[News Boquete] The Rodny Saga - On Finding Your True Mission in Life

I am writing in support of Rodny and Rodny Direct, toward which end I offer the following history from my and Rodny's point of view. Many of you who are new or relatively new to Boquete may not be aware of Rodny's history with the "Boquete hotline."

I was a co-founder of Fundacion Alto al Crimen (AaC) in 2010, following the lead of Caesar Sherrard, who first brought the dangers of increasing crime into focus, and was joined by fellow co-founders Rodrigo Marciacq and Bob Wolfe. In the company of these fearless leaders, we kicked butt and took names. We were threatened with lawsuits and retribution, drove criminals out of town, got some arrested, worked with the police, investigated the why and how of every crime, educated the residents and managed to reduce the crime rate considerably. 

Our few but dedicated volunteers were never mentioned by name for their own protection.

We knew we needed a bi-lingual person to serve for a crime-reporting hotline, and Bob Wolfe identified Rodny as a candidate. Bob had met Rodny through his work with Fundacion Pro Integracion (commonly known as the Handicapped Center). Rodny's future at that point was dim, to say the least.

Rodny was asked to become the AaC hotline dispatcher. The very first call Rodny took was from a woman whose husband was having a heart attack at the wheel on their way to David. Rodny promptly dispatched the ambulance to her location, but alas, it was too late to save the husband. From that moment, Rodny saw his future unfolding before him and we all realized that Rodny was much more than just a crime reporting service. 

As the hotline service developed, we knew that the donation model would not serve for the long term. I developed a subscription system, which has been adopted successfully in Coronado and Volcan and now for all of Chiriqui as Rodny Direct. However, in August 2013, the AaC board voted to stay with the donation model and dismantle my database. I promptly resigned from the board. 

Following my departure, Rodny entered into a contract with AaC after three months of negotiation.  The contract finally reached provided a flat fee of $500 per month for providing emergency services 24/7 for every citizen in Boquete.  

Although previously an employee of AaC, the new contract made Rodny an independent contractor. With the change Rodny lost his social security (which he became responsible for paying himself), 13th month payment, and one-month vacation time. He also became responsible for his own hardware, internet costs, telephone costs, travel, and all other expenses. Rodny discovered the amount to be insufficient to meet his needs and obligations. 

Also of importance is that for more than the last year, Rodny has been complaining to me and to board members of AaC about the non-functionality of the AaC database. He was never able to reliably update the database, which frequently failed to notify him of new signups. Thus many people signed up but were never assigned an ID number.  95% of the existing database is more than two years old without systematic updates and riddled with an unknown number of errors.  Salvaging it would require rebuilding it record by record, in other words, starting over with an outdated, functionally deficient technology.  The AaC board was unwilling to change the database to the better and more efficient one Rodny used for other communities.

Then, as reported on boquete.ning by Bob Gregory, with the death of Lee Zeltzer AaC lost all its financial and operational records, including the check book, and apparently had no second person to sign the two-signer checks. Further payments to Rodny from AaC were in grave doubt.

At this point, a group of citizens who know and appreciate Rodny's character and career stepped in to carry him through the transition to Rodny Direct. 

So Rodny Direct is now completely independent of AaC and 100% owned and controlled by Rodny. He has five years of successful operational experience and is now using the professional database shared by his other communities, which means he can network with them to provide backup coverage, training and support. 

Equally important, with the support of the community, Rodny Direct will now be on a viable financial basis with which he can grow, add operators, improve his service, and expand his service offerings. 

Rodny has given AaC five months notice of his intent to terminate his contract, unless they once again fail to pay him, in which case it will be sooner. 

What I, as a responsible citizen of Boquete, am asking of you as other responsible citizens, is to support Rodny via your support of Rodny Direct, which is nothing less than a unique-in-the-world jewel of community service.  Your support will be helping it grow and flower and benefit Boquete and spread to other communities in Panama, saving us money and aggravation and even sometimes, our lives.

Mark Heyer

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