How do we encourage someone?  Often we think of positive words or messages of support.  However, there are many more ways we can encourage those we work with. This session explores traditional and non-traditional support methods that can help you encourage your coworkers in the center.

In today’s public safety recruiting environment, the agency that trains in the most efficient manner possible will normally be the most effective at retaining quality employees. With emphasis on process, performance, and employee motivation as the keys to success for a telecommunicator, there is no denying that learning has become of the utmost importance in our centers. The passive classroom and training approaches employed for the past generation of telecommunicators are obsolete. A preferred approach for all generations of employees should now be based on active training or active learning methods.

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office reviews complaints submitted by members of the public regarding the Missouri Sunshine Law. This presentation will address the most common issues that our office receives. We will provide statutory information and best practices for increasing transparency and helping to agencies avoid these types of issues.   

In 2018 Austin, Texas was rocked by a series of exploding bombs. Not knowing when or where the next bomb would explode, residents were on edge. This session will show a timeline of events, the types of calls received in the 9-1-1 center, the response, and how to process these types of calls.

Session information will be available soon.

Session information will be available soon.

One of the most challenging aspects for dispatch leaders, including supervisors and quality assurance personnel, is an employee’s resistance to change.  How do we help the employee who says, “That’s the way we’ve always done it,” understand the urgency of professional growth and protocol compliance?  Motivational Interviewing is a therapeutic method that helps individuals move away from uncertainty and find internal motivation to make positive changes and accomplish agreed upon goals. Motivational Interviewing translates well to the communications center; come learn how to collaboratively coach employees to embrace change and accomplish agency goals, all while maintaining their autonomy.

Coffee talk/round table discussion of current topics of concern for managers and directors.

Coffee talk/round table discussion of current topics of concern for supervisors.

Coffee talk/round table discussion of current topics of concern for telecommunicators.

Coffee talk/round table discussion of current topics of concern for trainers. This will also serve as a Missouri Partnership Meeting

Public safety dispatching is in the midst of a paradigm shift on a national level – from blind telecommunicators listening to voice-only, to importing text, data-centric systems, and 5G technology live-streaming information into the center from various nodes. Additionally, social media platforms will require training, including active-scene information. Dispatchers know it’s no longer about just answering a phone – new technology, training, and information systems are forcing a paradigm shift in the profession. Centers will need to prepare for this continuing fundamental change in the basic  and exploratory practices of the dispatching discipline.

Session information will be available soon.

In this session, we will review the (hopefully 2020) edition of the DOT ERG using real hazardous materials releases from around the State of Missouri. We will identify safe evacuation distances, PPE recommendations and basic hazard recognition.  

This enlightening presentation helps those involved in crisis intervention understand the components of emotional intelligence and how each impact the ability to connect with those in crisis. Attendees will learn specific techniques for sharpening their emotional skills as it relates to crisis intervention. Techniques will address how to manage your own emotions and recognize and understand other people’s emotions. As an essential component of emotional fitness, we will also address the importance of the positive ‘collective mood’ of a team and its impact on the person in crisis, colleagues and the overall mitigation effort.

Although our side of the radio is often made up of mostly women, the other side of the radio is often a man’s world. This session will explore how we can navigate the dynamic this creates, help build confidence for ourselves, and approaching the struggles we face as women in the workforce. 

Adapted from Dr. Carl Rogers work in psychotherapy, this session will discuss five key conditions which when present can improve the training experience for new hires and training officers.

News reports are full of stories in which hackers have attacked public safety agencies – such as 911 Centers, Police Departments, Sheriff Offices, Fire Departments and others. They have caused serious disruption to our ability to respond to a 911 caller’s plea for help. Based upon the cybersecurity monitoring of hundreds of public safety networks, these two cybersecurity experts have amassed many examples of how hackers can and are attacking 9-1-1. Attend this session to discover the top 5 public safety cyber vulnerabilities and how to protect yourselves from the mischief they bring.

