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!!!

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).