MAPPS 3rd Annual Conference
The 3rd Annual MAPPS Conference took place on April 26th, 2014 in Flowood, MS. We had twenty attendee’s and eight new applications for membership. Guest speakers were Deputy Chief Eddy Ingram who gave a presentation on Use of Force relating to process servers defending themselves which included topics of: Defensive Tactics, Certification in OC Chemical Spray and Taser, Intermediate use of force and Deadly Force. We also discussed the process server’s role interacting with law enforcement in the event any of this use of force is applied.
Following lunch John Perez, President of the NJPPSA gave an outstanding presentation of The New Jersey Private Process Servers Registry and how this may be used for recognizing private process servers in our state. NJ and MS are similar in that neither state requires anything more that a server be a person 18 or older and not a party to the action. Not only will this registry provide recognition to process servers but will also give a collective voice of the server’s in our state to achieve goals that have been elusive. An example would be our bill introduced last year to exempt process server’s from trespassing that was not even brought up in the legislative committee. This registry could allow us to gain the attention of our legislatures and our MS State Supreme Court for any rule changes that we need. “There is strength in numbers,” John Perez.
Afterwards, we had a certification test based on ethical and MS Rules of Civil Procedure. All members who were certified were also given the opportunity to obtain an ID card that reflected them as such.
We have recently received our non profit status which was applied for with the IRS over two years ago. At only 46 members we are a small association. However, we look forward to applying as a state chartered association with NAPPS.
I would like to personally thank John Perez for his dedication and generosity by giving us his time and money to invest in our association.