An introduction to the hows and whys behind the Missouri-adopted NENA NG9-1-1 data model. What are unique IDs and why are they needed? How are user and change dates used and why are they needed? How do you deal with 9-1-1 applications that use GIS data that won’t yet accept the new data model? What parts of the data model influence geospatial routing?

Conversations about multi-generational workplaces often highlight the negative stereotypes of each generation.  Millennials are accused of eating too many avocados and expecting participation trophies while emerging Gen Z throws stones at Baby Boomers with phrases like, “Ok, Boomer.” The generational divide is only growing, leaving most generations feeling misunderstood and judged. Light-hearted yet educational, this session will highlight the strengths of each generation, grants insights as to where we come apart so we can better come together, and how we can effectively master teamwork across multiple generations to achieve organizational success and increase customer service.

The mission of emergency dispatchers and 911 operators is to provide timely, professional, quality service to a diverse public through empathy, compassion and respect, ensuring that public safety is the highest priority.

For today’s dispatchers to fulfill this mission, they must be effectively trained to provide timely, clear and effective instruction to those calling under extreme duress.
This course provides dispatchers with effective instructions, strategies and principles that will allow them to provide timely instruction and direction to people involved in an active shooter, violent intruder, home invasion or burglary in progress. Dispatchers will listen to, analyze and learn from actual 911 calls from high profile armed intruder events.

During this session the group will discuss the 5 traits of good leaders.

So you decided to become a supervisor/manager/boss? & all you have heard is that morale is the lowest ever? YOU have a direct impact! Focus on the things you CAN control rather than the things you can’t! Learn the few simple lessons Zim has learned over the years to get your folks motivated! Wahoo!!! The objectives are to simply get those attending to think about how much of an impact they have on morale & the environment we live in!

You have a missing and/or endangered person and need to get the information out as quickly as possible? We will discuss all of the statewide alerts that are available to law enforcement agencies in Missouri, as well as some resources that are available, review the criteria for each alert, how to initiate, update,
and cancel the alert.

Session information will be available soon.

Missouri Task Force 1 will give an overview of MO-TF1, the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue system and disaster responses. 

Session information will be available soon.

Being sensitive to the needs of trainees is vital – but it seems to get progressively more difficult the longer you serve as a trainer. A mix of cynicism, frustration and impatience can act a lethal mix, transforming the most empathetic among us into unrecognizable beasts which roam the center, feeding on newbies. Sound familiar? In this class, we’ll cage the monster and slip into our sneakers for a trip back to the neighborhood from whence we came to discover the caring and effective trainer inside each of us.

This session will discuss the approach taken to implementing Next Generation 9-1-1 in Nebraska. Namely through forming regions who share the cost of certain equipment and connections. We will discuss challenges, and lessons learned.

As a 911 center leader, you have one of the toughest jobs on the planet. Problems can come at you from every direction: funding, staffing, inconsistent performance, technology, community pressures. Furthermore, running a fine-tuned 911 center can be really hard when you don’t even have timely metrics to tell you where you stand today. In this educational session, we’ll provide advice and insights to help you get ahead of these challenges before they get ahead of you.

When a crisis occurs, people look to leadership to know what to do. A cybersecurity breach is no different. Having the proper foundation of cybersecurity training, policies, and plans can make all the difference when a hacker strikes. If an Emergency Communications Center is properly prepared, an attack which may have escalated to crippling ransomware, could be a minor cyber-incident with no down time. Attend this session to learn which cyber defense and incident response strategies two 9-1-1 cybersecurity experts recommend for public safety. Dive into the latest cyber attacks statistics and discover the impact leadership can have on ECC cybersecurity.

Our industry recognizes the profound impact of work-related stress on our lives, but if we are going to thrive in our careers, we need to move beyond awareness and take active steps to prepare our emotional backpack for the journey ahead. This course reveals the factors that make us vulnerable to cumulative and critical incident stress, provides us with tools and practical steps to survive the demands of our profession, and empowers us to experience more joy both on and off the clock. 

