Are you interested in the health and wellbeing of the 9-1-1 industry's most important assets? As 9-1-1 professionals, regardless of your job title or role in the 9-1-1 industry, your health and wellbeing is important and NENA is committed to serving you in the best possible way.

NENA invites you to engage with your peers in our bi-monthly, Zoom-based health and wellness discussion! We will be seeking important insight from you on the health and wellness challenges you're facing and how we can best tackle them as a community. At the beginning of the meet up, Jason and Shannon Klepac with Morgan Farms will share a presentation illustrating how they use farm and ranch activities and education to create a respite from the everyday and the stressors of a first-responder career.

Click here on Wednesday, February 9 at 6PM Eastern to join the huddle.

 

The health and safety of NENA event attendees is a top priority, and, as such, we have moved #NENAGTW to March. The new dates are March 15-18. Current registrants received an email on Friday, January 21 to confirm their attendance on the new dates. However, hotel reservations for the original February dates will be cancelled automatically. Attendees will need to rebook housing for the event here. 

9-1-1 Goes to Washington (#NENAGTW) is an interactive forum where you learn about and discuss national 9-1-1 issues and advance those issues on Capitol Hill. This dynamic, hands-on program provides you with increased knowledge of 9-1-1 and homeland security legislative and regulatory topics, as well as critical information on the federal-government process and how to work with federal policy makers. It is vital, now more than ever, that 9-1-1 professionals become active participants in the governmental process to advance the goals of our profession and industry. 

Top Five Reasons to Attend:

1. Be a leader, not a spectator! Attending #NENAGTW is a great way to advocate for the national 9-1-1 agenda and let Congress hear the "Voice of 9-1-1."
2. Hear from nationally elected members of Congress, the leadership of the Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus, and federal policy leaders from the FCC, the National 911 Program Office, and other agencies. 
3. Participate in informative panel sessions on the nation's pressing 9-1-1 regulatory and legislative issues and other federal government activities impacting emergency communications.
4. Learn and share information on emerging 9-1-1 issues with national policy leaders and 9-1-1 professionals from across the country.
5. Meet with 9-1-1 leaders to advance a national 9-1-1 agenda and promote pressing local and state issues from your area.

Click here to register and here to book your housing.

Free #NENAGTW Prep Webinar Announced for 02.10

Getting Ready for #NENAGTW
Thursday, February 10 | 3PM Eastern (live) or On-Demand
FREE! Click here to register!

The time is fast approaching for you to join us in Washington to educate legislators and policymakers about the critical issues facing 9-1-1. To make sure 9-1-1 Goes to Washington (#NENAGTW) has the biggest impact ever, NENA is offering a FREE webinar that will give you the tools you need to succeed. You’ll learn about:

• The structure and agenda for #NENAGTW;
• How Congress really works, including insights on the the structure and function of committees and leadership offices;
• Ways to ensure effective meetings with key legislators and staff; and
• NENA’s major talking points and legislative priorities.

CEUs: No ENP points for attending this webinar, but #NENAGTW attendees earn one ENP re-certification point towards the eight-point maximum for NENA events in the Professional Development Conference section.

Can't attend on the 10th? Register now and access the on-demand webinar archive from the #NENAGTW homepage.

Webinar Access Info: Dial-in and web-access details provided automatically upon registration. 

The William E. Stanton Award is NENA's highest honor. It is bestowed upon an individual who has not only excelled in his or her everyday job, but has gone above and beyond to further NENA's goals. Nominations for this prestigious annual award are now open.

Click here for additional information on the award, including criteria, past recipients and more. Click here to submit your nomination online. The deadline for nominations is March 31, 2022.

NENA has established a scholarship program to honor the commitment of William "Bill" McMurray, ENP, Past President, to the mission of NENA and 9-1-1 education. The scholarship will be awarded for the NENA 2022 Conference & Expo, and covers the conference registration fee and four nights of lodging at a conference hotel (to be determined by NENA upon awarding of scholarship). Travel expenses to and from the conference and meals are not included in this award.

Please visit the scholarship webpage for information about the criteria, application procedure, and responsibilities. Click here to submit your application online. The application deadline is March 31, 2022.

