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  • Atlantic Chapter Update

    Good Morning Chapter Members,

    I know it has been a long time since we have been able to gather, network, and train together. I thought that this weekend, the beginning of National Public Safety Telecommunicators week would be a good time to update the membership with a little bit about what has been going on in the chapter, and what APCO International, and the Atlantic Chapter of APCO have coming up over the next few months.

    As you know, Sunday April 11, 2021 marks the beginning of NPSTW 2021. Many 2020 NPSTW celebrations were scaled down or cancelled due to COVID19. Please know what you do every day is celebrated by your colleagues, your supervisors, and your fellow Public Safety Telecommunicators. The citizens, residents, and visitors we serve daily would not be able to access critically needed emergency services without your decision making, skill set, resource management, and commitment to serve. Likewise, our field responders would not be able to do their jobs efficiently, safely, or well without your decision making, skill set, resource management, and commitment to serve. On behalf of the Atlantic Chapter of APCO Executive Board, and Telecommunicators chapter wide, we thank you, salute you, and hope you can celebrate NPSTW2021.

    The chapter Executive Board has been very busy over the last few months, even if it was not outwardly visible. When I originally ran for Chapter President-Elect, I ran on a platform of working with the chapter members to make some changes.

    Prior to running for President Elect, I had concerns about the financial stability of the chapter. Many members shared the same thoughts as I did, and when I ran for President-Elect, I ran with the idea that we should do a financial review of what we were spending money on, and how we could better streamline our expenses. Almost immediately after being sworn in as the President I commissioned C. Blair Sutherland, to establish a committee, made up of member he chose to begin this process. The Atlantic Chapter of APCO Financial Review Committee was made up of members, past chapter presidents and others who had firsthand knowledge of our operations. After almost an entire year of review and conference calls the committee submitted its report to the Executive Committee. As one could imagine, the annual Chapter conferences, and Chapter Night Out were large expense items, and some other smaller items were identified. However, overall, the chapter is in fact spending its money wisely, and in benefit to the membership. The Financial Review Committee did identify some opportunities that the Chapter could leverage to slow the expenses and place us into better financial footing.

    As a Chapter, Chapter Night Out has always been a wonderful opportunity to connect and reconnect with our membership while attending conference. Chapter Night Out can be difficult to plan in a city we may not be familiar with, often people will sign up to attend and either are unable to keep their commitment, or just don’t show up. If anyone has ever planned a wedding reception or has been part of a conference planning committee you know head counts can be the financial success or death of any reception. During the 2019 Chapter Night Out in Baltimore the chapter ended up paying almost $125 per attendee. This exorbitant expense was incurred for several reasons to include safety concerns from attendees not discovered until they arrived in Baltimore. The Chapter Executive Board had much discussion about Chapter Night Out, and 2020 was not an issue since the entire conference had been cancelled by APCO International. During the 2021 APCO International Conference in San Antonio there will be no official Chapter Night Out. The Executive Board will continue to look at Chapter Night Out annually and will hopefully be able to bring it back at some point, and in a different form. Members are encouraged to spend an evening together on the Monday night of conference, after our Chapter Business Meeting. It may be informal, and “on your own” but it will still be an opportunity to connect, network, see old friends, and make new friends.

    As part of the Financial Review Committees recommendations, a lot was related to the annual Chapter Conference. I have appointed President-Elect Mike Davis, and First Vice-President Tammy Wright to establish a Conference Manual Review Committee. They are charged with using the Financial Review Committees report as a guide to further review the Conference Manual. In this review they will identify ways we can better produce an annual conference, in keeping finances at the forefront. For many years there was an undercurrent that if we “lost money” producing an annual conference that it was “ok.” That is simply not the case, it is my hope that the conference manual review committee will be able to produce information to guide the production of the conferences in the future, allowing us as a chapter to at least break even on these conferences. With some small tweaks to how we produce the conference it will better position us for this into the future.

    One of the Recommendations of the Financial Review Committee was to look further at the Chapter Scholarship program, and the Fall Training Initiative. The Scholarship Committee chaired by C. Blair Sutherland has committed to reviewing their scholarship guidelines and will also begin to make the application process more competitive. If you are applying for a scholarship please make sure the application is filled out correctly, and all questions are answered. We will not be giving scholarship dollars to the same people each year.

    Unfortunately, the Executive Board has also voted to postpone the Fall Training Initiative for at least the 2021 year. Although a very worthy program, it was also very expensive. It was the Boards decision to put this program on hold for at least this year to allow us to take stock of the program and see what the best way will be to roll it out in the future that allows opportunity to the membership, but also respects the finances of the chapter.

    As many of you know, the annual election of chapter officers, and their swearing in has always occurred at the Chapters Annual meeting held at our annual conference. This was a problem in 2020 due to COVID19, and we did not have a mechanism to advance our Board of Officers or hold elections. The Executive Board made the decision to hold over our positions for one year. During early 2021 we formalized discussion on what we should do in case we cannot hold a Conference, or annual meeting in 2021, or another year in the future. In March, the board formally edited Section thirteen of the policy manual, and added sections 1.1.6.1, which allows the Board of Directors to hold a virtual meeting at their discretion and only at such times that due to a local, state, or national emergency declared by a governmental agency, or another valid reason, that an in-person meeting cannot be held.

    During the same March time, the Executive Board also added to the policy manual section 12.4 ELECTRONIC ELECTIONS. This section allows for electronic elections only in the case that the election of officers cannot take place at the last regularly scheduled business session of the Chapters Annual Meeting, that they could be done virtually or electronically. This newly added section does not allow for electronic elections each year, but for example only when the annual meeting is held virtually and there is no in person business meeting.

    I know this is a long message, but there is a lot to go over and bring the membership up to speed on. As your Executive Board we have worked very hard to represent the membership and create processes that will allow the chapter to continue whether there is a worldwide pandemic, or even if the venue were to have a catastrophic emergency not allowing us to attend, such as a fire or some other event.

    I will end with some good new for the Chapter, I hope you will be able to attend the International Conference in San Antonio in August. I am looking forward to seeing many friends and making new friends while we are there.

    The Atlantic Chapter of APCO Annual Conference is scheduled to be in person in Stowe Vermont October 24-27, 2021. E. Doug Hackett is the Conference Chair and is working hard with his committee to make this conference a reality. Registration and lodging information is open and available at www.apco-atlantic.org/conference . We are continuing to monitor the situation closely and have our fingers crossed that we will be able to host another great conference in person.

    As always please feel free to reach out to myself or any of the Chapter Executive Board members if you have any questions or need anything from us.

    Jonathan M. Goldman, RPL
    Chapter President
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