California Emergency Dispatcher Association

Hello everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that the next CAL-EDA Training Class just got POST CERTIFICATION!

That is right, the class being held on Friday, March 19th at the Santa Cruz Police Department, is POST CERTIFIED for CPT credit, as well as POST PLAN IV reimbursable!

Information about the class:

Dispatcher Cannibalism, or Must We Eat Our Young? is being taught by Joy Willis, the Communications Manager at SHASCOM. Joy is a dynamic, energetic, fun instructor who will make you think!

Friday, March 19th 0800-1700
Santa Cruz Police Department
155 Center Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

The class is $25 for CAL-EDA members, $50 for non-members. This class can be used as your free class if you have that available to you. If you want to attend for FREE – you can join the association today!

Much more information is available on our website, www.cal-eda.org or you can send an email to our Training Director, Priscilla Gomez at pgomez@cal-eda.org.

We have worked very hard with POST at making this happen, and this news is excellent for all Dispatchers!

Thank you very much, I hope to see you in Santa Cruz!

Kurt

Another milestone for the California Emergency Dispatcher Association – we just added our 800th friend on Facebook.

According to POST, this is about 10 percent of the 8,000 Public Safety Dispatchers in California. We hope this number continues to grow, as the word gets out about the new Association, the classes and the events.

CAL-EDA has made some great strides in our few short months of existence. We set a very aggressive timeline to switch from CTDA to CAL-EDA within 8 months, and we met that goal. We held our first class in Los Angeles last week which was well received by everyone who attended. LAPD doesn’t usually open their doors to outside agencies to host a training class there – so we were honored that our first one was at LAPD!

We have our first fun event coming up in a couple of weeks, we are taking a group to see a taping of The Price is Right! Should be a very fun time for everyone.

We have worked with different companies who are willing to offer our membership discounts on goods and services – and we continue to work on adding to that list.

Our next class is Friday, March 19th in Santa Cruz, in our Central Region. The class is ‘Dispatcher Cannabalism – Why We Eat Our Young”. The class is taught by Joy Willis from Shascom – who is a dynamic, energetic instructor and we are lucky she will be helping us out.

Our membership continues to grow, and thanks to those of you who keep spreading the word. We have many more great classes and fun events planned throughout the year and are working on adding others. If you would like to help the Association, please let any board member know.

On behalf of the Executive Board of CAL-EDA, I want to thank you again for your professionalism and dedication to all of those we serve. Dispatchers are truly the first – first responders and set the tone for how an incident will play out. We are lucky in California we have the best trained, empathetic and professional dispatchers anywhere.

Thank you for the service you provide on a daily basis. Whether you know it or not, you affect peoples lives by doing the right thing.

Keep spreading the word – and we hope to see you at a CAL-EDA event soon! Join CAL-EDA today – the only statewide professional Association for Public Safety Dispatchers in the Country!

Kurt
President

On behalf of the California Emergency Dispatcher Association Executive Board – I want to take a minute to say “Thank You” for your sacrifice and service during this holiday season.

I am sure all of us, at one time or another, have had to miss time away from family and friends to work the holidays, or cover shifts so our co-workers could be home with their families. I’m sure you don’t hear it often enough, but thank you for your sacrifice during the holidays.

As we turn the last page on the 2009 calendar, and head into 2010, we are excited about the coming year. CAL-EDA was formed for ALL Public Safety Dispatchers – with many unique classes and fun, exciting events for Dispatchers and their families. But we need your help to make the Association successful. Join today, sign up for a class. Put together a Wiffle Ball Team – some good friendly competition is right around the corner. It’s easy – everything can be accessed from our website, http://www.facebook.com/l/94990;www.cal-eda.org. Join the Association by the end of the year and get a free class of your choice in 2010.

So, from all of us to all of you, we hope you enjoy what is left of this holiday season. Take time out for yourself and those who are important in your life.

As always, thank you for your professionalism, your dedication, and your service to the citizens of California.

I hope to see each of you at one of our events in 2010. It’s going to be an exciting year!

