Present:  Allen, Barker, Blazei, Hunjadi, Klis, McCarrier, Meeker

 

Notified Absent:  Schindler, Van Buren

 

Meeting Called to order by:  President Meeker at 12:06 pm

 

Tour of Building:  All members present took a tour of new facilities. Questions /comments from the members of the board were addressed. There are a few miscellaneous projects remaining to complete. The final building inspection of the construction has not been conducted.

 

Operational Updates

 

President:  Shared with board update on State EMS Networking meeting.  Update included a brief rundown of the itinerary for National EMS Association meetings (April 23-26). 

 

Interoperability Committee WEMSA representative—Meeker working with Joe Baasch of West Bend and Jim Van Burren as liaison on this.  Any foreseeable needs/concerns should be forwarded via email to Meeker.

 

West Bend Meeting Report—Meeker and Hunjadi attended. Both met and discussed input from organizations on what their concerns were and where improvement could be made. Letters were generated and shared with organizations asking for reports on accomplishments. Response on this from at least one organization has not been favorable. Questions from the board were addressed and discussion on next steps took place regarding comments at last EMS Advisory Board Meeting. It was decided that Allen would conduct follow-up on this issue.

 

Vice President:  Allen reported on recent EMS Advisory Board meeting.  Allen has clearly stated to the members of the EMS Advisory Board that she will forward any public information that has been presented in an open forum to the Wisconsin EMS Association Board Members. Allen stated her goal is to balance her roles between both boards to further promote EMS as a whole.

 

Secretary / Treasurer:  Nothing to report

 

Executive Director:  Provided board with update on employee transitions; introduced Wendy Hebron as new Office Manager; shared a brief training plan—will be hourly through April and full-time by May 1^st ; Debi Blazei will assist with the transition.

 

Hunjadi gave additional updates on building.  Work to be done yet includes:  landscaping, parking lot & walkways, sign, key pad access panels for doors. In addition is reviewing three bids for cleaning service. Additional services to set up include lawn care and snow removal. 

 

Hunjadi provided board with handout recapping membership, budget, building expense breakdown, and conference.  Membership is currently running flat. Building is coming in at budget. Article will be included in EMS Professionals magazine highlighting cost-saving measures used and investment of rental office spaces.

 

Sales & Customer Service:  Report given by Hunjadi.  Hood has been successful establishing new group buyers for medical supplies (PMI and EMP).  Has also been able to generated funding dollars for National meeting of state EMS organizations. Hood has gotten General Communications to renew radios and pagers Group Buying contract. Working with Zoll to renew their contract for AED’s. Also meeting with Millers  First insurance company to discuss potential services.

 

Question raised if still utilizing PEI pre-employment test services.  Brief discussion followed.

 

Rebate vs. Membership was discussed. Currently ambulance rebate checks have been slow to be issued. Also running into situations where a few organizations take the rebate but then are not renewing their membership for the following year. This situation will be prompting changes to this program.

 

 

Department Reports/Actions:

• 2009 Conference—Hunjadi referred to last page of handout with budget numbers for conference.  After evaluation Hunjadi sees more cost savings in place for next year’s conference.

 

• 2010 Conference—Planning meeting scheduled for April 28^th.  Will begin scheduling/planning for 24^th year. 

 

• 2011 Conference—mention was made regarding the need to begin assigning people to begin the planning for the 25^th Annual Conference.  Begin lining up speakers/presentations.

 

• 2009 Cruise—awaiting final numbers.  For future cruises the need for more explicit details/instructions will be called for.  Additionally, it was stated that this needed to be promoted as a “national” event and not a “Wisconsin” event.

 

• Future Cruise Plans—Discussed potential 2010 Alaska Cruise tentatively slated for June/July/early August.  Details still being determined.  A warm weather cruise would still be slated for 2011.  Location possibility:  Baja Southern California departure.

 

• Legislation—Discussion was held on the proposed licensing fees & fines proposed rule changes. WEMSA is opposed to this proposal. Currently this is in the town hall meeting stage—public hearings must take place.  No full blown article will be printed until the final rules have been proposed in an attempt to minimize the amount of confusion related to understanding which items remain and which have already been removed.

 

• The job protection bill is out of drafting and ready for introduction. The new Democratic sponsor wants to wait until after the budget bill to have it introduced. The previous Republican sponsors are willing to agree to waiting to gain support from the majority party.

