President’s Message - April 2012
From the Desk of Dick Reiners, President
Greetings to all…
Hope that you have been enjoying the weird weather that
we’ve been having but have not been affected by any of
the storms.
Thanks to all those who attended the 2012 Seminar.
We had many good reviews and critiques; and some,
not so good.
But that’s who we learn and improve.
If you’ve never dealt with failure, then success
doesn’t seem so special.
I do hope that everyone realizes that the IEMTS Board
does read and take seriously your suggestions and
comments from your submitted seminar evaluation forms.
Please understand that it might take more than a
year to institute your changes and ideas for our next
seminar presentation. We have to select the dates for
the seminar and sign usage agreements for the conference
center. The
acquisition of speakers also presents another hurdle as
this does not always come to fruition and we can have
speakers cancel just days before the seminar.
Luckily we have been able to fill in cancelled
speaker time slots to maintain seminar continuity.
With regards to seminar evaluations, I felt compelled to
address a particular attendee comment as soon as
possible. The
comment stated, “I feel that the entire board should be
in attendance of all sessions and some were not”.
Stop and think about this…
It the entire board sat in every session, the
seminar would come to a halt.
Who is going to handle registrations,
certificates, new memberships, etc.?
Also, who will
see to the speaker’s needs, coordinate the real-time
glitches or make copies of presentation material?
One of the board members may also be out of the
room addressing a situation that needs immediate
attention.
I personally would like to sit in on the whole seminar,
but I normally don’t have that luxury.
I could sit and listen to Dr. Jacobus talk about
making brownies from bat guano for an entire day!!!
Fiction, of course.
But that’s not possible when there are tasks to
perform behind the scenes to keep the seminar running as
smooth as it can.
An additional note; many who attended the
conference expressed to me and other board members just
how smooth and relaxing the conference did progress.
We will definitely be improving the sound system
for the recorded and video segments of the
presentations.
We will also look into the availability of
healthier food and snacks in the networking/break room.
And we will most likely (due to its success) hold
a pre-seminar class next year.
We are also working on some encouraging
developments to add to our membership package.
Remember, the board is elected by the members and serves
its members.
We are pushing ourselves to improve the status of the
IEMTA and to get our state government to realize who we
are and the voice of EMS that we represent!!!
Until next time…
Dick Reiners
President, IEMTA
Membership is open to all Illinois
EMS professionals.
Please fill out an application today!
The Board and I are here to serve you. If you
have any questions, feel free to contact me or the Board
member in your
region (the region map is available on the website).