After a year-long migration process, the City of Staunton completed a significant upgrade of its E911 call system.
The City's emergency communications center has launched NextGen 911 (NG911), a state-of-the-art technology platform that delivers calls through an IP-based digital network, replacing the traditional 911 call system.
NG911 provides the following advantages:
- Allows callers to complete a 911 call more quickly
- Enables dispatchers to transfer 911 calls to any emergency call center in Virginia (those that have updated systems)
- Provides a text-to-911 call feature, which will be useful for callers who are hearing impaired or in situations where a person is in danger and unable to speak freely
Staunton's emergency communications center expects to make the text-to-911 functionality available to callers in about six months, to allow wireless carriers the time to configure their networks for the new feature.
"In emergency situations, seconds can make the difference between life and death," said City Chief Technology Officer Kurt Plowman, who led the migration process. "We reduced 911 call setup time by three seconds, and that's significant to someone in need of emergency assistance. The City is continually looking for opportunities to improve its emergency response, and this technology upgrade will be important for Staunton residents at a critical moment in time."
Plowman noted that the new system puts Staunton's center among the most advanced in the Commonwealth. Virginia's emergency communications centers are planning to upgrade to NG911 over the next five years.
"The majority of Virginia's 911 communications centers have yet to upgrade to NextGen 911," he said. "We decided to make the transition now to stay current with technology and support future communication needs as technology continues to evolve. We're pleased to be on the cutting edge and provide our citizens with superior emergency call service."
The City's emergency communications center receives more than 60,000 phone calls per year, averaging 280 calls per day. It also dispatches all calls in the City to the Staunton Police Department, the Staunton Fire and Rescue Department and the Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad.
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January 3, 2018
 Wharton Aldhizer & Weaver PLC proudly announces the election to partnership of Derek J. Brostek as of January 1, 2018.
Derek J. Brostek brings the perspective and discipline of a career as a Marine Corps officer to the cases in civil, business and insurance issues he handles at Wharton Aldhizer & Weaver PLC. Derek joined the firm after retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel. He started out as an artillery officer, worked with Marine Corp Security Forces, then went on to become a Marine lawyer. His thirteen years as a Marine Judge Advocate focused primarily on criminal law, including trial work, teaching trial advocacy and strategic policy work. Derek served in Afghanistan in the areas of operational law and detention operations.
Derek lives in the Harrisonburg area with his wife Trish and their two daughters, Lauren and Colleen. In his spare time he is an enthusiastic supporter of growing the availability of youth lacrosse in the Valley. His dedication to family, country and the rights and interests of his clients make him an attorney to have in your corner when facing difficult litigation issues.
Wharton Aldhizer & Weaver PLC is a full-service law firm with offices in Harrisonburg and Staunton. The firm serves individuals and businesses in the Shenandoah Valley and the Mid-Atlantic states in the areas of: bankruptcy, commercial and civil litigation, corporate finance, criminal law, domestic relations, employment law, health care law, intellectual property matters, personal injury, plaintiffs medical malpractice, real estate and land use, tax planning, wills, estate planning, and administration.
For more information, please visit www.wawlaw.com.
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January
11,
2018 | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Holiday Inn Staunton Conference Center
Network with other business professionals in the Greater Augusta region at Business After Hours at Holiday Inn Staunton Conference Center and Edward Jones Investments - Leah Pugh!
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SVTC January luncheon | Cryptocurrency and Bitcoins: What is that? Should I care? (1/25)
January 25, 2018 | 11:45 am - 1:00 pm
Woodgrill Buffet, Harrisonburg
Come join us to hear Morgan Benton, Associate Professor of JMU CISE, ISAT Dept. discuss cryptocurrency and Bitcoins, what they are, and their significance.
Hold the date for this luncheon. More information TBA.
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Check out Saturday Morning Physics, a fun and informative way to start a weekend!
Come and explore the fascinating properties of waves as scientists use them in music, nanotechnology, astronomy, and nuclear physics. JMU Physics and Astronomy presents this educational event series designed for high school students and teachers! Juniors and seniors who participate are eligible for one JMU Physics credit. Held over the Saturdays on the JMU campus, we invite everyone to explore, learn, and have fun!
