Present: Mindy Allen, Karen Barker, Debi Blazei, Don Hunjadi, Justin Klis, Tom McCarrier, Rich Meeker, John Schindler

 

Notified Absent: Jim Van Buren

 

Guests Present: Dr. Michael Clark

 

Meeting Called to order by: President Meeker at 12:06 pm

 

Motion to Approve Previous Meeting Minutes by: Mindy Allen

Seconded by: John Schindler

Format changes noted, additionally asked to include first and last names in minutes.

All in favor none opposed.

Motion carried.

 

Tour of Building: All members present toured the building to see the completed landscaping and property perimeters. Building punch list was reviewed under Executive Director’s items.

 

Operational Updates

 

President: Shared with board update on discussion with Dr. Abernathy regarding the training center and his roles. 

 

Vice President: Nothing to report, but requested a section on the website for board members that would be password protected where updates would be accessible for things like meeting agendas, minutes, financial information etc. Request was duly noted. Don Hunjadi will look into.

 

Secretary / Treasurer: Nothing to report

 

Executive Director: Conducted an interior and exterior walk-around of the building. Landscaping has been completed. Security cameras are operational and will record on motion for 10 seconds. These were demonstrated on screen in the conference room. Wiring of conference table is complete. Still working on poly-com phone unit for conference room, sources have not been successful so far. Cleaning of building scheduled every two weeks with minor cleanup performed by building staff. Lawn care service contracted out and in place.

 

Items brought to the board for consideration:

• Carpeting for conference room to deaden the live-ness of the room. Several options were discussed. Decision was to not go with carpeting and look for other ways to deaden the echo such as pictures, decorative items, plants, sound boards etc. Will continue to research options.
• Glass protective top for conference room table. Quote was shared with board. Board decided against this option. Will look into having work pads available for each seating area that would be available for use.

 

Computer and Data (IT) update provided. Automatic, off-site, computer backups are currently installed and running.

 

Don Hunjadi shared with board that weekly staff meetings are in place. Staff members discuss project updates, Short-Medium-Long term Goals are updated, Purchase List and To Do List along with Building Punch List are reviewed.

 

Don Hunjadi informed the board that attendance at various meetings will again be a more regular occurrence now that many of the building responsibilities have been completed.     

 

Sales & Customer Service: Nothing to report

 

Department Reports/Actions:

 

Conference
2010 Conference planning continues to move forward. Steps are being made to solidify format. Estimate to have about 150 people running through per day and are looking at having 21-25 instructors per day. Discussion has taken place with the state regarding proposed $10 fee for refresher courses.  

• Center of Excellence looking like four hospitals will be involved: St. Luke’s, Froedtert, Mount Sinai, and Children’s Hospital. Pre-conference helicopter service presentations were also discussed. 

• Staffing issues for conference are being looked at as part of the planning process.

• Handout on conference budget was briefly discussed. Based on budget results from last year’s conference the 2010 Conference budget has not been changed.   

Cruise
Final numbers from the 2009 Cruise were shared with the board. Total income came in at approximately $18,000; $5176 in costs and $13,189 retained by the Association. 

2010 Alaska Cruise options were presented to board. Travel dates to take place the first week of August. Cruise would be a Tuesday to Tuesday, August 3-10. A minimum of 150 cabins have been guaranteed. Booking will start August 3, 2009 and notice will be made to past cruisers by July 20, 2009.

Motion made by Justin Klis to approve the Carnival Spirit for the Alaska EMS cruise

Second by Tom McCarrier

Open for Discussion

None Opposed

Motion Carried

 

Motion made by Karen Barker to open Alaska 2010 Cruise up to other states.

Second by Justin Klis

Open for Discussion

None Opposed

Motion Carried

 

Discussion on eligibility of Board Members and Staff members for cruise took place.

Motion made by Tom McCarrier to maintain the eligibility for Board Members and Staff members as they have been for past cruises.

Second by John Schindler

Open for Discussion: Discussion followed on whether completion of your term should be an added consideration. Amendment was made to state that you must complete your term to be eligible for free cruise consequences for failing to do this would be at the discretion of the Board.

None Opposed

Motion Carried

 

    Legislation

• Budget bill not much in it that impacts EMS. One item regarding charging school buses and ambulances an inspection fee was removed from the bill, as was the line item to receive funds from the proposed license fees.
• Job Protection Bill still has not been introduced
• Impersonating an EMT bill was introduced
• AB313/Licensing Fee bill we are not in favor of, it doesn’t go far enough. Don Hunjadi will be testifying at a hearing on July 28^th regarding this bill. Discussion followed about the potential reasons why the state is pushing for these fees, how these fees will be used by the state is at this point undetermined and disagreement on the definition of a volunteer for this bill.

 

Old Business:

Appointments to open Board positions. Discussion revolved around topics such as:  whether or not it would be beneficial to do away with appointments and go with elections for open positions. Board also discussed the process of reviewing candidates. Should the process include questions put together by the whole board? Should candidates be contacted by individual board members and in what format (email or phone) for contact and response? It was affirmed that positions do not need to be filled if applicant does not meet qualifications.

None of the candidates being considered for the open positions were in attendance. The candidates presented for the open board position were:  Paul Blount, Matthew Hurtienne, and Dan Murphy.

