2025 Iowa D.A.R.E. Officer Association Conference Registration

“DARE to make a difference”

July 20-22, 2025                             Dubuque, Iowa

Dear Iowa DARE Members,

I am writing to inform you that the President of the Iowa DARE Officers Association, Dylan Rose, has resigned from his position.  With this vacancy, the Board of Directors has appointed me as the President for the remainder of his term.

Due to this unexpected vacancy, the board has assumed responsibility for organizing the 2025 DARE Conference.  After careful consideration, we have decided to relocate the conference from Webster City back to Dubuque.

Over the next few weeks, we will be reaching out to the scheduled conference speakers and coordinating new catering arrangements, lodging, and venue.  Once the logistics of this relocation are confirmed, we will announce the new conference location along with registration details, lodging options, and the agenda.  We remain committed to holding the conference during the week of July 20, 2025.

If you have already booked your hotel room in Webster City, that reservation will be cancelled in the coming days.  If you have already submitted a registration, or attempted to, you will need to resubmit a registration form when we announce the new conference location.

Additionally, with this vacancy, the 2nd Vice President position will be open for appointment at the conference.  This is a great opportunity for you to take a more active role in shaping the future of DARE Iowa.  We encourage you to consider stepping into this leadership role.

The IDA Board of Directors and committee look forward to leading the 2025 Iowa DARE Conference and working alongside each of you to advance our mission.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Best regards,
Chief Robert Millin, Mar-Mac Police Dept.

President, Iowa DARE Officers Association
rmillin@marmacpolice.org

Hello Iowa DARE Officers,                            Past President Jason Hoerner

I know you all thought, and probably relieved, that you were done getting messages from me, but I just wanted to send out one more message to all of you now that the 2024 conference is over and I’ve had some time to reflect on all of it. First of all, I want to thank all of you that were able to attend and made the conference a huge success. I know it’s not easy to schedule the time to be away during your busy summer schedules when there are vacations to be taken, ball games, and staffing issues at work. I hope you were able to take away something from the presentations that we had to help yourself be better whether it’s at home or at work. We all have important roles to countless people out there and a lot of students that look up to us even if we don’t realize it and that’s why the relationships that we build are so vital to what we do. We have to take care of ourselves so we can be the best we can for those that need us.

I don’t know how many times that the different speakers that presented to us would thank me for having them come to our conference and were so happy and grateful for being able to speak to our group. Even as Molly and John were on their way home to Tennessee and Florida, they kept texting to thank me for the opportunity and wanted me to pass that on to all of you.

There are a lot of moving parts and pieces of the puzzle to put together when planning a conference, but I do have to say it was a great experience and I encourage you to seriously consider taking on that role at some point. I thought I already knew a lot about my community, but I learned so much more than I already knew. I made so many new contacts and learned about many different resources that I had no idea existed. I knew we had a lot of support out there, but as I was meeting with so many different people and organizations, I was amazed by the amount of support we really do have, not just law enforcement in general, but the DARE program. Many of the people that I met with shared stories of when they were growing up and how important the DARE program was to them whether it was here in Dubuque or from wherever they grew up. If it wasn’t for these people and organizations that believe in us and what we do every day, much of what we saw at the conference would not have been possible.

I couldn’t have imagined the conference turning out any better than it did, so thank you for being here and being a part of it and I look forward to seeing all of you in Webster City next year. I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer, and always, stay safe out there.

Thank you,

Jason

Iowa DARE Officers Association