Note that only 50 seats are available! For more information, contact Melissa Heatwole at
heatwoml@jmu.edu or (540) 568-4226.
Also see
http://www.jmu.edu/outreach/programs/all/saturday-morning-physics
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| Grades 1st - 8th (1/13 - 2/17)
January 13 - February 17, 2018 | 9 am - 12 pm
$135.00 covers all 6 Saturdays
College for Kids is an enrichment program for children in grades 1-8. Children will work with James Madison University faculty and graduate students, as well as experts from the community and surrounding area, to try new things, explore and discover talents they never knew they had! College for Kids is being held this year on Saturday, January 13 - February 17, 2018 from 9-12pm.
Registration fee of $135.00 covers all 6 Saturdays
For more information, please contact Melissa Heatwole at heatwoml@jmu.edu or (540) 568-4226
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Deadline February 1st at 11:59 pm| Online submission
Every year, the EngineerGirl website sponsors a contest dealing with engineering and its impact on our world. This year's contest asks students to investigate an infrastructure system in their own community and suggest an improvement in the form of a persuasive letter, essay or summary report (based on grade level) for their city or county council.
The contest is open to individual
girls and boys enrolled in grades 3 - 12.
For more information, view the contest rules and requirements.
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NVTC Capital Data Summit & University Data Challenge
February 28, 2018 | 7:45 am - 4:00 pm
The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner |
See Prices Below
Join Northern VA's leading big data and analytics companies and prominent thought leaders at the second annual Capital Data Summit on Feb. 28, 2018 at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner.
Featuring keynote speakers and panels offering unique insights on how big data and analytics are transforming industries and producing results for organizations and their customers, a technology showcase of the region's leading big data and analytics companies, and unmatched networking opportunities, the Capital Data Summit will provide exceptional business development and educational value for NVTC members and the entire Greater Washington technology community.
Keynote Speakers
William Ruh, CEO, GE Digital, and Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, GE
Mark Ryland, Chief Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services Public Sector
NEW IN 2018!
The 2018 Capital Data Summit will include a new
University Data Challenge, in which teams of students representing the region's universities and community colleges will be challenged to analyze and respond to a topic/question using any combination of data sources and statistical, mathematical modeling, big data, and related techniques available to them.
Cost
Member: $395.00
Additional Member Attendee: $345.00
General Audience: $550.00
Student: $50.00
Government Employee: $25.0
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FIRST Tech Challenge Team,
Tech Busters
Seeks
Local robotics team Tech Busters is looking for sponsors and mentors to help their group. Tech folks, please consider becoming a mentor or sponsor for this team, or spread the word.
"Hello, w
e are the Tech Busters, a local FIRST Tech Challenge team from Waynesboro, Staunton, and Augusta County. Each year we design, build, program, and operate a robot to meet the new challenge released by FIRST the first weekend in September (The competitions begin in mid November!). We also fundraise and outreach to our community to bring awareness about FIRST programs and have inspired the creation of a FIRST LEGO League team (The Bomb Squad! Many of our alumni mentor this team.).
Currently we are a team of 6 (2 girls and 4 boys) teenagers ages 13-17 and meet at the Augusta County Library in Fishersville and at various other locations around the area. We are still looking for a permanent location so currently the robot, parts, tools, and field live in our parents cars, living rooms, and bedrooms. This is a challenge because we spend a lot of our precious work time setting up and tearing down. We meet once a week beginning in late summer and twice a week (Tues. 2-4 in Fishersville and Sat. TBD each week) after the game release. We have one mentor, a retired engineer who is the grandpa to two of our team members, but would love to have more mentors (last year between travel and surgery he couldn't be there)! Experience not necessary, just a passion for helping kids succeed and a willingness to look at our crude designs and point us in the right direction or teach us a new skill like how to use PTC Creo more effectively!
Our coaches are two of our moms but all of our parents work just as hard to make sure we succeed. None of them have a background in engineering or anything close.
We are also looking for sponsors. Any amount gets your company on our tri-fold and in our engineering notebook, $75 or more gets you on the backs of our team shirt, and $200 or more gets you on our hipster robot named Brobot 4.0. Please contact our coaches Jennifer Armstrong,
dsadmirer@aol.com,
or Wendy Snider,
winniekuhl@gmail.com,
or check out our Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/techbusters8275/
for more information."
