Board Meeting Information

I told you I would pass on the information regarding the Board meeting as soon as I got it. Here is a copy of the letter that will go out with your "supplemental check" tomorrow.

Greg

Subject: Supplemental Pay

To all MEMS employees: 28 Aug, 2007

This morning the Little Rock Ambulance Authority unanimously voted to authorize the proposed supplemental pay formula and immediately distribute payment to all eligible MEMS full and part time employees. This supplemental payment is in recognition of the hard work and dedication of every employee at MEMS during this period of record setting transport volume and recent extreme hot weather.

The formula used to determine each employee’s supplemental payment amount is shown on the attached sheet. You will see that every employee, except the three directors, is included. Uniformed staff, office staff and students will receive a fixed amount. The supplemental payment for all other employees will be based upon the attached formula.

The board asked me to again express their appreciation for the extremely valuable service that each of you provide to the communities we serve, for the high quality of the work you do and the many long hours you contribute. They also wanted me to assure you that this is the beginning, not the end, of the process of addressing the overall pay situation at MEMS. That task is their top priority and was discussed at length in today’s meeting. The board will hold a day long board retreat in September where we will further develop a clearer picture of where we want to go and how we intend to get there.

The checks will be available this Wednesday. If you want to see exactly how your check was calculated, please see Greg, Larmon or myself. We also add our thanks again for all that you do.

Jon

August 07 Supplemental Pay explained

- Everyone will participate at some level

· Except Executive Director, Finance Director and Operations Director

• Note: not all excess revenue is due to open shifts and everyone has contributed to the success of this operation

· Certain employees will receive a fixed amount

• Office staff
• Students in full time paramedic school

· Uniformed staff and mechanics will receive a variable amount based upon hours worked

- Calculation is from first full pay period in 2007 through pay period 17 ending on 11 August, 2007

- To be eligible, each individual must be a full or part time employee in good standing as of the 28 August, 2007 LRAA board meeting date

· Part time employees must meet MEMS minimum participation requirements (150 hours year to date)

- Calculation is based upon a “points earned” system as follows

· Base hours, defined as the number of scheduled hours, will be determined for each uniformed employee and mechanics

• 1,428 base hours for a 12 or 14 hour shift
• 1,909.27 base hours for a 24 hour shift
• Employees who changed shifts during the year from a 12/14 to a 24 or vice versa will be individually calculated
• PRN employees working a full time shift will have their base hours individually calculated

· Actual hours worked is compared to base hours

• PTO or other hours paid but not worked are not credited as points

· A point is earned for each hour worked

· An additional ½ point is earned for each hour worked in excess of the base hours

· 25% of points earned is subtracted for employees on probation

· Total points earned by all employees are added together

· The total dollars available (as determined by the Little Rock Ambulance Authority), minus the total dollars paid in fixed supplemental pay, is divided by the total points earned to determine the value of each point

· This point value is then multiplied by the points earned by each employee to determine the actual supplemental pay amount for each individual

- Example

• 1,428 base hours
• 1,700 hours worked
• 1,700 points plus
• 136 additional points (1,700 – 1428 = 272 x .5 = 136)
• 1836 total points
• -459 subtraction for probation (1836 x .25)
• 1377 total points x $ amount per point = supplemental pay

Me checking in with you

It has been some time since I have written on the following subjects. Please understand that the absence of information does not equal nothing happening, actually it is right the opposite. I have told several that for the next month we may go through a dark time as far as information goes. This is in large part to ideas being tested for being just, fair, accurate, legal etc.. The last thing in the world we want to do is discuss a "maybe" that raises expectations, only to find that we cannot do it for some reason. I know this may be hard for some, but please trust that we are doing everything in our power to increase pay, improve staffing and over all reduce stress. That may not sound like a tall order, but trust me it is. One last thing before the update, realize that if life ain't good for you, it certainly ain't good for me ;-)

1. The disbursement of the "surplus" salary fund is still being worked out. A plan will be presented to the board next week. I will let you know as soon as it is decided on how, when and how much will be disbursed.

2. NLR Intake. We have been tracking this problem for some time now. It appears that we are having more trouble with the LRPD prisoners that we are NLR or PCSO. We have met with the "brass" of LRPD to work to a better solution than sending an ambulance hot to check out a bandage etc...
We will now send Sierra for calls that are not of a life threatening nature. This does not mean that an ALS unit will never run hot for something of a non life threatening nature, however we are making a concerted effort to reduce those calls.

On this line, we are also working with all the PDs to do a better job of letting us know when we can go cold to a scene that is a non-life threatening situation. Don't expect all the issues around this to suddenly be gone however, we believe that with the heat and light on the subject we will reduce the call volume.

3. Retention and pay- The final meeting of the Board Sub-committee will meet tomorrow to finish their recommendations to the whole board. Again, we will pass on the plan and information as soon as it is available.

Our newest Paramedics!

