We know that the past year has been hard on all of us in the 9-1-1 community and a lot has changed; but what hasn't changed is how much we admire our members. Thank you for all you're doing during this challenging time. Check out the above video, and look out for additional videos of appreciation on Facebook and Twitter every day this week, including one from award-winning actor Anthony Anderson! 

Register for free & watch on demand!

9-1-1 Goes to Washington (#NENAGTW) went virtual for 2021 and the sessions are all available now to watch on-demand! Hear from 9-1-1 public-policy experts and government leaders on today's most pressing 9-1-1 and emergency communications issues. During these on-demand sessions, you will:

• Learn how you can shape the national 9-1-1 agenda and move key legislation on NG9-1-1 funding (via the LIFT America Act) and telecommunicator reclassification (via the 911 SAVES Act) forward;
• Hear directly from members of Congress, administration officials, the National 911 Office, and FCC staff about the nation's 9-1-1 policy landscape and Washington's emergency-communications priorities; and
• Gain the skills you need to become an advocate for 9-1-1 in Washington... in-person, on the phone, or via Zoom!

#NENAGTW Virtual Edition attendees earn one point towards ENP recertification.

At NENA 2021, you will not only hear about the public safety issues of today and tomorrow, but also gain practical, real-world know-how that you can take home with you and put into action immediately. Featuring inspiring keynote speakers, more than ninety hours of breakout sessions that inform and empower, career-building courses and workshops with real-world applications, nightly networking events that help you make the right connections, and an Expo Hall showcasing cutting-edge products and services, NENA 2021 is the must-attend event of the year. Don’t miss your chance to be a part of it!

Click here to register and here to book your housing. 

Register Today for the 7th Annual Run for 9-1-1! 
Lace up your running or walking shoes in support of 9-1-1 training and wellness programs on Saturday, July 24, and participate in the 7th Annual "Run for 9-1-1" Charity 5K in Columbus, Ohio!

The run/walk promotes healthy living among 9-1-1 professionals, gives the greater Columbus community, and supporters from around the country, a chance to say "thank you" to 9-1-1, and generates funds for scholarships and 9-1-1 training opportunities. Click here to register.

NENA's COVID-19 resource page contains items including PSAP-guidance documents, EMD protocols, on-demand webinars, CoOPs and planning checklists, event-planner assistance, public education graphics, health and hygiene best practices, and many more resources to support you and your work during this ever-evolving situation. This page is updated with new information as it becomes available. 

Do you have or know of other resources that should be posted? If so, you can contact NENA Communications Director Chris Nussman.

NENA is pleased to announce that version 3 of the NENA i3 Standard for Next Generation 9-1-1, American National Standard Candidate NENA-STA-010.3-202Y, is available for a 3rd public review and comment. This standard provides detailed functional and interface specifications for Next-Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) and serves as the foundation for NENA’s suite of NG9-1-1 standards. As this is a 3rd public review, only the highlighted edits are open for comment.

You may both download this document for review and submit your comments here.

Version 3 includes key updates to NG9-1-1 infrastructure to ensure continued support for interoperability on a national and international scale. Version 3 changes include a move to a REST/JSON architecture for data interactions between functional elements and systems, improvements to security, major updates to the call bridging (Bridging Service), Discrepancy Reports, an Outgoing Call Interface Function, blind transfer support, updates to novel call types (including non-interactive calls and Advanced Automatic Crash Notifications [AACNs]), and more. Version 3 also incorporates a number of new IETF specifications and has made adjustments to addressing to harmonize schemes across Europe and North America.

i3 is an open standard developed with the contribution of a large community of industry, academic, and public-safety experts. NENA’s development process is always open to all.

Comments are due by April 18, 2021. Contact the NENA Committee Resource Manager with any questions.

9-1-1 professionals may be the most important people that most Americans will never meet. They are the vital first link in the emergency-response chain. Yet, the fact that they work behind the scenes means these hidden heroes tend to be taken for granted by the public and by officials at all levels of government. The 9-1-1 workforce is chronically under-funded and under-supported.

To help fix this problem, U.S. Reps. Norma Torres (D-CA) – herself a former 9-1-1 professional – and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), a former FBI agent, are sponsoring the Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (911 SAVES Act). If enacted, this bipartisan bill would reclassify the public safety telecommunicator as a "Protective Service Occupation," alongside law-enforcement personnel, firefighters, security guards, and others whose job it is to protect our communities.

This small but important change — which would cost the taxpayers nothing — would give an estimated 100,000 public safety telecommunicators located in every community across America the respect and support they deserve while improving the government’s data collection and analysis efforts.

With the bill now introduced in Congress, we call on every member of Congress to cosponsor the legislation and show their support for the unsung heroes of public safety.

Make your voice heard by joining our grassroots campaign!

NENA is seeking volunteers to participate in a new working group that is establishing guidelines, best practices, and requirements for non-conventional means of communicating with E9-1-1 systems. There is an increasing incidence of E9-1-1 calls that introduce unexpected operational and technical issues. These methods are used when providers of modern technologies want to send data or communicate with public safety, but because E9-1-1 cannot initiate multimedia sessions or receive data over IP in a modern way, providers turn to clever implementations that use legacy E9-1-1 interfaces in unexpected ways. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• A body-worn device places a 9-1-1 call when it detects that an individual may have been injured
• Supplemental non-location information is embedded into ALI
• A mobile device places a silent call that includes a pre-recorded message
• A device sends a non-human initiated or one-way text to report an emergency

The working group will identify existing and transitional E9-1-1 environments and capabilities used to handle non-conventional communication modes and provide examples of non-conventional data transmissions to public safety.

We are seeking volunteers and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) with knowledge of PSAP operations, NG9-1-1 technologies, and OTT solutions, applications providers, and related areas. Experience in developing use cases/user stories and requirements will be very helpful. The working group will be meeting Wednesdays 12:30 - 2:00 ET beginning April 28, 2021.

To contribute to this effort please register here.

Public Safety Telecommunicator | JLL | Lawrence, NJ
Director of Emergency Communications and Citizen Services | City of Virginia Beach | Virginia Beach, VA
Training and Quality Assurance Program Manager | Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority | Arlington, VA
Emergency Communications Officer | Town of Cary | Cary, NC

See these jobs, and many more, here!