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Blue Ridge Community College is looking for STEM professionals to be mentors to STEM students, by providing encouragement and moral support, and being a positive role model.
For more information please
email Jamie, BRCC's Mentoring Coordinator, at
jtudor0001@email.vccs.edu.
If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out the form in the link below.
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Highlighting Renewing Level I Member:
Rockingham County Public Schools
Rockingham County Public Schools is committed to educating today's learner, and developing tomorrow's future. Our division has approximately 11,400 students that are supported by over 1,850 full-time employees. Dr. Carol Fenn is Superintendent. Rockingham County students attend 15 elementary, 4 middle, 4 high, a regional governor's school, a technical center, and an alternative education center. Our four high schools offer students a variety of opportunities to earn college credit while in high school, including dual enrollment classes, Advanced Placement (AP) classes, and virtual learning courses in all major content areas. We have outstanding fine arts, technical, and vocational programs. We are blessed to have a supportive local community where our parents, businesses, and leaders all value the importance of educating children and providing them the experiences and resources needed to be successful learners.
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Job Opening: Software Engineer
Jenzabar is looking for a talented and experienced Software Engineer to join our team of passionate people in designing and developing a high quality, end user focused administrative web application for higher education. This individual should be highly proficient with HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript/jQuery and have a passion for web development as well as a keen eye for well-designed UX and UI. The Software Engineer should have solid experience with Responsive Web Design techniques to build interfaces which will adapt to the many devices in which our end users will use to access our application. Solid experience with developing .Net MVC web applications and the .Net framework is highly preferred. If you enjoy working in a team environment to develop an application that will not just let users do their work but help them do their work, then please consider joining the Jenzabar team.
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Job Opening: Assistant or Associate Professor of Data Science
JMU Co
llege of Integrated Science and Engineering| Harrisonburg
The Department of Integrated Science and Technology (
ISAT
) at James
Madison University (
JMU
) invites applications for a tenure-track position
at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor beginning August, 2018. The Department of Integrated Science and Technology (soon to become the School of Integrated Sciences) is a dynamic, highly interdisciplinary academic unit of 50 faculty with terminal degrees in 39 different fields. Our graduates are innovative problem solvers with strong analytical and teaming skills that enable them to work on complex socio-technical problems facing organizations, communities, and society. Additional information on the department and its individual programs can be found at http://www.isat.jmu.edu.
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Job Opening:
Director of Information Technology
Lexington City Schools
| Lexington
The Director of Information Technology is responsible for the design, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of all server, network, and computing technology for Lexington City Schools and the City of Lexington. This position also assists with networking and server support at the Rockbridge ECC. The position reports to the Superintendent of Lexington City Schools and the City Manager. Given oversight
of the city's varied technology infrastructure, the Director of Information Technology must be self
- driven, organized, and possess a keen attention to detail. As primary support for faculty, staff, and students, the Director of Information Technology must also be collaborative and committed to customer service.
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Job Opening:
Massanutten Resort| McGaheysville
Massanutten Resort is currently seeking an experienced IT Manager to oversee network administration and day-to-day Help Desk operations. Must have extensive IT, supervisory, and budgeting experience. Degree in the IT field and/or relevant certifications and commensurate experience are a must.
Responsible for designing, organizing, modifying, and supporting computer systems, databases, firewalls, and networks. Manage the functions of the Network Admins and Help Desk to ensure security and availability of network resources. Drive improvement in networked systems efficiency and standardization. Supervise projects.
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Participate in the local tech conversation: Rocktown Tech (Slack)
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SVTC MEMBERS INVITATION: DISPLAY YOUR MEMBERSHIP STATUS
Membership Badge Available
Use our new graphic on your own website (and remember to link back to our website
www. svtc-va.org
!)
Choose the graphic file of your choice:
Let us know when you incorporate this graphic and we'll mention your site in return!
Examples:
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>> Ready to become a member, too? Membership
Benefits & Prices >> How have you benefited from participating in our activities and/ or from membership? Tell us! Info@svtc-va.org |
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Contact Us
Shenandoah Valley Technology Council
800 S. Main Street MSC 3615
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807
540-568-7882
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