Within the Trenches

Good morning! This episode is sponsored by NENA and INdigital. I am currently in Nashville, TN for the 2014 National NENA Conference and this is the first of a series of episodes I’m recording here. In this episode I spoke with Brandy, a dispatcher with Licking County 911 Center out of Ohio and a Friends of 911 Scholarship winner. This is a must listen for anyone looking for information on not onl...

Good afternoon and happy Friday! This episode will be the final episode from the Indiana NENA conference. It was an excellent time and I can’t wait for next year! In this episode I spoke with Jeanene and Kelsie, dispatchers with Vigo County Central Dispatch. This episode is as real as it gets. It’s a look at true stories as well as the humor that goes with the job. It’s not just about being great...

Good afternoon and welcome back to another awesome episode of Within the Trenches. It has been a pretty busy week with the announcement of Indiana's statewide text-to-9-1-1 plan  but I now have time so I'm posting a brand new episode from Indiana's NENA conference. In this episode I spoke with Jessica, a dispatcher / CTO with Kosciusko 9-1-1 Communications. Jessica was honored during the opening c...

Good afternoon and welcome back to another episode of Within the Trenches. This episode brings us closer to the end of my time at Indiana’s NENA conference. My time there was inspiring, educational and I can’t wait for next year. The stories covered have been amazing and today’s episode is right up there with the best of them. In this episode I had the chance to speak to Kimberly, a dispatcher/CTO...

Within the Trenches is back with episode 59! This is just one of several episodes recorded last week during the Indiana NENA state conference. In this episode I sat down to talk with Julie, Deputy Director with Bartholomew 9-1-1 Center and Claudia who is a dispatcher with Fayette County Communications. We share stories of messing up on the mic, burnout and how to deal with hitting a rough patch an...

Within the Trenches is back with episode 58! This is just one of several episodes recorded last week during the Indiana NENA state conference. In this episode I sat down to talk with Amy, Amanda and Wendy, supervisors with Bartholomew County 9-1-1 Center. We look back at their start in 9-1-1, the classes they attended at the conference and we listened to a 9-1-1 tape that featured Wendy helping wi...

Within the Trenches is back with episode 57! This is just one of several episodes recorded last week during the Indiana NENA state conference. In this episode I sat down to talk with Heather and Kelly, dispatchers out of LaGrange County in Indiana and they received one of this years Team Work Awards. We look at how they got started in 9-1-1 and how they played a major part in a situation where a w...

Within the Trenches is back with episode 55! This is just one of several episodes recorded last week during the Indiana NENA state conference. In this episode I sat down to talk with Rob, Director of Vigo County Central Dispatch and North Central Regional Director of National NENA and Terri, Director of Fayette County Communications, NENA Central Region Vice President and Director of Indiana APCO....

Hello everyone! Within the Trenches is back with episode 53 featuring Ed, the Director of Bartholomew County 9-1-1 Center and President of Indiana NENA. The show is recording on location from the Marriott East in Indianapolis, Indiana for the annual Indiana NENA conference. In this episode Ed shares his dispatch experience, switching from dispatch to being an on the road state trooper and eventual...

Hello everyone! Within the Trenches is back with episode 52 featuring Jeff, the Director of Monroe County Central Dispatch and 1st Vice President for Indiana NENA. The show is recording on location from the Marriott East in Indianapolis, Indiana for the annual Indiana NENA conference. In this episode Jeff shares his dispatch experience, the importance of continuing education, what the general publ...

Hello everyone! Within the Trenches is back with episode 51 featuring David, the Director of Kosciusko 9-1-1 in Indiana. The show is recording on location from the Marriott East in Indianapolis, Indiana for the annual Indiana NENA conference. In this episode David shares his dispatch experience and how he worked his way up to the position of director of his center. We also touch on text-to-9-1-1 a...

