APCO 2022: Opening General Session
The General Session of APCO 2022 in Anaheim, California, kicked off with announcements of association initiatives and awards for top public safety communications performers followed by a former Navy SEAL’s motivational speech on building teams that adapt and succeed.
Executive Director and CEO Derek K. Poarch spoke to hundreds of assembled APCO members in the Anaheim Convention Center where he described plans for a 4,700 square foot addition to the association’s Daytona Beach Headquarters. He said the new facilities will include additional offices, larger conference and training facilities, and state of the art audio-visual technologies.
Effective October 1, Poarch said, APCO International has been named the preferred training partner of the National Sheriffs Association. “This partnership will insure that telecommunicators working in Sheriff’s Department ECCs around the country have a new opportunity to receive the very best in Public Safety Communications training.”
Poarch also announced the release of the Definitive Guide to Next Generation 9-1-1. The guide adds to Project 43 and the APCO RFP document. “We believe it provides everything needed by frontline Telecommunicators, ECC directors and government officials to better understand, prepare for and successfully implement a fully interoperable, non-proprietary NG 9-1-1 system in ECCs across the country.”
Poarch outlined ongoing APCO legislative initiatives:
- 9-1-1 SAVES Act was reintroduced in Congress. The legislation would direct the federal Office of Management and Budget to fix change public safety telecommunicator classification from the category of office and administrative support to the category protective service occupations.
- The House passed a bill including NG9-1-1 funding last week and advocacy now turns to the Senate to press for passage.
- APCO is advocating for health and wellness of its members with an active association committee as well as language in the 9-1-1 SAVES Act that would provide grants to prevent and treat PTSD.
APCO President Jason Kern took to the podium, noting the association’s advocacy work regarding Federal Communications Commission rulemaking. “Some of those items include preventing robocalls to ECCs, improving 9-1-1 outage notification, wireless network resiliency, secure internet routing, wireless emergency alerts and location-based routing,” Kern said.
Kern also noted the many benefits APCO 2022 provides conference goers.
“It is time to learn, network and build relationships, new and old. We should take this in-person opportunity to attend classes in the ten professional development tracks, attend our general business sessions to learn what the association is doing for you, celebrate our award winners, listen to some amazing motivational keynote speakers and laugh a bit, probably a lot, with comedian Tom Papa,” Kern said. “Be inspired as you leave here and help us, help you, to drive our association and our industry well into the future.
Poarch and Executive Committee members presented the 2022 Emergency Communications Center Awards and Technology Leadership Awards to six individuals, one team and two agencies. The list of winners can be found on the APCO website.
Scott Agnew, assistant vice president for the FirstNet Program at AT&T, introduced the keynote speaker, Brent Gleeson, a Navy SEAL combat veteran and best-selling author speaking on leadership and teamwork.
Gleeson presented the teambuilding practices of the Navy SEAL as a model — if an extreme one — that other organizations can learn from.
“All high-performing teams are forged in some form of adversity” Gleeson said. Navy SEALs teams are exposed to plenty of it.
Gleeson screened a video illustrating the blood, sweat, tears and near-drowning experiences that SEALs undergo during training. The training focuses on finishing a task no matter the personal cost and demonstrating leadership that makes the whole team perform at a higher level. Training was so extreme for Gleeson’s class in the year 2000 that 90 percent of them dropped out, and the class leader died during the fifth week of training, known as hell week.
He said studies of SEALs have found that the best indicator of whether someone will make it through SEAL training is “attachment to a passion for the mission and purpose of the organization.”
Gleeson explained how SEALs continue their team building during active duty with rituals like debriefing after every mission talking out the successes, failures and areas for improvement. This leads to constantly striving to improve performance, and, relatedly, accountability for failures.
Gleeson illustrated the SEAL ethos — “Never out of the Fight when knocked down, I will get up” — with the story of his friend Lt. Jason Redman who was ambushed with his team on a mission in Iraq. Redman was shot in the face and his arm was nearly severed by machine gun fire but continued leading his team, including walking to the medevac after the enemy was defeated.
Redman was transferred to a military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he became frustrated with visitors crying over his wounds. He warned off those who felt sorry for him, attaching poster board to the door that included this line: “The room you are entering is a room of fun — The management.”