Alabama Chapter of NENA Quarterly Meeting
April 25, 2002
Blount County, Alabama

Welcome: President Sharon Thomas called the meeting to order. Invocation was given by Mr. Roger Humphrey and was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Mrs. Thomas welcomed everyone to Blount County and thanked Max Armstrong for hosting the meeting. Mrs. Thomas turned the meeting over to Max, welcomes everyone to Blount County and introduced some of his Board Members along with the staff members that were helping host the meeting.

President Thomas recognized guest and new members.

Approval of Minutes: President Thomas presented the January minutes for approval. Art Faulkner motioned to accept the minutes as presented; Marcia Scott seconded the motion, which unanimously carried.

Approval of Finance Report: Mr. Richard Holt presented the financial report for approval. Roger Humphrey motioned to accept the financial report as presented; Donnie Smith seconded the motion, which unanimously carried.

Approval of Conference Financial Report: Chris Hagar presented the financial report for the 2001 Conference for approval. Roger Wilson motioned to accept the report as presented; Ernie Blair seconded the motion, which unanimously carried.

Committee Reports:

Legislative – Prepaid

Roger Wilson discussed with the membership the failure to pass the prepaid cellular 9-1-1 surcharges in the last legislative session. After much discussion, a motion was made to obtain an attorney general’s opinion regarding the collection of pre-paid in the wireless law; seconded by Roger Humphrey, which unanimously passed.

Wireless

Art Faulkner stated that in March, National NENA has sent out a questionnaire from DOT on wireless implementations to be completed by the PSAPs and that the following Counties in Alabama had not been received: Baldwin, Barber, Bibb, Crenshaw, Escambia, Franklin, Henry, Lauderdale, Lee, Montgomery, Pike, Sumter, and Tallapoosa Counties. Art stated that he would send copies of the survey out to these counties to be filled out, he also stated that the DOT had discussed the possibility of choosing a few states and paying for Phase II implementations and it would be nice if Alabama could be one of the states chosen.

Art said that PSC had sent a letter to Verizon requesting that they come to the table and talk about their tariff. It was then found out that as of June 30th Verizon would become Century Telcom. Darrell Baker with PSC assured Art that he would see to it that Century Telcom did meet with us to talk about their database charges.

Several counties discussed concerns with how Intrado handles the database with the different wireless carriers having a different contact person for each carrier.

Jerry Jackson thanked the wireless committee for all the hard work they were doing.

Art said the confirmation letters for Ron Sleeper and Bill Meadows had been received and he informed the members of the work Bill Brodeur and Roger Wilson had being doing concerning wireless said that he wanted to thank Bill Meadows, Max Armstrong Roger Wilson and Bill Brodeur for the work they were doing.

Max Armstrong stated that Art did a lot more work than he took credit for and deserved a round of applause.

Database

Debbie Higgins reported that BellSouth and Intrado would be willing to look at the possibility of offering an address specific database.

Nomination Committee

Earnie Blair named his committee as follows: Ray Preston, Max Armstrong, Art Faulkner, and Roger Wilson. Earnie ask that if you are interested in the following positions please let someone from the committee know, President, Montgomery Latter, Huntsville Latter and Past President. It was also announced that before the committee can accept you as a candidate you must have a letter from your board stating that you will be allowed to serve for the length of time of the office you are nominated for.

The slate of candidates will be announced at the July meeting.

Conference Report

Jo Trantor announced that the conference preparation was moving right along, but if you had any recommendations for educational sessions to let her know.

It was also announced that Lynn Wright would be doing the registration and she asked for you register as soon as possible.

9-1-1 Terrorism Planning and Preparedness Bert Collison said his committee would be sending out a survey to collect information in order to create a Call Down System. He asked that the PSAPs please complete and return the survey.

LATA Reports

No one had anything to report.

Old Business

9-1-1 Hero Program

President Thomas stated that we had two candidates from Marshall County and one from Morgan County. The executive committee listened to the tapes and chose Blake Lewis from Morgan County as the winner. President Thomas said that we wanted to award each candidate a Medallion and a t-shirt at the PSAP of the respective county and invite the media to cover the event. Blake Lewis would be sent to National NENA as the candidate from Alabama.

2002 National NENA Conference

President Thomas announced that our chapter would have a booth at the National Conference and would need help to staff the booth on Monday 10:00am to 1:00pm and on Wednesday 9:00am to 11:00am and possibly have pins to give out.

President Thomas asked for a motion to purchase shirts to be worn at the National Conference. Richard Holt made the motion; Lynn Wright seconded the motion, which unanimously carried. Jerry Jackson said that May 1st would be the cut off date to order shirts for the Conference.

Membership Drive

President Thomas reported that May 1st was the deadline and that Alabama had credit for (7) seven members which is ahead of some states. She encouraged people to join NENA.

New Business

President Thomas announced the resignation of Seth Phelps of the Mobile LATA.

For the Good of the Association

Roy Adamson announced that he would be leaving some News Letter from VFIS that had an article on Managing the 9-1-1 Center.

Art Faulkner stated that the State of Florida had created a video on handling Weapons of Mass Destruction Call and said that he was in the process of getting a copy of the video and having four copies for Alabama NENA to loan out for our PSAPs to watch.

Roger Wilson asked that the people that are on the Minimum Standards Committee to look into the cost of developing a Basic Telecommunicator On-Line Course that Alabama NENA could sponsor. Richard Holt stated that it was already on their agenda.

With no other business to be brought before the association, a motion by Roger Humphrey was made to adjourn.

Submitted by: Bill Brodeur

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