Kurt

CAL-EDA is proud to be able to send 2 Oakland Police Department Dispatchers to the Law Enforcement Support Agency (LESA) in Washington state. They will be there for three days for Peer Support for our dispatch colleagues who lost four officers recently.

While there are many great programs to help dispatchers who have gone through traumatic events, i.e. Peer Support, Chaplains, EAP, etc, nothing can compare to those who have previously gone through a similar experience. These two Oakland Police Dispatchers will be able to truly empathize with the LESA Dispatchers – as they have gone through an equally horrific chain of events.

It is times like this when I am most proud of our profession, of our Association, to be able to offer help to dispatchers in need. As a group, we rarely like to ask for help, but truly appreciate it once it arrives. One thing I told the Assistant Director of LESA when we were talking was, ‘Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and don’t turn any help away…Dispatchers from all over the country want to do something, so let them’.

Join me in wishing our colleages a safe trip, and hope that they are able to reach out and touch the lives of the dispatchers in Washington. This is the epitome of ‘doing the right thing’, the very foundation of the Association.

As always, thank you for your service. You truly do make a difference.

Kurt

FINALLY! The day we have been waiting for is finally here – the day we start the membership drive, reveal the calendar of events, both classes and fun activities, reveal YOUR new website to everyone!
Welcome to the website, we hope you will visit often, as the content will be updated regularly. If there is anything you would like to see on the site, please let us know.
The membership drive! Anyone who has joined, or will join, from July 1 to December 31 is going to get a BONUS for joining – the chance to attend a class of YOUR CHOICE in 2010 at no cost to you! That’s right, sign up before the end of the year, and you get a FREE CLASS. Check out the calendar – we have some really good ones lined up.
The Association needs you – to join, to talk it up with your co-workers and friends from other agencies, to participate in the classes and at some of the great FUN things we have planned for 2010. Always wanted to go deep sea fishing but never been – we got that! Want to watch an excellent presentation on some of the more memorable events handled by LAPD – we got that – and ONLY we have that! Want to have a great time camping with friends and family, ON THE OCEAN in Pismo – got that too!  Take a look around, familiarize yourself with the website. Ask questions. Get invoved. The more participation we have from POLICE and FIRE (and a big welcome to the FIRE FOLKS!) Dispatchers, the more fun it will be for everyone.  How about training conference. Want one? We have that too – in 2011!
Thanks for stopping by – come back often, tell your friends.

JOIN TODAY!
Kurt

Only 19 more days until CAL-EDA makes some major announcements on the website, www.cal-eda.org !!!

We will reveal the mission statement for the new association and the 2010 calendar.

November 1st will also begin an exciting membership drive for the NEW association, which will include ALL Public Safety Dispatchers, both police and fire, in California.

If you are currently and active member of the California Tactical Dispatcher Association (CTDA), your membership will roll over to the new association until time for renewal. Please pass this information along to any other CTDA members in your agency.

If you have ANY questions, please let me know.

Stay tuned – big things are right around the corner!

Kurt Anderson
President

Another step forward today. We continue to be right on track, with the next two weeks bringing MAJOR changes to all California Public Safety Dispatchers!

Hello CALIFORNIA Dispatchers!

Welcome to the newly formed California Emergency Dispatcher Association. We are truly glad you have found us, and please, pass along information about the new association to everyone in your communications center! The more members we have in the association, the better it will be for everyone!

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For the last six years, the California Tactical Dispatcher Association has been used by law enforcement agencies from all over the United States and Canada for many different reasons.

CTDA has provided support for agencies looking to create new Tactical Dispatch Teams, from offering ideas about how to start a team and member selection to samples of Policies and Procedures and After Action Reports.  The Outreach Team traveled to Irving, Texas to teach the basic course to 21 new Tactical Dispatchers.   CTDA has held relative regional training meetings up and down the state, from Santa Rosa to Chula Vista.  The most important thing CTDA has done is provided training at our annual Training Conferences over 500 dispatchers from across the United States, as far away as Alaska and Vermont.  We have met dispatchers from across the state and across the nation, and lifelong friendships have been made, and rekindled, at our conferences.

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