July 8, 1999

The meeting was called to order at 1831 hours by Chair Greg Thweatt. 16 out of 22 services were represented. Those in attendance were:

• Jennifer Allen introduced Lauri L’Ecuyer and Lolita Page as the new rep and alternate for Colchester Rescue. Lauri can be reached at 284 Bonanza Park, Colchester VT 05446, 658-4335. Lolita can be reached at 23 Little Eagle Bay, Burlington, 05401, 658-0840.

Review Agenda: The chair briefly reviewed the agenda for the meeting.

• Next meeting will be held on August 12, 1999 at 1830 hours at St. Michael’s College.
• Memo from Heart Assoc. about Prudential Insurance AED purchase program. Brief discussion followed about District applying for this grant. Pat says that AED’s are on the District list of training supplies to be purchased.

• One class remaining. 16 students expected to pass. Practical certification exam will be on Wednesday 21 July. Written exam is still to be scheduled. Bill and Ray report the students are having fun and really enjoying the class.
• Written exam from spring course: 8 or 9 people failed. Class average went up but same number of people failed. Brief discussion followed about student profiles in an attempt to correct/improve the failure rate.
• Fall course applications are due today. Revised course schedule was distributed. District EMT’s are welcome to attend sessions for CE credits.

• Spring course: 5 written failures, some have retested and passed. One needs a practical retest.
• Fall course applications are due today.
• Steve Fleming: Vergennes has a potential new member, an EMT who is seeking reciprocity. Can he apply for the EMT-I class now? Greg answers that if he is sure (call to confirm) the EMS office will grant reciprocity then it is ok to apply now. New EMT-B’s only need the "happy letter" to apply for the "I" class.

• July 21^st with EMT-B exam. Call Pat M. to arrange for test. EMT-I retests on this date a possibility as well. Evaluators and helpers should plan to be at Rowell at 6 p.m.

• FAHC Case Review: July 21^st at Burgess. Burns.
• ACLS: 17 and 18 July, contact Pat Delaney at 879-3995.

• No report

• Have noticed an increase in the number of blood exposures or potential exposures being reported to ED staff. Majority of times there is no exposure at all. Training Officers should review squad policy and training to ensure members are aware of what an exposure is. Recent increase in false reporting has bogged down the ED. Staff is willing to help. Wayne suggests when a rescuer has an exposure that he/she immediately calls their infection control officer and admits themselves to the hospital for follow-up procedures.

• Lamoille Transition Course: William Clark reports he met last night with 5 of the students from the course for random testing on Vermont protocols. AED or EPI pen protocols were tested, randomized by coin toss. Report on each student followed. Overall, Bill felt comfortable with their assessment skills although most had minor problems with Vermont protocols. Wayne asked when the rest of the class would be testing reviewing that he agreed 10 students would be a representative sample. No definitive answer given. Wayne not sure how to proceed now, stating he has been receiving calls at home from irate students and is losing his patience for this matter. He is leaning toward not signing off on the course and asks Bob what Lamoille is prepared to do. There ensued a briefly heated discussion between Wayne and Bob about concern for the students. Pat then suggested that the students come to Rowell on the 21^st and complete their evaluations; if they show we finish the course, if they don’t then the course is disapproved. Susan moved that the people from the Lamoille transition course show up at Rowell on the 21^st at 1800 hours for evaluation by Bill Clark. At least 5 people, not yet evaluated, need to show up. If 5 do not show, the course is disapproved. If at least 5 show up, then Bill will evaluate and report to the committee in August. Motion seconded by Ray. Kevin reviewed Bill’s current report and asked if the result does not indicate the quality of training. Bill replied it showed the students were not practicing Vermont protocols. Wayne added he is hesitant to decide the course outcome based only on 5 students. Bill clarified his evaluator position with Wayne. Motion called. Motion carried with one abstention. Bob will ensure students are notified.
• Refresher Course: Chair opens the floor for feedback from services. Tara suggests a quarterly schedule planned one year in advance with courses hosted by different squads. Greg asks if services can schedule one year in advance? General consensus is yes and schedules would be able to be maintained with limited changes. Suggestion of mandatory topics being hosted by services, varied schedule being offered; not always have courses at night. Kevin offered training at BFD. Training schedule is posted 2 years in advance, there is limited space. He will confer with the command staff and report back. Pat suggests there be a lead person to coordinate schedules and notification. Greg asks services to generate training list for next month and include times, dates, class size limits. Bill says he has time to coordinate reception of information, he can’t track down services but he can receive information and organize it. Greg adds that Keith and Charlene are still interested in helping with some training and urges the committee to keep thinking of training ideas.

• Future scope of Training Committee meetings: (Greg) Greg discussed with Mike O’Keefe to ensure compliance with Robert’s rules of order. The agenda has not changes in at least 12 years and will require a vote to change. Proposed agenda:
• Introductions
• Review Agenda
• Approval of Minutes
• Announcements – option to include any reports. Primary change here is to collapse the length of reports.
• Old Business
• New Business – time permitting, the presentation of educational related topics.

• Wayne reviewed a discussion from last meeting about having District course expectations written down and distributed. This may help avoid future problems. He would like this topic put on next month’s agenda.
• Tara brought up some training ideas. She has heard that people would like a rhythm recognition course, a crew chief training course and driver training courses. Suggests these topics could become annual district sponsored courses. Other topics presented were PHTLS and updating of the Training Officer guidebook. Briefly discussed mass education, especially for advanced level EMT’s. There was a brief discussion about how to proceed with the rhythm recognition course. Greg is looking for a service to step forward and contact Wayne to schedule this course. Bob added that Lamoille offers two driver training courses each year. Discussion ended due to time.

Motion to adjourn by Ray, second by Susan. Meeting adjourned at 1935 hours.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Laskarzewski, clerk