| 16 March 2012
Dear Volunteer EMT: At its December 2011 meeting the EMT Training Fund (EMTTF) Advisory Board voted to dedicate all funding to initial EMT certifications under the new, expanded Education Curriculum, and thus to discontinue funding for all recertification CEUs, including subscriptions to The Gold Cross magazine. However, at its next meeting in March 2012, we petitioned the EMTTF Board to retain funding just for CEU tests taken through our magazine (as opposed to subscriptions and tests) and we are pleased to report that the Board voted in our favor. The Board's vote is not binding, as the final decision rests with the Commissioner of Health, but in any event we can no longer offer free subscriptions to The Gold Cross magazine to volunteer EMTs. We recently established prices for annual subscriptions, and will begin a subscription drive shortly. The cost for an individual annual subscription -- beginning with the Fall 2012 issue -- will be $16.00. That cost will be reduced to $15.00 per subscription to any squad that either: a) signs up at least 15 squad members at the same time, or b) signs up 100% of its EMT members. Squads that do both: that is, signs up more than 15 members AND signs up 100% of its EMT members, will receive another dollar discount per subscription (i.e., $14.00 each). If you wish to contact us with your thoughts and ideas, we welcome your input. Use the link on the leopub.com home page (Comments? Drop Us A Note), or call us at 973-895-9351. We thank you for your past support of our CEU articles and tests -- through leopub.com and The Gold Cross magazine -- and wish you continued success in your career in EMS. Pat Leonard |