NENA NEWS
Looking for details on the emergency communication industry's premier annual event, taking place June 15-20 in Charlotte, NC? Look no further! The full NENA 2013 brochure is now available.
Voting for NENA's 2013-2014 Executive Board opens tomorrow, Tuesday, April 30 and runs until Tuesday, June 4. On Tuesday, eligible members will receive an email with a direct link to NENA's online ballot along with voting instructions. Once a member logs in, he or she will be able to review the nominations and vote. After officially casting a vote, the voter will not be able to change his or her vote or access the ballot again. This election is for the following positions:
Second Vice President (two candidates; open to all voting-eligible NENA Members)
North Central Regional Director (two candidates; open to voting-eligible NENA Members in the region)
Last week, NENA held thirty-minute "meet the candidates" webinars. Download or view them online here:
Contact Bri Robinson with any questions about the candidates, the voting process, or general election details.
NENA and URISA are pleased to announce the newly re-engineered Locating the Future Conference (formerly known as the URISA/NENA Addressing Conference). The conference will take place at the historic Union Station in St. Louis, MO, from November 3-6, 2013.
With the new theme comes an invigorated slate of topics relating to location, addressing, public safety, emergency management, and 9-1-1. The world is changing at a rapid pace, and technologies related to location are more and more common. How do location and addressing adapt?
Call for Presentations
Consider participating as a speaker to showcase innovation, case studies, and best practices. There is a format to fit your speaking style, from a formal presentation and panel discussion to a complete interactive session or IGNITE talk.
Housing Information
The conference will take place at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel. We were able to obtain an extremely attractive room rate of $119 single/double. Reservations must be made by October 2, 2013. Make your reservation now while there is availability.
NENA and the National 9-1-1 Education Coalition call upon 9-1-1 professionals, the public, and elected officials to recognize and promote the message Be 9-1-1 Ready for the month of April 2013.
The Coalition website, www.know911.org, provides extensive tools and resources to enhance 9-1-1 public education. A public relations toolkit and other materials to support the Be 9-1-1 Ready campaign are available currently on www.know911.org. The website is updated frequently with content from 9-1-1 educators, local communities, and the Coalition. Sample messages include:
- Know Where You Are: Where are you right now? Could you tell 9-1-1 exactly where to find you?
- Call If You Can, Text if You Can't: Your local 9-1-1 center may soon be able to accept SMS text messages provided by your wireless service provider. Continue to call 9-1-1 until you know your 9-1-1 center can accept text messages.
- Stay Calm & Ready to Listen: 9-1-1 is here to help you through until help arrives. Be ready to listen and follow directions.
Curious about how to get the most out of your membership? Check out the new 2013 NENA Membership Guide! It's full of information about the myriad benefits and resources available to you as a NENA member (We've got a lot to offer!). In addition to the virtual edition, keep your eyes peeled for the print version, which should be arriving in your mailbox shortly. Contact us if you would like additional copies to distribute as part of our 2013 recruitment efforts!
We are excited to announce the launch of a new rewards program - available exclusively to you as a member of NENA! To join, log in to nena.org and click on the Member Rewards link from your member profile menu.
Designed to provide exclusive money-saving offers to our members, the new Member Rewards program gives you immediate access to THOUSANDS of discounts from a wide variety of exciting companies like AMC Theatres, Sprint, Walt Disney World, Red Lobster, 1-800-Flowers, Macy's and many more. There is an annual fee of $19.95* to join.
Join now, browse great deals, and start saving today! PLUS, a small portion of the proceeds will go to support NENA initiatives and help keep your membership dues low. Thank you for your support... and happy savings.
NENA's Center Manager Certification Program (CMCP) is designed to equip recently hired, newly promoted, and aspiring PSAP and 9-1-1 Authority managers and supervisors with the tools needed to effectively manage their agency through a rigorous 40-hour course of lecture and lab-based education. For more seasoned 9-1-1 professionals, the CMCP may serve to fill in some of the gaps and strengthen core competencies required in emergency communications center management.
The CMCP, unlike many other upper-level emergency communications training programs, utilizes a real-world, hands-on approach that is focused on topics encountered daily by managerial and supervisory level personnel: Business Writing, Financial Management, Human Resources, Legal Issues, and Communications Skills. With a curriculum built by current and former 9-1-1 center managers with decades of combined supervisory and training experience, the program will provide you with knowledge and skills that can immediately and drastically improve your on-the-job effectiveness and enhance your agency's everyday operations.
Register for upcoming CMCPs:
Registration coming soon for:
- 12.09-13 in Gainesville, FL
Make sure the addresses (email and postal) that we have on file for you are current! Please log in to your online member account to verify or update your information, or send an email to Bri Robinson.
