Don’t Get Comfortable Just Yet…

Traci Fitzsimmonsby Traci Fitzsimmons, Northern California Regional Director

 

As most of CAL-EDA's members may be aware, this agency began as the CTDA (California Tactical Dispatch Assoc.).  My agency had a Tactical Event last week. Although I am one of the Tactical Dispatchers, I didn't find out about it until the day it occurred. My manager, when questioned, advised me that "when the event was discussed, I just didn't wrap my mind around the fact that it was a "Tactical" event". She basically forgot about the team.  The day of the event, I was angry that we had been overlooked. My attitude in the dispatch room reflected this and I stayed in a snit about it most of the day. It wasn't the best reaction, I know.  What I didn't consider in my anger was that, this comes back to me. As the charter member of my Tactical Team, I realize I have failed in some way. The very fact that my manager actually FORGOT that we have a Tactical Dispatch Team (TDT), I attribute to my own lack of -for want of a better word- ADVERTISING. 

At the inception of the TDT, all 6 of the members were pretty gung-ho. We went the extra mile to get the word out and we were slowly gaining recognition in our county as a valuable resource. Over the course of the last several years, my team has suffered attrition due to members moving out of the country, moving to other dispatch centers, and 1 becoming a new mother. We have also been affected by the budget crisis-no budget no training to replace those missing TDT members. We now do our best now to function with only 2 full time team members. We are reduced but still viable. However, it seems I have not been very effective at getting that word out, even to my own management team.

I tell this story only to make a point. We tend to become comfortable with our status quo.  Once we establish a team (or an agency or even a relationship), we often times lose our momentum. We allow the day to day to become our reality and forget that any living organism needs to be fed to remain viable-and yes a team is a living organism.  We feed our teams with our enthusiasm and training. Interaction with other teams keeps us healthy and strong. If we stop learning and advocating, our team dies. We must actively seek out opportunity to train in our specified field-especially when that field operates around something that happens only occasionally. Each team must be sure of its own strength in order to set themselves out there with confidence.

The concept of "train or die" may seem to be a bit harsh.  However, if you consider your job as a dispatcher, you will understand that this is basic truth: Without continued training you would atrophy as a dispatcher. There is always something new to learn, either new policy or new equipment or new systems to operate. I decided years ago that if I ever felt like I knew it all I should find another field of work. The job CAL-EDA has set for itself is to make this a bit easier in this time of budget cuts and difficulty getting that extra training. Check the roster of events on the website. We still have a few classes coming up this year, as well as some fun events. We want YOU there.