(From the top) Sara Rayner, Rebecca Griffith and Dennis Hurley have all passed the National Registry test for Paramedic. Congratulations!!

Phyllis Kirklin and Blakely Watts share August 24th as their Birthday. Happy Birthday!

Phillip Plischke and Charles Malin share August 23th as their Birthday. Happy Birthday!

Louis Moore celebrates his Birthday on August 21th. Happy Birthday!

Joe Sexson celebrates his Birthday on August 19th. Happy Birthday!

Britt Ball celebrates his Birthday on August 18th. Happy Birthday!

Garrett Lenoard celebrates his Birthday on August 17th. Happy Birthday!

Robert Shaw celebrates his Birthday on August 16th. Happy Birthday!

Missy Edgin celebrates her Birthday on August 15th. Happy Birthday!

Tony Sinyard celebrates his Birthday on August 13th. Happy Birthday!

Congratulations to three of our newest Paramedics!

Brandi Ritchie
Missy Edgin
Lauire Wallace

402 invloved in an accident

I am sure you have heard by now that 402 was involved in a major accident on Saturday. I was at a family reunion but what I gather so far is that the crew Jenifer Hess and Latisha Johnson were working an accident on I-530 when someone hit another car before hitting our unit in the rear doors pushing the unit 22'. Latisha and Jennifer heard the car losing control and were able to get out of the way. They were not injured, but I have no word on the drivers of any of the other cars.
We can replace a unit, but we cant replace you, again folks, be careful out there!

Yep, thats an ambulance on its side

I am sure you have heard by now that 609 was involved in a accident at 8th and Broadway. They were hit in the right rear which some how caused them to roll over. The crew was Josh Hetzel and Carl Smith both are sore but fine. Note that the monitor was held in place by the seat belt, great ad for securing your monitor every time. The wooded piece you see in the lower picture is the back rest of the bench seat. The sharps container stayed secured, but again an ad to make sure that it is always secured and the lid on tight. The unit was flipped back over, towed to MEMS, where it started (smoked a little) and drove into the shop under its own power.
But what is it about 09? Seems to always have something weird happen to it
FYI the driver of the other car is fine, was eventually transported but was ambulatory the whole time. She was ticketed for failure to yield

By the way a before picture ;-) for heavens sake folks be careful out there!!

1st follow up on the company meetings

I have not posted much about the outcome of the company meetings, only because we have been so busy. To bring you up to speed I will begin post a topic at a time.

Board Subcommittee
1. The subcommittee of the board that is working on the pay, retention project that they were task with, have met twice with their final meeting set for this month prior to the regularly scheduled Board Meeting. I sat in on the last meeting, several very good and innovative ideas were discussed as ways to improve pay and increase our ability to attract employees. I cannot discuss the details yet as they are still being hammered out, but will as soon as it is available.

Bonus
2. In the meeting we discussed that we are ahead on salaries for the year, due to being understaffed. A plan will be presented to the board this month on the best way to spend these monies in the form of some type of bonus. As soon as a plan is approved we will pass along the details.

More to follow.....

(from the top) Steve Grantham, James Johnson and JT Cantrell all share August 11th as their Birthday. Steve you share the day with some pioneers. Happy Birthday!

(from the top) Barbara Millwood, Sara Rayner and Amanda Coyle share August 9th as their Birthday. Happy Birthday!

(From the top) Rick Crow and Christopher Ashcraft share August 8th as their Birthday. Happy Birthday!

From the top Joclyn Harper, Clay Toups and Mack Hutchison all share August 6th as their Birthday. Happy Birthday!

Dennis Mitchell is a grandpa

Dennis Mitchell's daughter Amy delivered by C-section Cassidy Lynn on August 1. She came a few weeks premature because of pre-eclampsia, but is doing fine. She weighed in at 4 pounds 6 ounces. Congratulations

Janie Brown celebrates her Birthday on August 5th. Happy Birthday

Todd Highfill celebrates his Birthday on August 4. Happy Birthday!

Carl Smith celebrates his Birthday on August 2. Happy Birthday

What a picture Dave ;-) Happy Birthday July 29th

Drawing winners

The cool free stuff was won by:
Melanie Reynolds, Tony McSpadden, Garrett Leonard, Chris Waters, Daniel Weger and Rick Maynard.
Congratulations! I have sent the winners an e-mail.

Company Meetings

I appreciate those who attended the company meetings. We are working this week on a needs assessment and will be posting them along with an action list this week. Several great ideas came up that we are working on right now.
The Board sub-committee will be meeting again this week to discuss the issues of pay and retention. I will have more on this subject in the next few days.
Greg

Lonoke has moved!

A picture during set up


Well not the city but the station has. It now located on Reynolds street. Directions:
Take the Lonoke exit and continue through town till you get to HWY 70. Turn left (on hwy70) and go @ 2 blocks the fire department will be on your right turn on Reynolds street we are the new FEMA trailer behind the fire department. We lack putting in the yard, the ambulance cover but most everything else is complete.