Ruminations

[Guest guest]

The Break Room has been around for 10 years now, in various incarnations

and certainly various levels of disarray. It is seriously in need of

updating and repair of pages with 404 notices and other links which have

died over time as the source sites moved as well. I've changed servers for

the Break Room five times. And then I got sick back in 2003 and a whole

lot of updates haven't been made, that I regularly promise myself I will

get to when I " can. "

My " can " is certainly not on anybody's schedule other than my own. Sorry

to disappoint anyone.

The 9-1-1 Console List began its first incarnation in 1996, as well. It's

was a labor of love, labor-intensive HTML work and dedication on the part

of my friend Ken Handfield, as much as the Break Room has been for me. The

decision to move to it to Yahoo kinda happened after other list servers

failed to meet some pretty high standards, and pretty much because Yahoo

was there to fill the void. (There was much discussion about it back then...)

*I* sometimes don't even reply to personal e-mails for several days. Or

longer. Just because e-mail is fairly immediate in nature doesn't mean *I*

work on that same instant gratification basis. Again, sorry to disappoint

anyone.

This is the best clique <rolling eyes> to which I have ever belonged:

Public Safety Communications folk networking with other Public Safety

Communications folk. Lurking OR responding. An entire 2, maybe 3 days

ago, somebody brought up an issue affecting new members. I'm sure that's

frustrating, especially for those who have struggled with that particular

problem for an inordinate time.

Ya know, something I had to learn when I became a supervisor, and it was a

tough lesson: Dispatchers have been trained - and are damned good - at

handling things RIGHT NOW. The clock is ticking. Seconds are being

counted for so many, many tasks. We are frustrated by non-response from

ancillary services all the time. Public Works can't get out to the closure

with their signs and barricades for the longest time. Computer returns

taking longer than 15 seconds make us nuts. Why aren't there enough spare

parts/headsets/whatsits to plunk onto our heads when mine breaks, so I

don't have to use that funky spare or share with someone for a while?

But problems " off the floor " of the Comm Center often take a whole lot more

time to evaluate and solve. Priorities are entirely

different. Dispatchers want things fixed ... well, before they were

broken. Things should never break.

Nobody has been abandoned. As another of my friends has just suggested,

there are existing discussion lists that will support immediate

gratification. I belong to several of them as well. If that's what you

need, utilize those forums.

--

Happy to be here, proud to serve.

Olmstead

Public Safety Dispatch Supervisor

~somewhere on the Central CA coast~

http://www.gryeyes.com

[not presumed to be a statement of my employing agency]