, CPP
Chairman
April 2011
From the Chairman
Alan W. Zajic, CPP, CSP
Vice Chairman
Kelly S. Klatt, CPP
Vice-Chairman
Greetings everyone! What a year it has been for the Hospitality,
Darrell Clifton, CPP Entertainment and Tourism council..HEAT.
Secretary/Newsletter Al Zajic, CPP is a hard show to follow and he has several
plaques from ASIS International to prove it but I am going to do
Steven T. Baker, CPP, PSP, PCI
Certification Liaison
my best to carry the flag and move this council forward. Several
changes that I have already made are adopting two Vice chair-
H. Skip Brandt, CPP men. Kelly Klatt, CPP and Al Zajic will share the position. Al
Programs Co-Chair being chairman emeritus will help guide the council in an advi-
Jimmy Chin
sory role. Kelly will replace me as chairman once my term is fin-
Lodging Chair Mitchell Fenton, CPP ished. Having both of them in my corner along with the rest of
you will definitely make my job that much easier.
Jay Claxton, CLSD
Tourism, Timeshare, Rentals
The council has worked hard at putting together some of the best security practitioners
Craig Clemens, CPP and academics in the business and the positive response from ASIS International has
Annual Seminar shown that we are hitting the mark.
Joseph Doa
I have come up with a short schedule of our future teleconference meeting dates which
Phillip Farina, CPP, CPP are: April 22nd, June 24th and August 26th . All at 11am Eastern standard time so
Subject Matter Expert please mark your schedules.
Tony Heroff, CPP
I am excited about the prospects for this year and look forward to working with each of
Sheldon Lightfoot, CPP one of you.
Paul Moxness, CPP
European Chair Accolades for our Council
Christopher T. Noll, CPP
Subject Matter Expert Our chairman and vice-chairmen attended the annual ASIS leadership
meeting in Washington, DC in January. At this conference, the objectives
Alexandros Paraskevas, PhD for ASIS International were introduced as well as some changes being
Robert C. Quigley, CPP
made to the Council program. Awards were also presented to individu-
als, councils and chapters.
James C. Reynolds, CPP, CLSD
Web Group Coordinator We were pleased to hear that our own Al Zajic, CPP was awarded Coun-
cil Chair of the year. Of the thirty councils and their respective chairper-
Chris Rogers Al Zajic, CPP
sons, ours was named as best for 2010. This is a great honor for Zajic
Andrea Shultz and HEaT. Al said he was humbled by the award and had no idea he was even in the
Programs Co-Chair running. “This says something about our esteemed membership”, commented Al. “I was
John Strauchs, CPP
very fortunate to lead such an experienced and intelligent group of experts.” Congratula-
Magazine Articles tions to Al and to all of us. Mitch Fenton, CPP, our new chairman says, “I have some big
shoes to fill. I am grateful that Al is still on our team as an advisor.”
Tom Whitlatch, CPP, CHA, CLSD, CFE
Guidelines Liaison

2. Hospitality Entertainment and Tourism Council
New Council Guidelines
Based on input received by Council Vice Presidents over the past few years, a new worksheet was developed to serve
as a benchmark to measure activities of the volunteer members. It outlines what is expected of the council members and
will be used to ensure the council members meet our goals each year.
The expectations in this worksheet have been compiled from several existing council best practices. It is designed to
create consistency across all councils as well as ensuring that council goals and the International Strategic Plan are in
alignment.
Each member will be given points based on their participation in such activities such as meeting attendance, workshop
activities, newsletter articles, etc.
This additional workload has created a new council position called “secretary”. Your esteemed newsletter editor, Darrell
Clifton, CPP has been assigned to this task.
The worksheet mentioned above is not to be submitted to ASIS, but will be used for the council Chair to evaluate and
track his membership’s activities. A summary of this information is included in Mitch’s quarterly report to our Council Vice
President.
Mitch says he does not expect any problems for our members to fulfill the requirements mentioned in the worksheet. We
have a very active group of experts that will be easy to track and report. The actual tracking will probably be the most
difficult part. Contact Mitch Fenton or Darrell Clifton if you would like a list if activities or more information.
Trending in Hotels
Several of our members are on the “front lines” of the Hospitality industry, managing hotel security departments and par-
ticipating in local chapter events.
Joe Doa—Amway Hilton Collection
As we continue to see the devastating effect that an active shooter can have not only in terms of
casualties and injures, but the morale of a community or nation, we have taken the initiative to en-
sure the security staff of Amway Hotel Corporation are prepared for the worst. Anyone can walk into
an open environment such as a hotel and create a chaotic situation in seconds. The openness of
hotels creates a “soft target” atmosphere that has been witnessed in the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
An active shooter is a challenging situation for hotels. Not only can any guest present an active
shooter situation, but a disgruntled employee can do the same damage in an administrative office.
This unknown variable presents a real danger to hotels and pushed us to focus on some rigorous
training to provide to our security personnel. We had to ask ourselves, how do we prepare an un-
armed hotel security staff for a violent situation that is usually over within minutes? As hotel security
Joe Doa leaders, we need our staff to be prepared to control a situation for those critical minutes before law en-
forcement arrives. In January, we reached out to local law enforcement in Grand Rapids, MI, to assist our security staff
2