 

• Bill to make it a crime to impersonating an EMT, First Responder or Firefighter has been introduced.

 

• Workers Comp claim by Volunteer EMS and Firefighters issue was discussed. The insurance carrier in the case sited is denying an injury claim from a volunteer that was responding to the station for a call in his personal vehicle and was involved in a collision. The decision on what constitutes being “on the clock” has already been determined and this should be a payable claim. This appears to be a local issue related to this specific insurance adjuster.

 

Old Business:

WEMSA Certified Training Center Update  Meeker, Barker, and Hunjadi will be meeting on this in the following week to put together a draft of the Training Center plan. Plan will be submitted for next Board meeting in July.  Allen also shared new training information that will need to be incorporated into this plan. Idea behind this is to act as an outreach/continuing education/recertification program and regionalize this program. A possible partnership with Aurora is being negotiated

Letters to DHFS  Meeker will send letter to Brian Litza inquiring as to the status of these.

Recognition for retiring board members  A brief discussion was held regarding recognition that should be provided to board members following their departure from the board. The item will be placed on the July meeting agenda.

Meeting with CentreLearn Solutions  Contract is in hand on this. Hood and Hunjadi are of the conclusion that the infrastructure of the system will be put in place at no cost to us. Discussion was held as to whether there would be any additional costs to implementing this. Hood and Hunjadi will follow up on any costs that may be incurred as a result of going forward with this.

Approve amendments for 2009 Operating Budget Line items related to building operational costs were not included in the budget approved in January. These new items and budget amount were presented to the board. Motion was made to accept the amendments for the 2009 Operating Budget by Klis seconded by McCarrier. All in favor none opposed.  Motion carried.

New Business:

Board member Bill Carey Attendance Review Meeker announced that he received a resignation notice from Carey as of April 19, 2009.  Motion was made to accept resignation by Barker seconded by Klis. All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

POLST Legislation from Medical Society  Briefly discussed the specifics of this. Proposal is to create a standardized Do Not Resuscitate form that would be requested by the family and doctor to travel with the patient. This would be reviewed quarterly by physician and family. A motion was made to support this legislation by Barker, seconded by Blazei. All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

Approve 2010 Conference Operating Budget  Hunjadi reported that he is not anticipating changes to the current budget for next year. Motion was made to approve a continuance of current budget by Blazei, seconded by Klis. All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

Staff review and potential bonus compensation  Favorable discussion was held regarding Mike Hood’s job performance in the past year, including countless hours spent working with the building project. This included several examples of manual labor provided by Hood and has resulted in substantial cost savings for the organization. Motion was made to propose a $5000 performance bonus for April 2008-2009 contract to Hood by Blazei, seconded by Klis. All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

Motion by Klis to move to closed session. Seconded by Allen.  Motion carried.  Hunjadi voluntarily left the meeting. Meeting moved to closed session. Motion by McCarrier to return to open session. Seconded by Barker. Motion carried. Hunjadi returned to the meeting. Meeting returned to open session[WH2] .

Motion was made to give Don Hunjadi a $6000 performance bonus for all his work this past year by Allen.  Seconded by Klis. All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

Election of WEMSA Officers Nominations were opened for President. Motion was made to nominate Richard Meeker by Klis. No additional candidates were nominated. Motion to close nomination by McCarrier, second by Klis. All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

Nominations were opened for the office of Vice-President. Motion was made to nominate Mindy Allen by Barker. No additional candidates were nominated. Motion to close nomination by McCarrier, second by Blazei.

All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

 

Nominations were opened for Secretary/Treasurer. Motion was made to nominate Karen Barker by Klis.  No additional candidates were nominated. Motion to close nomination by McCarrier, second by Blazei.

All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

 

Nominations were opened for Past President. Motion was made to nominate Justin Klis by Allen. No additional candidates were nominated. Motion was made to close nomination by Barker, second by McCarrier.

All in favor none opposed. Motion carried.

 

Other—Brief discussions were held regarding:  Open House May 16^th, Partnership with State Athletic Association, Conference Staff Stipend, and Internal Financial review vs. External audit (to be discussed at July meeting).

 Motion to adjourn meeting made by:  Blazei

Seconded by:  McCarrier

All in favor none opposed

Meeting adjourned at:  4:30 pm