CAL-EDA President's Message
11/01/09
I would like to take a minute to personally welcome you to the CAL-EDA, California Emergency Dispatcher Association, website. Hopefully you will visit the site often, as the information will be continually changed and updated. This site is dedicated to you, the Public Safety Dispatcher, and we hope you will be able to find information about classes and events in the calendar section, topics of discussion in the forum area and always new, POSITIVE stories about our profession in the news section. If there is anything you would ever like to see added, please send me an email at kurt@cal-eda.org. After all, this is YOUR site, and we would like to make it as user friendly and informative as we possibly can.
As some of you know, the journey for the new Association started in March of 2009, but our roots go back much farther than that, back to the days of the California Tactical Dispatcher Association (CTDA), for the last 6 years. The tragic events in Oakland in March, and the outpouring of support from Public Safety Dispatchers from across the state, prompted us to take a long look at our Association. It was decided that we could offer the same type of Association, but open it up to ALL Public Safety Dispatchers, both police AND fire! If you are with an agency that does fire, or a combined center, WELCOME!
There are some questions as we make the transition from CTDA to CAL-EDA, and that is absolutely normal. The Executive Board is made up of some of the CTDA board members, with new additions being brought in to help us with the increased workload. As a matter of fact, we are still looking for several positions on the board, so if you are interested in helping out, please send me an email. If you are a CTDA member, your membership rolls into the new Association – until your expiration date. Then you will have the opportunity to join CAL-EDA – which can be done easily online. We want to make the website as user friendly and helpful to you as we possibly can.
We set a very aggressive timeline to change over from CTDA to CAL-EDA, and I have to tell you, the members of the Executive Board have stepped up and so far we are right on track! We expect to throw the big red handle on January 1, 2010. You will notice that SOME of the website is up and running – and truthfully, we were so excited about sharing this information with you that we pushed our webmasters very hard to get it done early. So, a big public “THANK YOU” to our webmasters, Stephen and Sandy Rodwell. They have worked tirelessly to get the site up and running and ready for viewing by November 1st.
MEMBERSHIP – Some answers to questions about membership. “Do I have to join CAL-EDA?” The answer, honestly, is no. HOWEVER, there is a membership drive currently being held, and if you join between now and December 31st, 2009, you will get to attend one of the 2010 classes FREE! Everyone likes FREE! Tell your Comm Managers this news…it will stretch their training budget a long way! Why should I join? Great question – the more members we have, the more opportunities we will be able to provide for those who do join. We are working on getting MORE corporate sponsors to provide our members with discounts on services. Members will ALWAYS get a discount (the lawyers say I can’t use the word always – so MOST OF THE TIME) members will get a discount – which won’t be offered to non-members. And some of the events will be available for members only.
We absolutely understand that some Public Safety Dispatchers may be a bit cynical (who us?) or hesitant about the Association and will want to take a ‘wait and see’ attitude. I absolutely understand that thought process. But if you were ever able to attend any CTDA event, you know the quality of the service we provide – that hasn’t changed. The trainings will all be put through POST for approval, be done professionally by Public Safety Dispatchers for Public Safety Dispatchers. The events will be top notch. We had a saying for CTDA – and that was ‘being ok just isn’t good enough’ – and we have carried that on to the new Association.
Check out the calendar, look at the events, come to a training class – you will not be disappointed. This is YOUR Association, get involved. Become a member today. Help us to elevate the Public Safety Dispatch profession to a higher level – a new level, one we can all be proud to be a part of.
If you have any suggestions or ideas on how we can improve the Association, or the website, please send me an email.
Thanks for taking the time to read this – be sure to tell your co-workers about the Association, the more members we have the more we can do!
Kurt Anderson, President
Check out Kurt's blog here!
07/20/09 CTDA Members Message here!