Subject: 911 Communications

A presentation was given by the Pinal County 911 Dispatch Department on Monday, March 31, 2008, held in the Community Center. Three of their main communications personnel came to Sunscape, as a service to our park, with information about how the system works, how the type of phone service people have may affect the way the emergency call is directed and also the way our Response Team works with their system. Unfortunately, few people attended.

Points brought out that may be of interest to you:

1. Vonage or other ISP phone providers may not have the 911 call directed to the

dispatch center where you are. If you are registered in another state, that may be where the call goes. YOU need to check how your phone works with the provider and if needed, register it at your current location.

2. If your cell phone is older, it may not have the GPS chip that is mandatory now. This new chip assists the 911 dispatch receiving the call to locate your address. You also need to stay on the phone until they tell you to hang up or the ambulance arrives.

3. Our Response Team here at Sunscape is working closely with Pinal County to use our paging system to everyone’s best advantage. Their page to us is a courtesy call and not required. However, they are training everyone of their dispatchers to alert our system when there is a call from our park. Please be aware that if you have a problem with calling 911 it may be YOU! An ambulance is dispatched automatically when an emergency medical call is received. As they are doing that, they are dispatching our team as well. The 911 dispatcher may stay on the line while the ambulance company gets the information they need. That is one of the reasons why they want to have you stay on the line. As users or consumers of this service, please try to learn as much as you can as you travel or stay here at the park. It may be YOUR life that is at stake!

Mary Ann Fender,

Medical Committee Chairman