10/24/13

2nd Annual 911 PSAP 911 Seminar


Sorry I missed you all yesterday.  It was a busy day as I was attending the 2nd Annual 911 PSAP Seminar.
 
 

This seminar is put on at no cost to all the dispatch agencies in the state of Idaho.  I had so much fun last year I was excited to attend again this year.



The seminar is two days and is split up so you can attend all eight courses/training and not miss anything.  Since we don’t do 911 I really felt there was only five courses that interested me.  I attend one session on Tuesday and a full day yesterday with four sessions.

This years seminar was held at the Red Lion Downtown.  By holding it at the hotel it made for easier accommodations for the out of town dispatchers and meant we had really great food and snacks!

The seminar could not have been offered at no cost if it wasn’t for the wonderful sponsors.  Thank you.
 
 

The keynote speakers on both days were EXCELLENT!  Tuesday we met Casey Hermansen who is a speaker, mentor and trainer.  He spoke of being at the top of his game and the lowest part of his life.  He also reminded us that we are awesome and we need to say it each day.  “I am AWESOME.”  He also encouraged us to make our non-verbal communication match our enthusiasm so when you remind yourself of your awesomeness you should throw your hands in the air and do a “rocker kick.”  It was fun to see this done throughout the rest of the seminar by various people/presenters.

We also had a surprise speaker, California Fire Captain Brain Brown and his family who survived a plane crash in the Owyhee Mountains last year.  What made hearing his story really neat is that the dispatcher that took the 911 call that day was sitting in the room with us.  It is an amazing story indeed.

Wednesday we met LeRoy Foresman, who is a retired Chief of Police from Nampa Police Department.  He has recently written a book and had wonderful insight about being a strong leader and the qualities that go along with that.  LeRoy prides himself on this 30+ years of marriage and rightfully should be proud.  He explained the divorce rate statistics for careers in law enforcement and they weren’t pretty.  65% of first marriages fail.  71% of second marriages and a whopping 77% of third marriages fail.  He says a lot of it is due to “shutting down” after you get off work and not wanting to talk to your partner after talking all day at work.  I never want to be one of those statistics!


The sessions I attended were:

PTSD for Dispatchers: We are not exempt from feeling the trauma of the calls we take or the situations we listen to on the phone.  I am sure many 911 dispatchers suffer from some part of PTSD.  I was working the morning of an officer involved shooting in 2006 that is still hard to think about.

Legal Issues for Dispatchers: The attorney that taught this class was hilarious!  He talked about court cases and why dispatchers get subpoenaed into court and our important role in the judicial system.

Performance Management: This class was about performance and quality assurance.  The course was pretty dry but the presenter was funny.

Combat Mindset for Increased Officer Safety: The presenter did a wonderful job explaining different types of officer safety situations.  We got to listen to audio tapes and then watch the video tapes.  It was a great class. 

Dispatch and the Active Shooter: Active Shooter situations are happening everyday around the country.  As a 911 dispatch center calls come flooding in.  Those county agencies need help though so ISP needs to be prepared as well.  It was a really great training session.

Lunch on Wednesday was quite the treat.  I had packed snacks but really didn’t have anything planned for lunch.  There were a few restaurants close by so I wasn’t completely out of luck.  The hotel served potatoes with the BEST chili beans, salad, and broccoli.  I went back for a second plate of just broccoli and beans.  YUM!
 
 

I skipped dessert though.  It looks yummy doesn’t it?
 
 

I had part of a scone on my first break (unpictured) so I though it best to skip dessert.  I sort of wish I had not eaten the scone because the afternoon snacks were really good.  They had cookies and popcorn!  I had one bite of cookie and a small bit of popcorn (also unpictured).

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to attend this PSAP Seminar again.  It is wonderful to meet and greet with agencies you talk to on the phone.  Finally put some faces to the voice/name.


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