On behalf of the Pipeline Association of Missouri (PAM), this session will provide all PSAPs in the State of Missouri the knowledge needed to effectively dispatch field personnel to a hazardous liquid or natural gas pipeline emergency by providing resources to identify what products exist in each county/jurisdiction. Further, this program will provide recommended practices for PSAPs using the NENA Operation Standard/Model.

Post-traumatic stress affects everyone in the public safety circle, including telecommunicators, in some form or another. By looking at where post-traumatic stress starts and where it has the potential to end. After having to leave the job she loved; the 9-1-1 Communication Center after 20 years, your instructor will take you on her personal journey from the depths of darkness to a place of peace. In addition, this presentation will look at a PTSD timeline that includes the events leading up to PTSD, warning signs, diagnosis, ways to get help and, most importantly, how to have it but not let it have you!

“Dispatch, can you find me the phone number for Jason Doe?”… “Dispatch, I.D. this pill for me”… Dispatch, what is this VIN on?” These are things that we commonly hear while working the console, but sometimes, we don’t have the database our officers think we do… or do we? During this one hour session, we will explore the magical universe known as the internet and find that some of the information we are searching for is available to us for free!

This session is about the design and engineering required for a sustainable PSAP. Most published materials concerned with sustainable PSAP’s are focused around the technology, routing, call-taking, and deployment of resources. This session will cover the
“bricks-and-mortar” issues for a sustainable facility; location, survivability, hardened concepts, electrical, HVAC, lighting, layouts, workflows, sustainability, adaptability, cost issues, procurements, and project scheduling. There will be a checklist for review of
existing facilities as well as criteria for new facility development. The session will review real-world PSAP designs. This is a 2-hour session due to the complexity of the materials involved.

This course will present several case studies, of multiple child sex
trafficking/human trafficking investigations in Missouri. This will
provide attendees with the necessary tools to assist in these investigations, as well as the resources that are available to them. Additionally, attendees will be provided with both suspect and victim interviewing techniques and how they relate to what dispatchers gather on calls.

Whether you are a frontline communicator, CTO, supervisor, command
staff or beyond, your ability to provide effective feedback is crucial to
organizational development, but who teaches you how to provide effective feedback?

This workshop dives deep into what is feedback, when to provide it, and how to provide it effectively. You will be introduced to 4 different feedback tools for your toolkit and an opportunity to use each during interactive exercises.

Session information will be available soon.

Leadership is less about position and more about relations.  This seminar explores the leadership potential and action that each individual can bring to their workplace.  The Spirit of Leadership entails the characteristics and mindset of a true leader as well as resolves some common leadership myths. Unlocking the Leader Within, is a call to action, to move from motivation to momentum.   

In the last few years, there have been at least three terrorist active assailant incidents in the US. Terrorist active shooter incidents are likely to have more fatalities, the potential for large explosives, and suspects willing to engage with responders. This session will help the Telecommunicator recognize a potential terrorist active assailant.

Understanding Those Smoke Eaters will cover the following objectives: Types of Apparatus, Terminology/Lingo, Things to Listen For, and Fireground Needs. Types of apparatus will be described along with their functions. Terms/lingo will be defined and explained. Sounds will be explained as far as what it sounds like when a firefighter has an air mask on, safety system sounds on the SCBA packs, and what to listen for when a mayday is called. Needs will be explained as far as other resources that might be requested to the scene.

Session information will be available soon.

Session information will be available soon.

When a supervisor has to pull a subordinate aside to discuss matters of discipline, anger and dissatisfaction are often the result. But there ARE those for whom this process is a smooth and uneventful one. Why? What do some do well that others do not? Is there something anyone can do that can lessen the damage this important discussion often inflicts? Can the supervisor or trainer better quip themselves for success before the discussion ever begins? In this class, we’ll tackle those questions head-on to discover what makes for a successful discussion of discipline for supervisor and subordinate alike.