PSC eNews Weekly
Friday, April 21, 2023
President's Channel

After Executive Director and CEO Derek Poarch announced in January his intention to end his career with APCO in August 2024, your Executive Committee immediately went to work searching for his successor. At the same meeting in which Mr. Poarch made his announcement, the Board of Directors selected one representative from each region to represent the membership in this effort. Those board members are serving along with the CAC Board representative, two senior staff members and four past presidents on the Executive Director Search Committee, in accordance with APCO Policy 8.4.

During a meeting facilitated by Dr. Stephen Edwards in early February, the Executive Committee worked to develop a vision for the future and began a position and organizational overview to help guide our search. We then identified and interviewed several executive staffing firms with experience placing leaders of senior positions in non-profit associations or public safety agencies. Staffing Advisors, a Washington D.C.-area executive search firm, was selected to assist with identifying candidates who have a unique skill set that can help take APCO into the future.

After several Zoom meetings to establish expectations and develop the search plan, we met with Staffing Advisors in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 21 to further develop and refine the position overview, which outlines the key focus areas and qualifications for the position. The job was officially posted on March 31, and resumes will be accepted through today, April 21.

I encourage you to direct any questions you might have to your Regional Representatives to the Board of Directors. However, please understand that this process is extremely sensitive. This is necessary to assure applicants who may need confidentiality in order to protect them in their current professional positions. Each member of the Search Committee has signed a non-disclosure agreement to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of this important process, which limits the nature and amount of information they can share.

Please be assured that we all recognize the consequential nature of this effort and are confident in the Search Committee’s ability to help identify the best candidate for this incredible opportunity. The entire Executive Committee along with the Search Committee is committed to finding the right individual with the right combination of talent, stamina and temperament to lead APCO with a wild enthusiasm for our mission and a passion for service to the public safety profession. I look forward to bringing you additional updates in the coming months.

 

On April 20, the PROTECT 9-1-1 Act was reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support. This legislation would improve health and wellness for public safety telecommunicators by establishing health and wellness grant programs for emergency communications centers; developing best practices to identify, prevent and treat post-traumatic stress disorder in 9-1-1 professionals; and creating resources to help mental health professionals better treat these personnel.
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On April 17, APCO filed comments with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in response to a request for comment on the development of a national spectrum strategy. Among other things, NTIA sought input on a process for identifying potential spectrum bands to repurpose for more intensive use. APCO’s comments cautioned against repurposing spectrum bands used for public safety communications. APCO encouraged NTIA to consider public safety’s unique needs for highly reliable, interference-free access to spectrum when developing spectrum policies.

 

Built on the experiences of public safety cybersecurity experts and ECC professionals, the APCO course Cybersecurity Fundamentals for the ECC provides a basic overview of the critical pieces of information that all ECC employees should know for ECC data protection– from surfing the internet to being aware of key indicators in email for possible phishing attempts. This course also provides several resources for creating an Incident Response Plan and what to do if your ECC experiences a cyberattack. The course is offered in the APCO Virtual Classroom on May 2 and July 11. It is also a pre-conference course at APCO 2023 on August 5 in Nashville, Tennessee.  

 

May 24 | 1:00 p.m. ET
Free for members; $59 for non-members
Worth 1 CDE
Sponsored by NICE

Is your 9-1-1 center struggling with staff performance and retention? You’re not alone. Issues like these are putting a strain on 9-1-1 centers everywhere, and there are many contributing factors. Our recent benchmark study on the current State of 9-1-1 Staff Performance and Retention pulls back the covers to examine why 9-1-1 telecommunicators are leaving and best practices you can put into practice to close the revolving door to do more with less. Join us for this educational webinar to see how your agency compares to others on critical processes and issues.
Register

 

Thank you to all who participated in the NPSTW 2023 contest “Who Is Your Sidekick or Super Team?”  We loved reading so many compelling stories from our favorite superheroes. Congratulations to our winners:

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Industry News
7 KBZK
Ranging from skiers in the winter to fire reports in the summer, Andrew Greer took 12,700 calls in 2022, 755 of which were medical and 824 were fire related.
 
11 Alive
Jessie Dennis said she followed her lifesaving training to coach the woman’s husband as first responders raced to the emergency scene.
 
St. Louis Public Radio
The system has reduced nonemergency calls handled by public safety telecommunicators by 60%, allowing them to concentrate on emergencies.
 
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Public Safety Telecommunicator Alexieus Perkins explains how she and her colleagues mitigate the stress that accumulates as they field emergency calls.
 
Training Schedule Update
 
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