NENA NEWS
Voting for NENA's 2013-2014 Executive Board opens Tuesday, April 30 and runs until Tuesday, June 4. On Tuesday, April 30, 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)
The elections for Northeastern Regional Director, Canadian Regional Director, and Private Sector Director are uncontested, and therefore will not be open for voting. The positions of Southeastern Regional Director and Western Regional Director will be up for election in 2014.
After the voting period has ended, the Election Committee will certify the results on Sunday, June 16 in Charlotte, NC, in accordance with NENA Bylaws. Join us at NENA 2013 in Charlotte from June 15-20, where the results of the election will be announced and your new Executive Board installed!
Contact Bri Robinson with any questions about the candidates, the voting process, or general election details.
In addition to NENA 2013’s 90 hours of breakout sessions, Pre-Con Courses offer a great opportunity to gain take-home skills and hear about the latest issues... all while receiving credits towards ENP certification and re-certification. Space is limited, so be sure to add a Pre-Con Course to your registration while seats are still available!
Two-Day Courses:
- Advanced Disaster Planning
- SOP SOS
One-Day Courses:
- A Guide to Middle Management
- Communications Center Staffing Workshop
- NG91-1 on the PSAP Floor
- QA Beyond Call Taking
- 9-1-1 Center Consolidation
- Filling the Seats in Your PSAP
- Government Education
- How to Get Promoted
- Liability Issues in the 9-1-1 Center
- Transition to NG9-1-1
- Troubleshooting Technology
NENA 2013 is the must-attend event of the year for today's emergency communications professional. Don't miss your chance to be a part of it!
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, Missouri, 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.
UPCOMING DEADLINES
Don't miss this opportunity to get your brand in front of public safety's top decision makers! The advertising space deadline for the NENA 2013 Conference and Expo Show Guide is April 17. Contact Shaun Greyling (352-333-3385) today to reserve your space.
OPS UPDATE
Information continues to be received from multiple jurisdictions indicating the existence of ongoing attacks targeting the telephone systems of public sector entities. More than 200 such attacks have been identified to date. The perpetrators of the attack launched numerous phone calls against the target telephone network, tying up the system and preventing the agency from receiving legitimate calls. This type of attack is referred to as a TDoS or Telephony Denial of Service Attack.
As a result of a cooperative effort between Federal Authorities, public safety representatives, and commercial service providers, a checklist has been developed to provide you with information that will assist in the development of a continuity of operations plan for your agency.
Click here to download a PDF copy of the checklist.
PSAPS wanting to become a 9-1-1 Call Center Partner with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) must begin the process by having the PSAP Director attend the CEO course offered by NCMEC. There are now more than 100 9-1-1 Call Center Partners, with more being added each month.
NENA is pleased to announce that the two-day NCMEC CEO course will be held Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, June 16 at the Charlotte Convention Center. There is no registration fee. CEO course attendees are encouraged to attend NENA 2013 as well.
May 7 & 8, 2013
CALEMA Building D 0390 Peter A. McCuen Boulevard, MATHER, CA 95655
This course is designed for Emergency Managers and Public Information Officers to understand the importance of credentialed sign language interpreters during an emergency/disaster. Emergency Managers and Public Information Officers will learn the history of natural disasters and its impact on the Deaf community (including feedback, lack of access, etc.); Deaf culture and communication; the value of California Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Response Interpreter Program (DRI); and how to set up Disaster Response Interpreter Program/Training.
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.
In NG9-1-1, all call media must be recorded, including voice, video, and text. In addition, all elements involved in call processing log event records for each step in the process. The NENA i3 Solution defines standard interfaces for recording and retrieving all of these data in order to provide historical records for operational, training, and legal purposes, and for analyzing and troubleshooting NG9-1-1 processes. The ICE 8 event, being planned for the fall of 2013, will allow vendors of all NG9-1-1 call processing elements to test logging, recording, and retrieval interfaces while processing calls from origination to termination with different media types.
An ICE 8 Planning Committee has been formed, and vendors of all NG9-1-1 equipment and systems are encouraged to join the more than 25 vendors who are already participating. ICE 8 will provide a unique opportunity for all NG9-1-1 vendors to process multimedia calls end-to-end while their events and media are being logged and recorded. This event will provide the most comprehensive NG9-1-1 test opportunity yet.
ICE 8 requires broad participation from vendors of all types of NG9-1-1 equipment. Recording and logging in the NG9-1-1 setting requires active participation from all call processing equipment. Vendors of call processing equipment need to demonstrate interoperability just as much as do vendors of recording and logging equipment, in order to maximize market opportunities. This event will go far beyond the logging and recording that were done at previous ICE events, and thus represents a major step forward for NG9-1-1 vendors.
Potential Points of Demarcation in NG9-1-1 NetworksInformation Document, NENA-INF-003, March 23, 2013, has been approved by the NENA Board. In NG9-1-1 networks, demarcation is not defined exclusively by a physical point of interconnection. NG9-1-1 is built on Internet Protocol (IP) networks which follow the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layered model where points of demarcation can occur independently at different places in different OSI layers. This document’s purpose is to identify points of demarcation, and not to advise on the relative merits of different demarcation options from a regulatory or financial perspective.
Click here for the document.
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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