Marshall County Central Dispatch Supervisor Matt Pitney recently received certification under the Center Manager Certification Program through the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). The class was sponsored by the Statewide 9-1-1 Board and held in Bloomington, Indiana from March 9th to March 13th. Thirty-one 9-1-1 professionals from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Texas attended the forty hour certification program. This was only the 27th class hosted worldwide. Supervisor Pitney joins only a handful of emergency center personnel worldwide to receive this certification.
NENA describes the course as a program to equip 9-1-1 supervisory personnel with “the tools needed to effectively manage their agency through a rigorous 40-hour course of lecture and lab-based education.” Topics covered in the class included Roles and Responsibilities of a Center Manager, Management vs. Leadership, Ethics Values and Mission Statements, Organizational Structure, PSAP Consolidation, Proper Recruiting Hiring and Promoting, Building Effective teams, Business Communications, Legal Issues, Written Directives, Training and Quality Assurance, Systems and Technologies, Finance and Procurement, Project Management, Media Relations, Industry Best Practices, and Center staffing and reporting tools.
