Breakouts:
Wednesday 8 am

State 9-1-1 Program Update

Room: Big Thompson A

Speaker: Daryl Branson

Description: Find out what the State 9-1-1 Program is and what it's working on!

Current initiatives:

• Implementation of new 9-1-1 network reliability rules.

• Current 9-1-1 legislation

• Best practices development

• And more!

Speaker Bio: Daryl Branson is the State 911 Program Manager for the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. He holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Missouri State University and is certified both as an Emergency Number Professional (ENP) by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and a Registered Public Safety Communications Leader (RPL) by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, Intl. (APCO). Daryl has over 25 years of experience in 9-1-1, having previously served as a 9-1-1 telecommunicator in Missouri, a 9-1-1 call center shift supervisor in Wisconsin, a 9-1-1 call center director in New Mexico, and Executive Director of the Colorado 9-1-1 Resource Center. He currently serves as Treasurer for the National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators (NASNA) and the Colorado 9-1-1 Resource Center, and has served on a number of national committees and working groups, including the FCC's 9-1-1 Fee Diversion Strike Force.

Objective & Relevant DOR Writing 

Room: Big Thompson B

Speaker: Leila A. Luft, RPL

Description: In this session, CTOs, CTO Coordinators and PSAP managers will gain a better understanding of the importance of object and relevant writing in performance-based evaluation.  Attendees will learn the difference between objective and subjective writing, relevant performance and behavior documentation, and how to give a call to action. 

Speaker Bio: Communications Director Leila A. Luft, RPL has been a leading professional in Nebraska public safety telecommunications for the last 12 years.  Of that, she’s been in PSAP management at York County 9-1-1 for the last 5 years.  In her tenure, she has hyper-focused her skillsets in training and standard development.  She’s held several working group memberships at the state and national level. One of her proud successes was developing state baseline training standards for Nebraska public safety professionals.  She’s also an active Nebraska TERT member and agency instructor for several APCO courses.  She holds a master’s degree in Criminology from the University of Nebraska, Omaha. 

The Power of Positivity

Room: Carter Lake A

Speaker: Hanna Sande

Description: Being optimistic in our field is hard. With internal and external problems, finding joy can be difficult. But what if we could bring about a change? What if we had the ability to be the light in the dark? Is it even worth doing? In this session we’ll look at why being positive can be a powerful force for change and how “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.”

Speaker Bio: Hannah has been a Telecommunicator for 4 years now and currently serves as a CTO for her agency. She has a passion for teaching 911 skills and mental health advocacy.

Quality Assurance – Calibration, Recognition and Your Feedback Loop

Room: Carter Lake B

Speaker: Maureen Dieckmann

Description: You don’t know what you are missing! When staff needs to cover shifts, QA QI can become intermittent in listening, evaluating, and providing consistent feedback… and then you are surprised to hear what you have been missing…Freelancing, customer service challenges, errors in SOPs. It’s not all bad news, your team is also doing some amazing work under pressure and short staffed. Find the good that they are doing and help them where they need it the most. Whether inhouse program or outsourced support services, QA professionals need relief from emotional fatigue, and resources that support ongoing improvement best practices. In addition to calibration criteria, this course hits on all major points in APCO NENA ANSi standards, QA QI best practices, accreditation standards, and even highlights a few unfortunate pitfalls. Learn how to harness the power of feedback and get ahead of liability, but more importantly…find the good being done. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn the benefits of full circle feedback, Peer Support, and coaching

2. Return to your agency with a cheat sheet: “QA of your QA”

3. List the dos and don’ts of outsourcing QA QI & Training 

Speaker Bio: Bringing over 27 years of public safety industry experience, Maureen “Moe” Dieckmann arrives with energy, conviction, and straight forward coaching… applying real world examples and humor in facilitation, speaking, and professional services that Public Safety personnel can appreciate.  Maureen and her team of subject matter experts deliver Leadership Development, QA/QI services, Supervisor Workshops & Training, strategic planning, SOP & policy editing, and technology super sessions meant to improve your processes, boost morale, and support team coping behaviors. You can rest assured, any program delivered by Moetivations will leave you armed with operations best practices and feeling ready to give it your best!  Her mission is to save the world, one dispatcher at a time.

Building Better Training

Room: Lake Loveland A

Speaker: Halcyon Frank

Description: It's not a secret that employees that are trained well and feel like they have a good understanding of the job will perform better and be more confident. There are many ways to train new telecommunicators, so how do we make sure our agency's program is the best it can be? During this session, we'll tackle that question and more as we break down how to build better training for the center. 

Speaker Bio: Halcyon Frank is the Director of Training and Development for the Denise Amber Lee Foundation and has spent 8 years in emergency communications. She has spent much of her dispatch career training new telecommunicators and developing training curricula and resources. This experience also led her to previously create The Dispatch Lab, a dispatch training company. When not busy traveling and training or developing online courses, Halcyon still works under the headset taking 911 calls and dispatching. She holds the Emergency Number Professional Certification from the National Emergency Number Association and a degree in Training and Development.

Oops, My Bad: Extreme Ownership in PSAP Leadership

Room: Lake Loveland B

Speaker: Brad Flanagan

Description: Leadership within the Emergency Communication Center is a vital to the success of the Telecommunicator and the organization as a whole. Leaders who look at accountability and ownership as a personal role and responsibility may find the culture and success of the organization will change. Explore authority, influence techniques, and accountability in controversial session.

Speaker Bio: Brad Flanagan is the Emergency Operations Manager for the Pitkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center in Aspen, Colorado, with more than 13 years of experience in Emergency Communication Center Operations.

Brad earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Master’s Degree in Public Administration, has completed his Emergency Numbers Professional Certification, and is a Registered Public-Safety Leader.

Brad has committed himself to the improvement of 9-1-1 and Emergency Communications by enhancing and modernizing operations, leadership principles, and equipment. To achieve this goal, Brad actively participates in State and National level committees and boards. Currently, Brad sits on the Colorado NENA/APCO Chapter as the Western Region Representative, the Western Region Delegate for the NENA Institute Board, the Co-Chair of the NENA FutureThink committee, and a voting member of NENA’s Development Steering Council.