Wisconsin EMS Association Board of Directors Meeting
Hilton Hotel – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 5 & 6, 2002 

Strategic Planning Discussion and Stated Direction

Synopsis and Overview:

Following review of the current 2000 to 2004 strategic plan developed in October 1999, it was determined by the board of directors at the July 2002 quarterly meeting to update the plan and reassess Association priorities in benchmarking past and current activities, while also discussing perspectives on current, emerging, and future interests.

Those board members who participated included:  Mindy Allen, Don Hunjadi, Tom McCarrier, Rich Meeker, Grace Merrill, Mary Schilder, Jon Schultz, Larry Te Stroete, Mark Bennett (Oct. 6 Only), Blaine Werner (Oct. 6 Only).  Steve Teale was not present either day.  The discussion was facilitated by Joe Covelli, Director of Sales and Public Relations for the Wisconsin EMS Association.

The current strategic plan was deemed successful in many regards when reviewed during the planning discussion.  The Association has maintained healthy growth year-over-year by gaining on average 500 new members per year.  The 2002 yearend goal is stated as 4,500 members.  As of October 3, 2002 Association membership was 4,539.  It was also identified the Association met goals and objectives in legislative action, contract services with lobbyist and legal support, attraction and growth with the annual conference, added ahead of plan one full-time paid staff person, hosted an EMT statewide recruitment awareness program, increased board diversity, and other named achievements.  Items presented in the current plan, which boards members felt were partially completed or not addressed at all to-date included town hall offerings, EMS Management Training 101 (note: “Working Together in EMS - 2003” pre-conference is dedicated to this topic), heightened interface with EMS Training Sites statewide, and First Responder re-education & continuing education.

Pre-Strategic Planning / Identification of New Goals to Discuss:

Following individual telephone discussions with each board member, the following five general categories were identified and priority ranked by each board member prior to the strategic planning meeting, with the following outcome (lowest points represents highest priority – 150 points total):

Rank #1 (21 points)
Department of Health and Family Services, Bureau of Injury Prevention, EMS Office.

Rank #2 (25 points)
Association Business Revenue and Growth.

Rank #3 (30 points)
Association Member Training, Education, Information and Benefit Plans.

Rank #4 (37 points)
Association Board of Directors Operations, Guidelines, Structure, Succession and Key Officer Protection Planning.

Rank #5 (37 points)
Vocational Technical Educational Centers / Technical College System. 

Identification and Focus on Core Strategic Areas:

The above top five general categories were discussed at length in a group setting starting at the top and working down through the list. On average, there was 45-minutes of discussion for each general category. Once discussion completed on the top five categories, it was determined the board needed to re-vote and re-focus its attention to set new priorities to meet current and future interests.  Some categories were re-titled and the urgency re-established as board members felt their individual priority level had changed following general group discussion.  Each board member openly stated urgency to their particular category and then drew a ballot to select their top three categories deserving the highest priority.  From the following overall list, priorities were re-identified and re-stated as such:

Rank #1 (points 10)
State EMS Office Accountability and Efficiency Concerns.

Points of Discussion:

• Lack of professionalism demonstrated by EMS office staff (not returning phone calls).

• Lack of accountability, communication, and customer service focus.

• Lack of EMS office efficiency and associated time delays with required approvals of EMS plans, licenses, license renewals, and legislative mandated first responder licensure program.

• Lack of consistency in regulations or published rules.

• A recommendation was made by the board to investigate placement in the EMS office an Association paid staff employee to work 10 to 20 hours per week and operate on behalf of the Association and its members as a Government Liaison Officer.  It was also noted the Association staff is learning of EMS office delays many months after documents were sent to the state office, thus forcing the Association into a reactive mode (and a frustrated member) versus a proactive mode in following up on member requests or inquiries regarding the state EMS office and updates on pending work, licensure, or plan outcomes.

• The question was raised why the EMS office needs to approve each technical college class registration schedule and assign a number to each when in-fact the curriculum is already approved.

Rank #2 (points 10)
Conference Growth, Pending Location Move, Paid Staff Requirements.

