April 8-14: National Public Safety Telecommunications Week
We are celebrating the second full week of April (April 8-14, 2012) as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. This week, sponsored by APCO International and celebrated annually, honors the thousands of men and women who respond to emergency calls, dispatch emergency professionals and equipment, and render life saving assistance to the citizens of the United States. We are enlisting your support.
Your celebration is contingent upon your resources and your creativity. Have a cake or host an elaborate banquet. Many agencies have a theme day for the week, with casual dress and food based around that day’s theme, such as Sports Day, I love the 80s Day, Crazy Hat Day, Dress-Down day and Dress-up Day.
Need a few more ideas?
- Select a dispatcher of the year
- Host an Awards ceremony honoring the dispatchers and call takers
- Arrange for a local celebrity to speak at the awards ceremony
- Prepare a proclamation
- Give certificates of appreciate to each telecommunicator signed by the mayor, chief or other official
- Create buttons to wear throughout the week
- Hold an open house for the public
- Distribute educational material about your center and 9-1-1 to attendees of the open house
- Create a fact sheet about your center for the public, include statistical information
- Host a pot-luck or arrange for administrators/managers to cook for comm center shift teams
- Cook-out for employees and families
- Print an award of recognition for each telecommunicator, certificate paper is affordable
- Decorate a bulletin board with pictures and positive comments about your telecommunicators
- Cake and Ice Cream
- Goodie Bags with donations from local vendors
- Articles in local newspapers and magazines
- Celebrate with recognition for longevity, exemplary calls, etc.
- Banner announcing NPSTW and celebrating your telecommunicators in lobby or on outside marquee
- Host a training class
- Ask local businesses to write a letter of appreciation and post them on bulletin board
- Invite the local TV news to feature your comm center—toot your horn!
- Provide your telecommunicators with a casual shirt that can be worn during the week
- Invite your fire fighters, law enforcement officers, EMS personnel to meet the telecommunicators behind the radio voices
- Make a video of your comm center and employees and show at open house or award ceremony
- Invite local dignitaries—county council, city officials, etc. to meet telecommunicators
- Educate your public about what you do
- Decorate with colorful streamers
- Make and review a scrapbook of the past year
- Use your imagination—and then tell us about your great ideas!
It’s not too late to do something special to honor the men and women in your area for the work that they do everyday to protect your citizens.
For sample documents to help you in your efforts, including a Cover Letter for Proclamation Telecom Week, Press Release and Proclamation, visit PSConnect.org.
Let us know your agency’s plans. Add your comments below or e-mail the editor.
Thanks to Ann Russo for these ideas!