NENA is seeking potential venues that can provide a capable and secure environment conducive to performing the inter-vendor testing of i3 version 3 and related standards called for in the event charter. At NENA’s ICE events, members of the public-safety vendor community gather to test implementations of standards in a safe, neutral environment. ICE events are overseen by the ICE Steering Committee (SC), which is a permanent representative body consisting of stakeholders from various public safety, non-profit, and vendor entities.

Interested venue hosts should provide a description of the proposed venue, including a floor plan of the facilities, and an itemized response to each of the prompts listed in the RFI and send your proposal to Delaine Arnold by February 11, 2022.

The NENA ICE Steering and Planning Committees will inform applicant laboratories on or before February 28, 2022 of the decision on selected host site(s) for the event. Please note that neither NENA nor any ICE members/participants can compensate potential ICE-10 host facilities/venues.

NENA, in support of the National 911 Program, has issued a request for information for NG9-1-1/PSBN contract language.

No contract language currently exists for entities to include in a procurement to communicate specific interconnection requirements between PSBNs and NG9-1-1 to broadband network providers. The National 911 Program has assembled a group of public and private sector 9-1-1 stakeholders, who have collaborated to facilitate progress toward integration of PSBN and NG9-1-1. The goal of this working group is to develop specific requirements for RFPs/contract language that measures/demonstrates interoperability function(s) and performance. This RFP/contract language will aid states and jurisdictions across the country to understand and effectively communicate their needs to providers who are building ESInets.

In order to meet this goal, the working group has compiled an RFI to gather information from the 9-1-1 stakeholder community, related to any language that could or should be included in contracts between NG9-1-1 agencies and PSBN providers.

Click here to learn more and respond to the RFI by February 16. 

The NENA Education Advisory Board seeks engaging and enthusiastic instructors to support NENA's Education & Training program. If you are a subject-matter expert in one or more of the below areas and you have a proven track record as an excellent instructor, then you are invited to help NENA provide exceptional training across North America. Instructors are sought to provide instruction on: 

• Cybersecurity
• Legal-liability issues
• Fire dispatch
• Leadership
• Bias and diversity

Instructors may be asked to teach up to ten times per year. Attendance at annual development and training events is required, normally one weekend per year. Instructors are paid on a per-day-of-instruction basis with highly-competitive compensation rates.

For consideration, please submit the following to NENA's Education Director, Vicki Pickett, by February 18:

• A ten-minute video of yourself instructing a class and teaching a concept
• Three letters of recommendation, at least one of which should be from a former student
• A letter of support from your employer, if applicable
• A resume, including previous work experience, references, and contact information

NENA 2022-23 Second Vice President Candidates Forum
Tuesday, March 1 | 3PM Eastern (live) or On-Demand
Click here to register!

Join NENA for this special webinar featuring the candidates for NENA Second Vice President. The candidates will have a chance to introduce themselves and share their campaign messages. Then, a Q&A session moderated by a NENA Past President will provide additional insights.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear from your 2022-23 Board of Directors candidates before voting opens on March 15.

Can't attend on the 1st? Register now and you will receive an email after the live presentation with instructions for accessing the on-demand webinar archive.

Webinar Access Info: Dial-in and web-access details provided automatically via email upon registration.

Please complete all requested data and click "Save," or, if submitting multiple comments, click "Save and Add Another.

If submitting a substantial number of substantive comments or edits, you may add a single comment in the Comment Manager and attach an edited version of the document containing your tracked changes. To do this, scroll down and click on "Add Supporting File" on the comment page and upload the file you have edited.

If you are providing editorial comments, such as corrections to typos, grammatical errors, style/numbering errors, and incorrect references/links to documents, please document them under one comment and list the page and line number for each. For example:

• Page 22, Line 761: correct moist to most
• Page 51, Line 905: correct Maine to main
• If the correction is within a table, provide the table name and page number of error and specific details of change

All comments are due by February 14, 2022. You may contact the NENA Committee Resource Manager with any questions or concerns.

