Alto Al Crimen Big News For The New Year!

[Bob G]

On December 30, 2015 at 6:45 PM, Bonnie said:

I have one more question of Bob. Does Franc have a work permit? (I ask because, if he does not, he runs the risk of being shut down by the government, leaving his clients in the lurch.)

Bonnie and all other posters:

Franc DOES NOT need a work permit.  A work permit is not required for a personal services contract.  All of our arrangements have been carefully done, using a well-qualified lawyer.

If Franc receives an emergency call while he is working in the BCP parking lot, he will take it.  There is another man who also handles parking in the lot.

The answer to the question about whether Franc will take calls from people not registered with AAC is YES.  We offer AAC Hotline services to tourists, short term visitors and residents.  AAC is a foundation and operates on donations.  It does not make and cannot legally make charges for services as would a corporation or sole proprietorship.  Unfortunately, there are always freeloaders who will take unfair advantage of such a situation.  Theoretically, AAC could offer its services only to people who have made donations, but that would alter the character of our organization and deny services to the tourists, short stay people and others who may truly need them in emergencies.  For almost six years, AAC has worked with this model, and it has worked well enough to benefit hundreds of people.  We plan to continue it.  If too many people decide to take a free ride on someone else's nickel, AAC will go broke and close down.  For the system to work well, we need everyone who is registered to make a MINIMUM donation of $20 per year.  Additional donations help with our other projects that concentrate on prevention of crimes, improving home security, etc. 

Rodny has done a good job for AAC.  AAC provide employment and training for him, or he would not have been the successful emergency operator that he is.   We like Rodny and wish him well, but for those who say not one can equal him, I would point out that never before has there been anyone else around to do the same kind of job, so how can you tell?

As someone else pointed out, AAC did not decide to compete with Rodny.  Rodny chose to terminate the contract services of his busines with AAC and compete with AAC in the Boquete area.  Otherwise, he would have continued to be the AAC Hotline operator.  His business was already serving Coronado and Volcan with revenues of more than $25,000 per year.  He has now added around 100 subscribers from the Boquete area which added around $8,000 per year for an  approximate total of $33,000 per year.  There was a recent announcement that Rodny Direct now provides services nationally.  The announcement said:  

"The Panama Helpline serves a the area from Chamé to Penonomé and inland to el Valle, including Coronado, San Carlos and Santa Clara.

The Rodny Direct Chiriqui Helpline serves all of Chriqui from the Costa Rica border, including Volcan, David, Portrerillos, Boquete, Caldera and East to the border at Guabala (sic).

I don't believe you need to be worried about Alto al Crimen being a lot of competition for Rodny Direct.  About 89% of Panamanians have an average income of $700 per month.  It would appear that Rodny is already well within the top 11%.  AAC exists only to serve the community of our own area.  Because significant numbers of expats live in the Potrerillos area, we may expand services into that small part of the District of Dolega after we are sure we have solid relations with the emergency services there.

The AAC Hotline will have the capability of calling various auto insurance companies for roadside assistance, continue the translation service for traffic stops, maintain a list of veterinarians for pet emergencies and add some other data that will be maintained in our database.  Our new system includes a two-SIM phone so that an emergency caller can be placed on hold while a call is made for police, fire or medical emergency service.  Then the caller can receive a report of what action is being taken.  The second number will also serve as a back-up number for emergency calls from areas in which connectivity to the primary AAC Hotline number is not working well.  Franc will carry a small, state of the art tablet computer with a copy of the database for instant reference.  We will have the capability of securely updating the database in the tablet at WIFI spots so that new changes and additions are quickly available.

Time has passed during which AAC has been quiet because we had multiple issues dumped on us that needed to be resolved.  Our AAC Hotline service has continued to operate without problems or interruptions.  We have other plans that will roll out in the coming days.  We are now out of the woods, back in the saddle again and fully ready to roll for the new year.  Franc Lugo knows his stuff, he is good with people, he is service-oriented and he will provide our community with rapid, capable, high quality service.

Bob

 

[Keith Woolford]

Just my opinion, but making public statements which denigrate others in response to a few questions about the organization and it's plans isn't going to win AAC any friends.

On another forum some detractors of Alto al Crimen (the usual suspects, no longer on .ning so far as I know) responded to the news item introducing Franc Lugo with some questions and comments that appeared to be based on the assumption that the board of directors of Alto al Crimen just climbed down off a load of turnips and begain administering a Panama foundation.

On the off chance that some others may have similar questions, I am posting my reply on this forum also.

 

Edited January 1, 2016 by Keith Woolford

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Replies to this topic but from a different forum have now been merged (consolidated) into this topic in this forum. For additional information about this action, please see http://www.chiriqui.life/topic/968-alto-al-crimen-news-release/?do=findComment&comment=3558.

This topic as posted in the News Boquete forum has now been locked. Any further replies should be posted here.

[Roger B]

3 hours ago, Keith Woolford said:

Just my opinion, but making public statements which denigrate others in response to a few questions about the organization and it's plans isn't going to win AAC any friends.

On another forum some detractors of Alto al Crimen (the usual suspects, no longer on .ning so far as I know) responded to the news item introducing Franc Lugo with some questions and comments that appeared to be based on the assumption that the board of directors of Alto al Crimen just climbed down off a load of turnips and begain administering a Panama foundation.

On the off chance that some others may have similar questions, I am posting my reply on this forum also.

 

This is so sad and unbelievable.  That an adult person use another forum to post things against the members for gaining acceptance in the other one.  I dont like that kind of situation so that is why I dont post anything about this but this BN vs CL is becoming not so good.  

 

 

[Twin Wolf Technology Group]

Agreed.  After making my statement about using both services - one to backup the other - a statement like this makes me wonder if AAC would treat me differently since I belong to this forum.   Like everyone else, I judge an organization by the public statements they make.  This one makes me very uncomfortable despite my previous statements of support.  

 

[Gordon Bakke]

Yes. Based on a number of statements he has made since Lee Zeltzer died, if I had known that Bob Gregory was a board member of AAC, I would never have joined. On the other hand, I have received nothing but good service from RD.

[Bonnie]

Bob, could you please tell us who the current board members of AAC are? I looked on the website, but the last entry I saw was dated September 12 of this year, which said, "[W]e are in the process of installing a new board of directors."