Next week, April 12-18, is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, and emergency communications centers are divided about how or whether they are celebrating. Our research shows that many are postponing all or most of their celebration due to COVID-19. Even those continuing to recognize the week have had to defer some parts of their celebration, such as awards banquets, open houses and in-person recognition from the first responders they support.
The reasons behind each decision are complicated, and there is no right or wrong, just adjusting to the current situation and doing what is best for each particular agency.
For many, the decision to postpone the week was difficult.
“I had my supervisors do a poll and most of my employees want to postpone it until things settle down.”
“After conferring with all the PSAP Managers in the county it was decided to postpone due to how busy they are and the working conditions due to COVID-19.”
“With everything going on with the virus and the fact that we are moving into a new comm center very soon, we thought it best to postpone.”
“The outside visits and provided food are very important to making the week as special as we can make it and it’s simply not feasible at this time.”
“We are doing this so we can celebrate it right once the quarantine and social distancing has lifted.”
“It was not an easy decision for [our director] to make but it will make the celebration that much better for everyone.”
“Normally we have food brought in and do drawings for prizes donated by local businesses. Basically our focus right now is trying to keep everyone from getting sick.”
“We’re currently in the ‘mission first’ mode.”
Those continuing with the celebration also have a variety of reasons.
“The recognition is important, now so more than ever.”
“It’s really important to try to maintain some normalcy in uncertain times. I’m going to do everything in my power to make it just as special as any other year.”
“We are trying to continue on business as usual to remain positive and strong in the midst of this storm. We have activities scheduled, prizes, social media posts planned, gifts, etc. COVID will not stop us.”
“We will continue to celebrate it among our staff, and with our member communities virtually. We will support our local businesses and bring in food for the teams as well.”
“I think it is important to keep things as “normal” as possible during this time and the operators need to know how important and valuable they are regardless of what limitations have been put on our agencies.”
“I feel it’s more important than ever to honor our staff during this week. While some things we had planned will have to wait for next year due to the pandemic, we are still celebrating and I’m excited to honor our team of professionals!”
Many agencies that are still celebrating have had to alter their plans.
“We’re greatly scaling back TC week, i.e., asking our user agencies to not send us their usual variety of treats, and gifts and food trays, etc., until sometime later in the year. We’ll still have a cake and allow for some ‘fun’ activities in the center.”
“We have decided that it is important to still celebrate NPSTW. Our game plan has changed, but we will do raffles, give always, and meals for the shifts. Once people are allowed back into the center, we will encourage our crews to stop by and celebrate in person.”
“We have postponed all of our planned events that involved outside vendors and family/friends visiting our center, however we are still providing daily gifts to our dispatchers throughout the week.”
Agencies trying to think of something to do that follows current guidelines can look at activities planned by other comm centers.
“[We] will be holding small celebrations for all of our shifts. Each shift will have a cake, refreshments, and the gifts that were originally purchased for the operators.
“We will present the recipients with the awards (Communications Officer of the Year, SCO of the Year, Training Officer of the Year, EMD of the Year, Community Service award, Life-Saving and Childbirth awards and Perfect Attendance) as usual during the applicable shift celebrations.”
“Our responders know we are all “locked in” so they can’t stop by or drop off anything, but that doesn’t stop them from posting messages on Facebook or sending a card or email to staff.”
“I’ve got items for them for the week and will bring in a special treat for each shift.”
“I’m doing an article in our local paper to talk about staff and what we do and how we’re doing during the pandemic.”
“Since the week begins on Easter, we are hosting an Easter egg hunt. Among the typical Easter egg hunt, we will be hosting a ‘golden egg hunt’ as well. The golden egg will have $100 inside and in order to find its hiding place you must first solve a series of riddles.”
“Our supervisors are collecting videos from field responders saying thank you, and will edit it together into one video to play during TC Week.”
“We will bring in meals for each shift throughout the week.”
“Since our theme is “circus,” we will have themed dress days for each day of the week.”
“We normally do our awards that week, and we will still present those awards, with another ceremony later when we can have a large gathering.”
“We are also purchasing bags with our logo and the phrase “tell us your worst and we’ll send you our best” on them, and will personalize them with their names.”
“Our local newspaper is great about recognizing public safety and I think each of us sharing our story would be awesome. I can’t schedule a group meeting right now for a group photo, but I can do shift photos.”
“I’ve put together a bunch of raffle prizes with lots of ways to earn tickets to put in for the prizes, including mini-games, baby pics and fun facts guessing games, and theme days. I’ve also gotten them some fun little snacks and toys!”
“I’ve also reached out through social media and asked people to email me letters of appreciation I can put up to show that people out in our community care.”
Agencies can also find ideas in what other comm centers have done previously. Theme weeks, goodie bags, personal notes to frontline staff and raffles have all been successful in the past and are options that follow current guidelines and restrictions.
“Last year I made “relaxation packs” for my co-workers. I included a back scratcher, a wire head massager, some herbal tea bags, a homemade lavender sugar scrub, and some face sheets (the individually wrapped, pre-moistened face masks.)”
“Last year we had our shift leads or management give out raffle tickets when they saw something good, someone volunteered for a shift, or just anything during that week. Then at the end of the week we drew for prizes.”
Many agencies that have had to postpone or cancel banquets have something special planned for later.
“Moving forward, we are looking forward to a “Homecoming Celebration” once we are all able to be back together. [We] plan to make this a huge celebration with great food and prizes to celebrate each other and being back together. This additional time will also allow us to reach out to our community for more door prizes and other great things for you all.”
“When this pandemic is over, the recipients of the awards will also be recognized during one of the quarterly awards ceremonies held by the Chief of Police.”
Finally, almost all of the agencies that are postponing events said they were still planning to recognize their PSTs.
“I can see benefit in doing something small as an acknowledgement of our SUPERHEROS in dispatch.”
“I want to do something for them especially now to show them how much they are valued and appreciated.”
“I’m planning on personally giving little gift bags to my fellow telecommunicators.. shhh don’t spoil it… stay safe everyone.”
To tell us how your plans have been affected by the pandemic, visit npstw.org.