Motion made by Karen Barker to close the discussion.  Second by Tom McCarrier. Seven in favor, one opposed. Motion Carried.

Board members voted on candidates for the open board position.

Voting results were:

Paul Blount four in favor, three opposed

Matthew Hurtienne two in favor, five opposed

Dan Murphy three in favor, four opposed

Paul Blount was appointed to the open board position.

Board members voted on length of appointment.

Results were: Three in favor of one year term, four in favor of two year term.

Paul Blount was appointed for a Two year term. Richard Meeker will notify candidates of the voting results.

Motion made by Mindy Allen that any vacant board positions remain open until next election.

Second by Justin Klis

Open for Discussion

None Opposed

Motion Carried

Motion made by Don Hunjadi to amend the policy that until further notice we are not going to be appointing mid-term candidates we will only elect and/or appoint members at the official membership elections.

Second by John Schindler

None Opposed

Motion Carried

WEMSA Certified Training Center updates were provided by Richard Meeker and Karen Barker. Will need to look for a Medical Director as Dr Abernathy will not be continuing in this role. Karen Barker reported that the only thing we will need to apply for to achieve training center status is the mini refresher course. Don Kimlicka willing to act as an instructor/coordinator for the Training Center. Will need to meet with him to determine roles and responsibilities. Discussion regarding how the potential $10 licensing fee will impact the Training Center is ongoing. Competency is the over all issue of the training (6 hour class vs 30 hour class).

Letters to DHFS current status. There has been discussion on these at the state level. Brian Litza has these letters and is not ready to get back to us until he has had the opportunity to meet with his new supervisor on these.  

Recognition for retiring board members—final decisions

Motion made by Karen Barker to have it be a policy and then to review the policy at the next meeting.

Second by Debi Blazei

None Opposed. Motion Carried

New Business:

Annual Meeting has been set for 11:00 AM Sunday, October 11^th at the WEMSA office building. Tentatively planning 2010 Annual Meeting to take place in April, location other than the WEMSA office building, to be determined. Discussion centered on ideas to draw members and increase attendance figures.

Association Software Upgrades/Purchases Don Hunjadi shared information from recent software presentation. To upgrade the current Member Track/Meeting Track would be a cost of $27,000. This figure includes $7800 for the software and the remaining amount for product support. To go with Q Enterprise Solution would be a cost of $48,000.

Board was presented with three options:

            1. Stay with what we have currently

            2. Look for different software options

            3. Look for an outside IT person to create the modules that are needed

 

Question was raised as to what the board was willing to commit for a software budget.  Board agreed that $20,000 was a reasonable budget for this. Additionally, Don will research other software options or outside IT persons.

Motion made by Justin Klis to move into closed session to discuss contracted versus employed staff members.. Second by Debi Blazei. Meeting moved to closed session.

Motion made by Mindy Allen to table further discussion of contracted versus employee to the October meeting. Second by Debi Blazei. Meeting returned to open session.

Paramedic Accreditation Process It is foreseeable that this will go to all EMS levels. It has been a long time in the works. This process is being driven by the National Registry and supported by the state. Discussion took place on what this will do and how it might affect us at the lesser level for training.

Add Insurance to Group Buying Program In preparation for this meeting all board members were asked to fill out insurance quotes. Discussion followed on what each member found to be the results. Board agreed that before accepting this program from Miller’s First other agencies should be researched to see if they would be able to do something comparable. Don Hunjadi will follow up with Mike Hood and have him look into. It was requested that Mike Hood email out additional background information/history on Miller’s First to board for review.

Strategic Planning Program  The basic idea is to offer strategic planning services as a service for our members. Sessions would be 1-1/2 days or 2-day sessions. They would take place at the WEMSA building. Cost would be $500 per day ($250 to facilitator, $100 for lunch and the remainder would go to the association). We will structure this with Member and Non-member pricing. The non-member rate would be $1,000. Would need to search for additional facilitators, currently we have 2-3.

Other projects in the works include offer to do syndicated columns, redesign/take over publication and sales support. Example given: Mike could offer ZOLL the opportunity to publish an ad in four publications.  Next steps for this include a conference call with other state EMS associations to discuss whether to have a National Meeting again and if so set the location, discuss the cruise and sales opportunity. Andrew Glaser is also working on program for our members for WEMSA to design their website. We are looking at a price point of approximately $500-$1000 for this service. Pod-casts and interviews are on slate for next year. We will be building a riser and walls for the set. Training Programs also slated for next year.

DHFS plans to charge for refresher courses

Motion made by Don Hunjadi that we oppose any fee for national or standardized service exams for re-licensure. Second by Debi Blazei. None Opposed. Motion Carried

Unemployment issue A letter from a Mr. Peterson was discussed and turned over to Don Hunjadi to address.

Jim Van Burren not in attendance at this meeting. Discussed the requirements for attendance. It is 75% of meetings or two consecutive absences would be up for a review by the board at the next meeting. He will be notified that he will be up for review.

Motion made by Debi Blazei to adjourn meeting

Second by Tom McCarrier

None Opposed

Motion Carried

Meeting adjourned  at 5:25 PM