NCAR&EMS 52nd ANNUAL CONVENTION

Meeting Minutes for June 19 -20- 21, 2008

Opening:

NC Association of Rescue & EMS, Inc.
June 21, 2008
Hickory Metro Covnention Center, Hickory NC
Commander Gary Whitman called the meeting to order.
Invocation was given by Chaplain Dean Wall.
Welcome was given by Susan Burt, Catawba County Association of Rescue Squads.
The Auxiliary was excused for their meeting.
Adoption of order of business; motion Robert Poe
Roll call of voting delegates; Jerry Bradshaw.
Guests were recognized; Regina Godette-Crawford Assistant Chief OEMS and staff, Department of Insurance/ OSFM Steve Sloan, Rhonda Stevens Fire & Rescue Pension Fund Coordinator, Mary Beth Young EM and Fred Bone with Bone & Associates.

Old Business:

None.

Agency Reports:

OSFM:

NCEM:

Mary Beth Young, Emergency Services Coordinator; (1) Hurricane season started June 1, 2008. We have met with NC SERT Directors and SERT Partners just met to review Hurricane Readiness for this season. (2) We are currently supporting efforts down east on the Evans Road Fire. (3)Anyone currently trying to obtain NCEMA Certifications Levels has until October 2008 to complete to be grandfathered. After October, the new Typing system will be in place and courses have changed. (4) We held a Statewide Hurricane Exercise in May with all SERT partners. The NC Coastal Region Evacuation and Sheltering Plan - SOG was exercised. We participated with the Office of Emergency Medical Systems (OEMS) in the Medical Evacuation Triage and Treatment Assessment (METTA II) - in Lenoir County last week. (5) A Full scale exercise will take place at Catawba Nuclear Power Plant (Rockhill, SC) in July 28-30, 2008. (6) The next SERC meeting will be July 18, 2008. At the Archdale building in Raleigh, ground floor hearing room, from 9am-Noon.

OEMS:

Regina Godette-Crawford Assistant Chief of OEMS; (1) Drexdal sends his regrets and wishes you a very successful convention this year. He will be in Washington throughout the week and wants you to know that he is disappointed he was unable to attend. (2) Proposed EMS Rules are on schedule and should be published in the NC Register soon. The Medical Care Commission will review and vote on the Rules at their November meeting. The proposed Rules will be reviewed and approved at the Rules Review Commission in December with an effective date of January 1, 2009. (3) We are planning an Emerging Issues Summit for sometime late summer or early fall. We will be looking at various healthcare issues affecting EMS in the future and identifying strategies for EMS. The Association will be asked to participate in the summit as will other stakeholder groups and members of the EMS Advisory Council. (4) We have been working with the General Assembly to obtain authority for offering a remediation program for EMS workers with problems of chemical dependency. This was recommended by the state EMS advisory council and has now been approved by the Secretary of DHHS. It was late in this session when this was presented so it may have to wait until the long session, however, we are hopeful it will be addressed before this session ends. (5) We have just submitted the ASPR Hospital Preparedness Grant Application for 11.2 million dollars. We should receive the notice of award in August. (6) We continue to work on the Credentialing Information System (CIS) to make improvements and provide you with more information through the web as opposed to having to call our offices. Please continue to bear with us as we work through the bugs as we identify them. (7) We want to thank Allen Johnson of our staff and the association for all the hard work you have done to revamp this years BLS competition.

Boards & Commission Representative Reports:

Certification Board:

Henry Sermons /Terry Foxx ; Will combine the Certification Board and Rescue Ad-Hoc Committee into one report.

Rescue Ad-Hoc Committee:

EMS Advisory Committee:

Fire & Rescue Commission:

VSWCF:

Fire & Rescue Pension Fund Board:

Rhonda Stevens Coordinator for the Fire & Rescue Pension Fund; (1) The fund is very sound. (2) New 800 number has cut down the hold time. (3) $2.00 increase in benefits this year is in budget bill. (4) Six month waiting for those that want to return to work. (5) Contact her if you would like for her to come to your department and explain the pension fund. (6) New computer system should allow you to view your departments TAD online.

Committee reports were given as follows:

Advisory Committee:

Tommy McNeill / Gary Whitman; No Report.

Finance Committee:

Henry Sermons; (1) Budget presented for information only. (2) Budget approved at the January Board of Directors Meeting.

Legislative Committee:

Robert Poe / Fred Bone; Gave presentation on the Legislature and the Legislation of the more than 277 bills that they are tracking for the Fire, Rescue & EMS.

Membership Committee:

Tommy McNeill / Gary Whitman Reporting; (1) 13 New squads in 2008, 558 Squads in the Association. (2) Total membership 22,674. (3) Twenty Lifetime Members. (4) Five Emeritus Members. (48) Forty Eight Associate Members. (6) 644 Individual Members. (7) Total membership 23,391. (8) 234 departments in the Brotherhood 5,802 Members. (9) 644 Individual Members. (10) Total Brotherhood Membership 6,446.

Personnel Committee:

Jeff Hinshaw; No Report

Credentials Committee:

Jerry Bradshaw reporting; (1) Two areas had no one file for Director by the deadline. (2) Since the deadline the two areas have had an eligible member to file.(3) Area I, Ronald Watt, Area VI, Jackie Likens, there was a tie vote for the Director in Area X between David Stamey and Herb Robinson. The committee followed the rules and will present their recommendations to the Board of Directors. (4) Next year will be an election year for Commander and Vice Commander and 10 Director that come up for election in odd years.

Constitution Committee:

Relief Fund Committee:

Gary Whitman; (1) Your package contains benefits available to members and most of these benefits come from the relief fund. (2) Will continue working on increasing benefits. (3) Funding 460 scholarships at a for $1,030,000 per year.

Rescue Competition:

BLS Competition:

Tommy McNeill / Allen Johnson; (1) 11 teams in competition. (2) Please adhere to the schedule. (3) New format will require a hand off from the Rescue Challenge Team to the BLS team.

Special Committees:

Anita Cox, Long Range Planning Committee; (1)Directors met on site in January. (2) Construction is moving forward. (3) Hope to be in new facilities in early fall.

Terry Foxx, Training and Standards Committee; (1) The training and standards committee met at Oxford FD on February 14, 2008 to begin work on the new standard, which will be compliant with NFPA 1006, 2003 edition. (2) Several issues were discussed at the meetings such as crossover credit, qualification of instructors, and to what level we wanted our standard to be at. (3) Much discussion took place regarding the changes forthcoming in the NFPA 1006, 2008 edition of the standard. The committee agreed to get the program off and running and continue to update it to bring it into compliance as the standard changes. (4) Richard Caudill agreed to put together the draft lesson plans for review by the committee. (5) Shortly after that meeting the NFPA 1006, 2008 edition of the standard was implemented and after discussion with the members of the group and with Commander Whitman it was agreed upon to hold off on implementation and bring the standard out under the new edition. (6) Projected dates are hopefully mid to late fall 2008.

Convention 2008:

Susan Burt; (1) Hickory Metro Trade Center, Hickory, June 19-20-21, 2008. 92) Everything is falling into place.

Convention 2009:

Gary Whitman; (1) Greenville Convention Center, Greenville, June 25-26-27, 2009.

New Business:

Closing:

There being no further business the convention was adjourned.

Author/Etc.:

Gordon A. Joyner/Executive Director

(Not official until approved by the Board of Directors.)

Meeting Minutes for June 19 -20- 21, 2008

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