Within the Trenches is back with episode 50! The show has come a long way since the Kickstarter campaign. Whitney and I have spoken to dispatchers, leaders and educators within the dispatch community. The show has also been present for different conferences and the first one was last year at the Mini-C conference in Boca Raton Florida. Tom with the Cool Kids of 9-1-1 invited the show to be there o...

Woo! Within the Trenches Podcast is back with episode 49 and I would like to welcome back Whitney! She has been gone for some time and rather than spoil the surprise I will let you go ahead and listen to her reveal it. In this episode we share some personal stories along with what happened on my trip to Marquette Michigan for work. It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to go back. Towards...

Welcome to a brand new episode of Within the Trenches. It has been a very busy week but I'm back! In this episode I sat down with Missy and Greg of Three Rivers Ambulance Authority (TRAA.) I met them during a training session a few weeks ago and I was impressed with them as well as the rest of the dispatchers and agency as a whole. We shared stories about their career, what High Performance EMS st...

Good afternoon and this is episode 47 of Within the Trenches. It has been a couple of weeks since the last episode and I couldn’t wait any longer so I decided to record an episode. I wanted to keep it light so I pulled some 9-1-1 calls from YouTube. I pulled a couple from a channel that belongs to AmericanPride1234 and they are awesome! If you get the chance make sure to check out the channel and...

Today’s episode of Within the Trenches touches on the topic of stress and physical and mental issues in 9-1-1. As 9-1-1 dispatchers, we have heard it all. We have taken every call from the most ridiculous to the most horrific. If you’re like me, the calls that involve children are the ones that affect you most. I once took a call from a nine-year-old girl who had come home from school and found he...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome back to another awesome episode of Within the Trenches. In this episode I hosted our first Google+ Hangout. This was a live broadcast and although we had some minor technical difficulties I feel that it worked out rather well. This episode featured Gary Allen, editor of Dispatch Monthly ( 911dispatch.com ), Ryan, a 9-1-1 dispatcher out of Pennsylvania and our po...

Good evening folks and welcome back to another installment of Within the Trenches. One thing I have always wanted to do with this show is focus on dispatch stories, which I have done but I also want to start focusing on topic driven episodes. So far on the show we have taken on PTSD in dispatch, dispatch training standards and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). Continuing with the focus o...

Good morning and welcome back! Whitney and I finally got the chance to record episode 43 and this is a must listen and watch! In this episode we sat down with our good friend Matt to talk about ridiculous calls and non-emergency calls on emergency lines. Matt is a local police officer and since we have worked with him before we felt he would be best suited for this episode. We also visit inappropr...

Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of Within the Trenches. In this episode we visit some calls from our past and I explain a few key stories from episode 40. We start off cracking up and it pretty much sets the tone for the entire episode. We also play a 9-1-1 tape that was featured in the season finale of A&E's Panic 9-1-1. This was also an episode that I was flown out for. I recorded...

Good morning and welcome back to another excellent episode of the Within the Trenches podcast. This weeks podcast promotion features Diary of a Mad Dispatcher on Facebook! I will provide the link below and make sure to head over and ‘Like’ them. They are 66,000+ strong and adding more fans every day. The page is tailored to 9-1-1 dispatchers but anyone would be able to get the humor from this page...

Good morning! Whitney and I are back with an epic episode of Within the Trenches. In this episode we went back to basics and kept laughing and laughing. This is dispatch humor at its best folks! Yes, the humor is a little dark but people have to understand that in order to work as a 9-1-1 dispatcher you have to have a sense of humor or the job will eat you alive. You will not make it if you let th...

An excellent episode with the return of Whitney!

Good afternoon folks! I'm back with episode 37 of Within the Trenches. In this episode I started the "Podcast Plug Exchange." I was approached by Brad Kirsch and I am very happy to be doing this with him and others who want to participate. The Podcast Plug Exchange is meant to help fellow podcasters spread the word on their show. So you would provide me a brief description of your show and an imag...