TECH UPDATE
Due to the number of comments previously received and the quantity of edits and clarification that have been made to this document, NENA Standard for NG9-1-1 Policy Routing Rules, NENA-STA-xxx (DRAFT) has been posted to the NENA collaboration website and is available for a second 15 Business Day Public Review and Comment starting April 1, 2013, and ending on April 19, 2013, at 5PM ET.
All comments shall be submitted by going here and then selecting "add a comment" just above the title "Document Details." Please complete all requested data and "Save" OR if submitting multiple comments, select "Save and Add Another."
Executive Overview
An important feature of NG9-1-1 is the ability of the system to adapt to outages, excessive call volumes, emergencies and normal scheduled PSAP outages. The Policy Routing Function (PRF) described in 08-003 is the function that handles the diversion of calls. To support the PRF, Policy Routing Rules (PRRs) must be developed. These PRRs define to where calls are diverted if the target PSAP is unreachable. This Working Group's charter was to define a template to guide the development of these PRRs. To that end, the committee developed templates to facilitate the PRRs that a 9-1-1 Authority must develop for any new NG9-1-1 System. The minimum set of rules developed must address all call diversion capabilities present in the current E911 system. A 9-1-1 Authority may choose to implement additional and/or enhanced PRRs to divert calls in a manner that takes advantage of capabilities available in a NG9-1-1 system that are not available in E9-1-1 systems.
The template developed is intended to facilitate a discussion between a 9-1-1 Authority and its Emergency Service Routing Proxy (ESRP) vendor. By utilizing the template, PRRs can be described in a way that is understandable by the 9-1-1 Authority and specific enough to be implemented by the vendor.
Without the creation of PRRs, a NG9-1-1 system will not be able to divert calls to an alternative PSAP when the target PSAP is unavailable. Implementation of the PRRs is a necessary step in the deployment of a NG9-1-1 system.
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS UPDATE
On behalf of more than 6,000 9-1-1 call centers across America and our members who lead and staff them, NENA welcomes a new report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), entitled 911 Service: Most States Used Funds for Intended Purposes, but FCC Could Improve Its Reporting on State Use of Funds. A copy of the report is available here.
NENA is pleased that another element of the Next Generation 9-1-1 Advancement Act of 2012 has been completed, and that the GAO seems to have devoted much time and effort to preparing its report.
However, the report is in some ways a missed opportunity. NENA had hoped that the Act would prompt a detailed look at primary-source materials on 9-1-1 fee collection by the states, and whether those fees are actually spent to further the deployment, operation, maintenance, and improvement of 9-1-1 services. However, the GAO did not conduct any review of publicly available state revenue and appropriations data to determine whether the data that is self-reported by the states is accurate.
In light of the existing FCC reporting regime, the fact that Congress ordered a GAO study should have made it apparent that something different was required. Instead, the report dwells on methodological problems with the FCC's existing data collection regime, while basing almost all of its own findings on that very data set.
Beyond its statutory directive, the GAO focused much of its energies on researching subjects such as E9-1-1 wireless location capabilities that have already been comprehensively studied by NENA and others, and for which data was already publicly available.
Despite our misgivings about the report's scope and methodology, NENA is pleased that the information assembled by GAO will be made available to lawmakers and the public in a convenient and high-profile format. We call on the Congress to scrutinize the report and continue to seek more illuminating data.
NENA remains committed to ensuring that citizens receive the benefits they deserve from the 9-1-1 fees they are charged, and we look forward to working with GAO on future 9-1-1 studies.
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION NEWS
NENA recently launched a FREE email news service called Public Safety SmartBrief. It provides a weekly summary of news, trends and updates on public safety issues - not just 9-1-1, but police, fire and EMS. Knowledgeable editors handpick key articles from hundreds of publications, summarize them, and provide direct links to the original sources.
In other words, we do all the research and you get the latest news in your inbox or on your handheld device, absolutely free.
HELP WANTED
NENA's new and improved career center now offers more options and search functionality to job seekers and recruiters, including the ability to browse openings by category, subscribe to receive email notifications of new openings, and apply for openings directly online. Recruiters can now view and rate candidates applying for openings, search the resume database of available candidates (members-only feature), and manage postings online.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Save the Date: Nov. 2-6 at the Union Station Hotel in St. Louis, MO! This conference, held in conjunction with URISA, focuses on the importance of addresses and locations in 9-1-1, public safety, emergency management, and other fields. GIS professionals, addressing coordinators, planners, 9-1-1 and emergency response specialists come together for workshops, education, collaboration, and networking. Registration and additional details coming soon!
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