| 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. This decision is not binding, but since it was the only alternative left to the EMTTF Board by the NJDHSS/OEMS representative, and since it is the Commissioner of Health who will make the final decision, in all likelihood the EMTTF vote will be adopted. We hope to petition the EMTTF Board to restore funding just for CEU tests taken through our magazine (as opposed to subscriptions and tests, as the Training Fund has paid for since 2003), but will not know if we will be successful in this effort until the next meeting of the EMTTF Board in March, at the earliest. Regardless of how that initiative plays out, we can no longer offer free subscriptions to The Gold Cross magazine to volunteer EMTs. We will begin a subscription drive shortly, but have not yet established what we will charge for volunteer and non-volunteer subscriptions. Please check back to leopub.com periodically for updates on this matter. 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 |