ALABAMA NENA

2ndQuarter 2015

Business Meeting

Minutes

April 23, 10:00 AM

Gulf Shores (Cultural Center), Alabama

  1. Call to Order

President Alan Campbellwelcomed everyone and declared a Quorum was present and business could be conducted.

  1. Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance– Terry Ryan
  1. Welcome – Mr. Phillip Henderson, Director ADECA GIS Program

Welcomed everyone and appreciated the attendance by 9-1-1 Directors to the GIS Conference. Mentioned that John Ellis and he would be providing a GIS Presentation just before lunch. President Campbell thanked Mr. Henderson for the space and the ability for NENA and GIS to work together for the betterment of both organizations.

  1. Recognize Guests and New Members

President Campbell asked new members, guests and Board Members to introduce themselves and welcomed them and thanked them for their service.

  1. Review and Approval of April 23,2015 Minutes

After review, a motion to approve the ALNENA Business Meeting Minutes dated April 23, 2015, was made by Johnny Hart, and 2nd by Marvin McIlwain. Motion unanimously approved by members present.

  1. Review and Approval of Financial Reportsand Expenditures, Quarter Ending 12/31/2014

After review, a motion to approve the Financial Report for the quarter ending 12/31/2014 and Expenditures for the same period was made by Margaret Bishop-Gulleyand 2nd byKristi Stamnes. Motion unanimously approved by members present.

  1. National NENA Conference

President Campbell advised the members that the Board had approved to provide a stipend to officers of the Chapter attending the National Conference in Denver in June at $250.00 with $500.00 for the President. Additionally, the Board approved the purchase of shirts for everyone from the Alabama Chapter attending the conference. An email would be sent out with instructions on information needed to receive your shirt. You must provide proof that you are attending the conference.

  1. Alabama State 911 Board Report: Deputy Director Leah Missildine
    Leah provided the membership with the latest activities of the Board and the Administrative Office, including; audit of the carriers and that over 58 ECD’s had already sent in their agreement for funding of ANGEN. Leah also thanked Mr. Henderson and GIS Alabama for partnering with 9-1-1 in the State. Leah reported that the next State 9-1-1 Board will be held on 20 May at the Commerce Street location in Montgomery.
  1. Alabama Next Generation Emergency Network (ANGEN) Report: Alan Campbell

President Campbell, Chair of the State 9-1-1 Board ANGENcommittee, reported that the Board had agreed to halt further efforts by Bandwidth on the ANGEN project except for maintaining the switch. Additionally the contract with Bandwidth was extended to 2018 at a significantly reduced cost. The Executive Director, Jason Jackson, is identifying a consultant with the goal of having an RFP for ANGEN read by the end of the year with responses by early spring of 2016. The funding letter through the ECD’s will work, but it is still felt that changing the law through the State legislation is a better final solution.

  1. Committee Reports:

Conference – Rod Coleman

Rod reported that they were already working on the Conference and that everything was moving ahead. He also indicated that registration might go up $10.00 per person due to rising costs at the hotel. The Committee is looking for ideas on an opening speaker, so it anyone has a suggestion, please let them know. He also mentioned that this is the 25th Anniversary (Silver) of the conference and if anyone had any ideas how we could highlight this, please let the committee know.

Training and PSAP Standards: Larry Fisher

Mr. Fisher reported that two meetings were scheduled but there were insufficient members that attended to reach a quorum, so no official meetings have been held. Members present did render some personal views on various subjects. Leah mentioned that the State 9-1-1 Board wanted to go ahead and “test-the-waters” on training by offering some customer service and PST courses over the next 18 months. More information would be coming out on these offerings. She mentioned that the Board would be paying for these courses through their budget assets and it would be free to students and agencies. Mr. Fisher mentioned that this would be an opportunity to evaluate the response of training courses for our agencies. Classes will be conducted in four rural areas of the State to try to reach those agencies that more commonly did not have full training programs.

Awards Committee/Program Report: Larry Fisher

Mr. Fisher strongly encouraged everyone to consider participating in the Awards program. Last year things went well and wanted to see us make this program the best we can through participation by our agencies. Get those nominations in!

Membership – NTR

Web Site – Chuck McKinley - NTR

GIS – Alan Campbell

Alan mentioned that over 20 PSAP’s were represented at this years State GIS conference and that NENA would probably have their meeting with the GIS conference immediately following as we did this year. Doing the meetings back to back at the same location allowed greater participation in both.

BREMS – Dan Wright

  1. LiaisonsReports: (AFRWC, AAND, HLS, National NENA, APCO, IAFC, IACP & TELCOs)

TERT – Alan Campbell

Alan mentioned that Hunter Simmons has resigned as the Chair of the TERT Committee due to a change in his job and if anyone was interested in picking this effort up, please contact him.