Points of Discussion:

• Continued higher perception of WEMSA by hosting a well operated and respected conference.

• Increased staff requirements, and the potential to add additional paid staff to strictly coordinate, facilitate, negotiate contracts, and work all major aspects of the conference.

• Increased potential for added revenues to invest back into the conference.

• Attendance growth, regional marketing efforts expanded with conference move to larger hosting location, i.e., Midwest Express Center.

• Potential for gaining greater efficiencies in consolidation of other state     conferences into WEMSA conference.  The point being EMS, fire and other professionals are gathered, so make best use of time, training resources, and conference space in order to help individuals and agencies control the amount of dollars spent on multiple state conferences each year.  Savings would be realized in minimal time away from work, service area, or family; less travel, less hotel stays, less meal expense and other associated costs.  The professional vendors, providers, and suppliers would also appreciate consolidation by maximizing budget dollars to one large regional conference versus several smaller state conferences, access to a larger audience and potential buyers / decision makers, less time away from field work and direct selling, easier display or equipment set-up, and larger conference facility.

• Create conference track for VOTEC instructors & EMS leadership.

• Goal to have 2004 conference exceed 2000 attendees.

Rank #3 (6 points)
Association Member Growth & Revenue.

Points of Discussion:

• Increase benefits to individual members and, most importantly, to service and corporate members.

• Strengthen education of EMS leadership by creating accreditation program for EMS leadership.  Create CD ROM Resource Kit for EMS management.

• Investigate ways to increase Association revenues through various offerings, i.e., contracts, member incentive programs, or expansion of Group Buying Program.

• Continually evaluate resources provided to members.

Rank #4 (3 points)
WEMSA Board of Director Operations.

Points of Discussion:

• Reaffirm accountability of each board member.

• WEMSA is a business operating and managing financial assets and contract commitments.

• Consider establishing a one-year acclamation period for new board members prior to extending voting privileges as a process to acquaint new board members to the financials and decision making processes of the board.

• Require, as a pre-requisite to being named on any board of director’s ballot, completion of an accredited EMS leadership program.

Rank #5 (1 point)
Technical College / VOTEC System.

Points of Discussion:

• System has not implemented new EMT levels consistently across all VOTECs at the same time (there is no uniformity amongst the VOTEC system in start of new instruction on EMT-IV Tech and EMT-Intermediate courses).

• Classes are beginning as full, but after a few weeks class drop-out rate is high.

• EMS providers should take priority over general public with being admitted to class if full.

• Some VOTECs are charging a graduation fee / different course fees / increasing pre-established curriculum course hours.

Follow-up:

Who has overall authority with VOTECs, who is the VOTEC governing body, creation of an accredited EMS leadership curriculum (Fire Academy, WI EMS Management).

The following two topics were discussed, but each did not achieve a vote.  These topics included:

EMS Leadership.

Points of Discussion:

• Association create hiring positioning statement for municipalities to refer to in posting EMS related jobs.

• Hiring requirements identify and recommend to municipalities.

• Develop accredited EMS Leadership program.

• Develop CD ROM Resource Kit for EMS management topics.

State EMS Advisory Board.

Points of Discussion:

• Higher accountability of the board.

• What has the board accomplished?

• Better understanding of the board’s authority, i.e., Funding Assistance Program (FAP) and other rule making or discovery processes they intend to pursue.

• Is the board engaged in addressing and fixing problems? Are they willing to challenge DHFS or other agencies for the good of EMS?

Summary:

The strategic planning discussion concluded Sunday, October 6, 2002 at 11:30 a.m. with identification of the core group headings named above 1 through 5.  The list and accompanying ideas were turned over to the Association staff to develop and facilitate action to meet the stated objectives above by outlining an action plan and presenting to the board at its January 2003 quarterly meeting.

The stated purpose of the strategic planning discussion was to evaluate the current plan, benchmark it against current interests, make a strategic directional change if required, and continue forward as a working document.  Acting on behalf of members of the Wisconsin EMS Association, the board of directors represented and achieved these interests.