The NENA Standard for NG9-1-1 GIS Data Model defines the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Data Model, which supports the NENA Next Generation 9‑1‑1 (NG9‑1‑1) Core Services (NGCS) of location validation and routing, both geospatial call routing or to the appropriate agency for dispatch. This model also defines several GIS data layers (layers) used in local PSAP and response-agency mapping applications for handling and responding to 9‑1‑1 calls.

Members of the Working Group can download the document and submit comments by going here and then selecting "Add a Comment" from the "Edit" icon.

All others may download the document and submit comments by going here and then selecting "Add a Comment" from the "Document Actions" icon.

Please complete all requested data and click "Save," or, if submitting multiple comments, click "Save and Add Another.

If submitting a substantial number of substantive comments or edits, you may add a single comment in the Comment Manager and attach an edited version of the document containing your tracked changes. To do this, scroll down and click on "Add Supporting File" on the comment page and upload the file you have edited.

If you are providing editorial comments, such as corrections to typos, grammatical errors, style/numbering errors, and incorrect references/links to documents, please document them under one comment and list the page and line number for each. For example: 

• Page 22, Line 761: correct moist to most
• Page 51, Line 905: correct Maine to main
• If the correction is within a table, provide the table name and page number of error and specific details of change

All comments are due by February 14, 2022. You may contact the NENA Committee Resource Manager with any questions or concerns.

The NENA Standard for Social Media Emergency Requests provides guidance to PSAPs in establishing standard operating procedures in the handling of emergency requests for public safety assistance that originate on social media networks and interacting with providers for exigent circumstances.

Members of the Working Group can download the document and submit comments by going here and then selecting "Add a Comment" from the "Edit" icon.

All others may download the document and submit comments by going here and then selecting "Add a Comment" from the "Document Actions" icon.

When submitting comments, please include the line number(s) associated with each comment, a brief explanation of the comment, and suggested resolution of each comment. Please complete all requested data and click "Save," or, if submitting multiple comments, click "Save and Add Another."

If submitting a substantial number of substantive comments or edits, you may add a single comment in the Comment Manager and attach an edited version of the document containing your tracked changes. To do this, scroll down and click on "Add Supporting File" on the comment page and upload the file you have edited.

If you are providing editorial comments, such as corrections to typos, grammatical errors, style/numbering errors, and incorrect references/links to documents, please document them under one comment and list the page and line number for each. For example:

NENA congratulates Debra Jordan on her appointment as the new Bureau Chief of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB). We look forward to working with Debra and the entire PSHSB as we strive to advance 9-1-1.

We also thank Lisa Fowlkes – the outgoing Bureau Chief and a dedicated public servant – for her commitment to 9-1-1 and public-safety communications throughout her tenure.

The Virtual PSAP Management Work Group (WG) is being formed to update the Virtual PSAP Management Information Document which has not been updated since 2017. Since that time, PSAPs have experienced significant lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other significant events, that should be captured and standardized to address future needs where traditional brick and mortar operations are not feasible in order to maintain service delivery to the public. This could be due to situations outside of the Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) control, e.g. pandemic, natural disaster; but could also include a strategic decision by PSAP management to temporarily relocate operations when the PSAP may be at risk, e.g. civil unrest.

In addition to operational experience, SME experience with development and implementation of 9-1-1 solutions should be leveraged to provide recommendations to AHJ’s to further develop contingency plans for future events. This working group will convert the current Information Document to an American National Standard as well as update content to incorporate best practices gathered from real-world examples observed during events such as COVID-19 and other events where PSAPs have to employ non-traditional call processing operations to ensure continuity of operations. WG calls will be held Wednesdays at 2 pm Central, for 1 hour weekly.

Click here to join this WG.

The NG9-1-1 Operational Diversity and Redundancy Work Group (WG) is being formed to provide best practices for applying redundancy and resiliency concepts to operational aspects of NG9-1-1 systems. The WG will develop a document detailing best practices for operating an NG9-1-1 system with a specific emphasis on avoiding outages impacting the performance of the system. The document is primarily a resource for NG9-1-1 System providers that provide a service to 9-1-1 Authorities. However, any 9-1-1 Authority that procures NG9-1-1 products and operates the NG9-1-1 system themselves should also implement the proposed best practices.

Click here to join this WG.