July 19, 2005

Dear APCO Member:

Below is a copy of the letter I sent out when I ran for APCO president last year. To provide you with a progress report on the chapter as we near the first half of my presidency, I am inserting the results of each goal and where it is now – in blue font.

September 14, 2004

Dear Colleague,

I am writing to ask you to vote for me as the next President of the Iowa Chapter of APCO. The election will take place at the next business meeting on October 6, 2004.

Being a member of Iowa APCO has afforded me many wonderful opportunities. I have grown professionally and my career in public safety communications has been enhanced because of knowledge gained in this great association. Now, I want to give something back to you, my friends and colleagues.

I have had the privilege of visiting nearly all of the 130 plus communication centers in Iowa and have come to know most of you personally. Many of you have shared with me your wonderful ideas, thoughts and needs as well as your opinions. As Iowa’s APCO President, I would promote and encourage those great ideas and work hard to make them a reality.

If elected, these are some of your ideas that would be my immediate goals:

· Mentor and teach future leaders about our organization while allowing them to use their own creativity to implement new ideas. We have many members in chairman positions and working on various committees who have never been involved before and are doing an outstanding job.

· Expand and empower our committees through greater involvement and by delegating some decision making to them based on input from the membership. Doing this would allow our Executive Board to focus on other key issues that are important to all communications professionals throughout Iowa.

1. The Legislative Committee, chaired by Gloria Isham, has been working diligently throughout the year with other organizations to develop partnerships for the success of our retirement proposal.
2. Vice Pres/Activities Chairman Judy Flores and her team planned a 60^th anniversary party that was a smashing success. Old friends, new friends, great food and entertainment – an outstanding job, especially for her first time managing such a large event.
3. Secretary Wendi Hess managed our mailings and registrations for the spring like a pro, does a great job with meeting notices and meeting minutes and as I write this, she is preparing her information for the fall conference mailings.
4. Randy Thompson and his committee are developing the chapter’s Strategic Plan and will present it at Fall APCO.
5. Andy Buffington and the PAC have been working to provide more information to the comm. centers.
6. Steve Olson and E.L. George managed the logo contest and Cara Sorrells developed our new logo.
7. Training Committee chairman Sarah McClure has two outstanding days of training with nationally known trainers and our very own local experts coming to teach us important skills and information coming on 10-4 and 10-5!
8. Sandy Hoyt and her team did a fantastic job working hard to develop our bylaws rewrite.
9. Mark VH is continuing to provide a outstanding website
10. Julie Feisel has come up with some new and creative ideas for the newsletter: kudos, spotlight on comm. centers, to name a couple.
11. Julie Twedt and the Historical committee put together a wonderful memorabilia table for spring APCO and are working for the fall right now!
12. Teresa Todd and her group did a wonderful job with the Awards committee and inclusion of a new award.

• Implement a plan similar to one used by other chapters to provide better participation of members with minimal travel and meeting time. Members would be able to actively participate without spending a lot of time away from work and home.

· Several committees have utilized the conference calling service for meetings.

• Increase utilization of our newsletter and website to improve communication among the entire membership and beyond. Increasing awareness about Iowa APCO would likely bring more and diverse members into the organization.

· Our newsletter is being provided to other organizations throughout Iowa. Mark keeps our website up to date with current issues.

· Partner with other organizations (ISSDA, IACCP, NAFTO, etc) to host joint training opportunities, and better address the needs of the entire public safety community. These partnerships would serve to educate their members about APCO while creating a higher awareness of the emergency communications profession.

· Work is already in progress with ISAC, the Iowa League of Cities, and the ISSDA to educate their members about APCO and about our profession.

· Create a task force to research more economical ways of providing our members with an opportunity to attend International Conferences. Next year, the conference will be held in Denver, Colorado. We need to find creative ways to assist our members in attending conferences so they can take advantage of valuable training and networking.

· Steve and George obtained information on bus and Amtrak costs but because there were so few who showed interest, neither choice was used. However, we do have 18 people to date who will be attending APCO in Denver!

· Create a task force to develop a public education program so citizens know what to expect when they dial 9-1-1. Many of you have suggested this idea and Iowa APCO is the perfect organization to create such a program. We have over 300 subject matter experts as our members. Who better to develop this program?!

· The Pub Ed committee is planning to roll out our new program, hopefully by fall APCO. It is one of our main goals on the new Strategic Plan.

These ideas are not mine alone. These goals have been developed based on the thoughts you have shared with me. Accomplishing these goals will strengthen our organization while bringing greater credibility to the communications profession. Accomplishing these goals will better prepare us to meet the challenges of our future.

Emergency communications is ever-changing. Our chapter must continue to look forward in order to provide the best in public safety communications for our responders as well as the citizens we serve.

If you have questions or would like additional information, please call me at ILEA at 515-242-5011 or at home at 515-964-3912. I am hopeful that you will consider me for President and join me in building on the successes of our Iowa APCO leaders, both past and present! Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Nancy Brady

P.S.

Our members have accomplished a great deal over this past ten months. As we look towards the future, please consider running for an office. My commitment when I ran was, and will remain, to only hold the office for one term; and I’m about halfway there; so start thinking about running. There are SO MANY of you who would make an excellent leader for us! I will gladly answer any questions or provide any help to any member who is interested in running for office.

“It’s time to step up the stairs; don’t just stare up the steps!”

Many thanks for the dedication of time and talents to the betterment of our chapter during this past year. Teamwork means success!