3. Hospitality Entertainment and Tourism Council
in active shooter response training. Leaders from the Grand Rapids SRT (Special Response Team) provided an in depth
training seminar at the JW Marriott Grand Rapids. The seminar provided our security staff with essential information that
all hotel security personnel can use if confronted with an active shooter. The seminar provided techniques such as
evacuating the area as quickly as possible while avoiding putting yourself in danger, as well as common active shooter
indicators to look for in a person’s demeanor. One of the most important pieces of information that our staff took away
from the seminar were the questions that law enforcement will want to know when arriving on scene. While trying to con-
trol the situation at hand, your staff has to be vigilant enough to know everything from casualties and injuries, to the
weapon being used. All of this information can make a difference in the timeliness and effectiveness of the response.
The key factor to take away from this training is that communication is critical. Utilizing a building public address system
or implementing a mass text/email notification system will save lives. If you have an existing access control system in-
stalled in your hotel, train your staff on how to use it to lock down the building immediately if an active shooter situation
presents itself. Having an unarmed hotel security staff doesn’t mean you can’t limit a shooters ability to move freely. By
limiting a shooter’s mobility, you can limit casualties/injuries and save lives.
To better prepare for an active shooter situation, we are in the process of scheduling live situational exercises with the
Grand Rapids SRT team for next month. We will be closing floors in one of our hotels from the public to conduct actual
drills with law enforcement. These drills will not only prepare our security staff, but train the SRT team in the layout of the
hotel. These drills will provide our security staff with the best possible interactive training we can provide. Building a
close relationship with the local law enforcement agencies in the event of an active shooter situation will be critical in
creating a sense of cohesion. All we can do as security leaders is provide our staff with the training and tools necessary
to react as efficiently and effectively as possible when lives are at stake.
Joe also is an active member of the West Michigan chapter which is hosting its annual Law Enforcement Appreciation
event in the summer. His hotel may be the host venue for this important group.
Philip Farina, CPP
As more and more countries seem to be experiencing civil difficulties, mental terrorism alarms keep going off in the
heads of travelers planning trips overseas. Philip farina, CPP who specializes in travel security is regularly consulted on
such issues. In a recent article for American Express open forum, he offers several suggestions for tourists traveling to
any foreign country. Checking the quality of hotel security, knowing local laws and languages, and having documents
and insurance in order are just a few of Farina’s practical guidelines for keeping everyone safe.
Farina also contributed to other personal safety and travel safety articles in Cosmopolitan, the Chicago Sun-Times and
others during the past quarter.
Member Updates
Jimmy Chin
Jimmy Chin, our resident expert in New York, has been very busy preparing a Security conference for May
4th. Local and federal authorities will participate in this seminar on a variety of topics pertinent to the hospi-
tality industry. Chin also was featured on a WABC news segment on fire safety in hotels.
3

4. Hospitality Entertainment and Tourism Council
James Reynolds, CPP—Palmer House Hilton
James Reynolds, CPP has been doing a great job maintaining our Linkedin website. We have had several lively discus-
sions on a variety of topics. This is a positive and real-time way of communicating among members. Please make sure
you are a member of Linkedin, you are a member of our group, and you adjust your account settings so you can receive
updates on this group as often as you can.
James is again collaborating our panel on soft targets for the Orlando Seminar this year. This was such a well-received
presentation that we thought we would sponsor it again and hope for a larger room. Reynolds submitted a total of three
presentations and we are awaiting results of their acceptance.
Andrea Schultz—DHS Critical Infrastructure Liaison
Our own DHS liaison, Andrea Schultz sought guidance from the council on the development of an Active Shooter train-
ing program. This program has been released in a draft form and we were all very excited to check it out. This very infor-
mative and practical look at how to respond (from and employee perspective) will be very valuable to businesses nation-
wide as they prevent and respond to these all-too-common events.
Orlando Seminar Coming Soon
The next Annual Seminar and Exhibits will be in Orlando Fl, September 19-22.
The annual event is a little earlier this year and plans are well under way. Sub-
missions for presentations have been submitted and are being reviewed. We are
looking forward to hearing from at least three of our members if they will be pre-
senting this year.
Our council will be sponsoring those presentations as well as a pre-intensive
seminar. The pre-intensive will be an expanded soft-target protection interactive
group panel and should be very informative and well-attended.
We will have more information on the event as well as our participation in it.
Please notify Craig Clemons if you are attending, presenting, or otherwise in-
volved in any way.
For newsletter questions, comments or inquiries:
Darrell Clifton, CPP
dclifton@circusreno.com
4