Origin of NTW
In response to a question from California dispatcher Linda Olmstead, Alan Burton recalled his career at the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, and how National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week began. Here's his letter to Linda:
February 7, 1997
It was started as National Dispatchers Week.
When APCO got done with it (and bless their hearts for pushing it through when no one else would), it came out as National Telecommunications Week (to honor ALL the people involved, not just dispatchers -- and I'm quoting Ronnie Rand who told me that personally), and IDW, International Dispatchers Week, as created by Dispatch Monthly, to recognize dispatchers and controllers worldwide.
It was created, to the best of our assembled recollections, in 1980. The date is less clear than the circumstances. Setting the scene: Contra Costa County Sheriff's Dispatch (then known as "Comm 7" -- on the 7th floor of the county admin building) shared the floor with Sheriff's administration. During National Secretaries (sic?) Day, the sheriff's brass took ALL the secretaries out to (a long) lunch, treated them to flowers and attention. But the worst part was when they all went to lunch, all the divisional secretaries programmed their phones to ring in the comm center. (At the time, CCCSO had a staff of about 700-800; had a LOT of secretaries; and the transferred phone load was substantial.) Enter Patricia Anderson ("just a dispatcher") who (correctly) felt victimized by the situation, and while the secretaries were out being wined and dined that day in 1980, she stood up in the comm center and declared that the second week of April in every year hence would be known as National Dispatchers Week.
For the first several years, the only people in the world who celebrated NDW were the CCCSO dispatchers, but they did it well. The brass participated, they furnished a grand sheet cake, the place was decorated, the news media received press releases, there was attention given as appropriate. Not big; not little. Then other PD's in the area began to join in. APCO said they weren't interested. But a group of dispatchers from North Carolina thought it was worthwhile, and they put a resolution on an APCO ballot, and National APCO was committed.
It took many years of hard work, and APCO (bless their hearts) beat up a lot of congresspeople trying to get a resolution through Congress. First efforts were not successful; later ones finally were. A lot of dispatchers in the US thought the idea was silly (still do) and just didn't buy into the concept. The brass, as a rule, couldn't care less. So it was a very large struggle.
Strangely, it was not necessary to go through Congress to have the week designated. Many "weeks" are "official" but do not have the approval of Congress. But the fact is, Congress did bless the week three times, resulting in Presidents Bush and Clinton resolving appropriately the same number, and by the rules established, the Congress says the week is now official and don't ever come back and haunt us again.
For the record, the first Congressional-Presidential action was in 1992, and designated it as "National Telecommunications Week" -- which APCO said was deliberate. The 1992 proclamation also noted that there are over 500,000 public safety telecommunicators, which APCO (who provided the source information for the proclamation) has now said refers to the number of people associated with and supporting public safety TCs. Actually there are only about 75,000 dispatchers; 425,000 support personnel is a lot, eh?
Patricia Anderson is now retired and enjoying life. My claim to fame is that I hired her, trained her, and personally gave her a copy of the first proclamation signed by President Bush. What she did wasn't much. Just an idea born in a moment of pique. But it was like a pin dropping, that was heard around the world.
Alan Burton