AFRWC – Ernie Blair

Ernie mentioned that they had their last quarterly meeting and that discussion centered around the lack of funding, notably none from the State. Looks like the effort to link the systems throughout the state together would with some type of Gateway resided with the various agencies doing it He also mentioned that L-Linc would probably be replacing the iDen service with some kind of LTE service over the next few years that included PTT. The State EMA Director, Art Faulkner, was looking for some volunteers to form a Committee to investigate alternatives.

AAND –Alan Campbell

Bill was unable to attend, but advised Alan that the ANGEN Committee had been formed with Kristi Stamnes from Covington County as the Chair. Other members include; Rod Coleman, Bill Brodeur, Becky Nugent, Johnny Hart, Gary Tanner, Sabrina Harris, etc. They are a resource for you. If you have any questions or opinions that you would like them to consider, please contact one of the members.

HLS – NTR

National NENA – NTR

APCO –

Reported that the 2-day workshop in Prattville was a success with everything going well. The association was looking for nominations for their Scholarship program; $1,000.00 for a male and $1,000.00 for a female. Application is on the website. Looking for family members to assist with schooling APCO is also planning a class in July on “Crisis Negotiation” in Clanton and considering a training on the recent Spice events and increase of its presence in Alabama.

BREMS - NTR

IACP – NTR

IAFC – NTR

TELCO’S – Ray Preston has retired from AT&T and will no longer be the liaisonat the NENA meetings.

  1. LATA Reports:Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville, Montgomery and Commercial.

Birmingham LATA – Bill Brodeur – NTR

Huntsville LATA – Johnny Hart – NTR

Mobile LATA – Chuck McKinley –Mobile County brought over a contingency of dispatchers, a group each week for two weeks, to visit Baldwin County. It was a very interesting experience to hear the dispatchers discuss the way each of them did things in their respective agencies. He would suggest that other agencies consider doing the same thing if possible.

Montgomery – Lon Jones – Wiregrass is moving forward with its project. There have been some glitches, but they are going forward. Alan mentioned that although originally Bandwidth was going to work with ECW to handle the wireless calls over IP, that is not going to happen now. They will still collect the calls and forward via IP, but will be converted to CAMA technology once they reach the respective agencies. Some discussion ensued. The system will still be a hosted solution with IP aspects, but not a complete IP network.

Commercial – Lee Moore – Lee advised the membership that contacts for AT&T, now that Ray had retired, would be Debbie King or Tully Warren. A lot of system upgrades or even replacements going on out there. Quite a few facility designs going on as well. Chambers County had its ground breaking for its new 911 facility and with all the rain lately, a lot of mud around.

  1. APCO and NENA Upcoming scheduled events

NENA 4/23/2015- Alabama 2ndQtr w/GIS Conf

NENA6/27 – 7/2/2015- NENA 2015 Conf & Expo, Denver, Co

AAND7/21-7/22/2015- 2-day workshop at Prattville

NENA 7/23/2015- Alabama NENA 3rdQtr Meeting

APCO 8/16 – 19/2015- APCO Annual Conf & Expo, Washington D.C.

  1. New Business – Alan Campbell

AAND will be having a 2-day workshop in Prattville in July. AAND is looking for topics for discussion. The meeting for NENA follows in Florence.

Executive meeting discussed the possibility of adding a Secretary/Treasurer position to the Executive Board. The Association had one in the past. The position would be like a LATA position, for two years. They would be part of the Executive Board, but a non-voting member of the Board. Language changing the by-laws or constitution, as appropriate, would be presented at the July meeting and voted on by the membership for adoption at the annual conference.

You also had a survey that Leah provided in your handouts on “text-to-911”. Tried to get an idea of where Alabama is. The map on the handout shows where everyone is at present. Alan pointed out that National would like everyone to get onboard with this. Alan asked for those who had the service if they had any real calls and a couple of the Counties did have some hearing impaired use the text service. Additional discussion continued on the pros and cons of using TTY/TDD or the web browser solution. There is no cost to the service, you simply have to notify your carrier(s) and they will set it up. R.V. White encouraged everyone to do it, said it was a painless effort and they emphasized that it was “Call if you can, text if you can’t”.

  1. Presentation by John Ellison and Mr. Phillip Henderson on GIS in Alabama.
  1. Next Quarterly Meeting: July 23, 2015, Florence, Alabama

After asking for and hearing no further business a Motion to adjourn was made and seconded. Motion unanimously approved by members present. All were encouraged to stay for lunch.