 Dear Colleagues, I hope that everyone is enjoying the summer. First, I want to thank everyone who attended the EMS Memorial Ceremony at the EMS Memorial in Albany on May 21, 2013. The attendance was tremendous. It truly was a moving event as we honored those who made the ultimate sacrifice. This year, a majority of my time has been focused on Legislative Affairs and issues that affect volunteer EMS. As you know, with the help of our members and our colleagues from the United New York Ambulance Network (UNYAN) and others we were successful in removing the proposed changes to PHL Article 30 from the Governor's budget. As a result, earlier this year, a meeting was held at the Capital to bring together the Department of Health, Bureau of EMS, the Governor's office, staff from the Assembly and Senate Health Committees, volunteer and professional fire fighters organizations, NYC REMSCO along with UNYAN and NYSVARA. The purpose of the meeting was to begin discussions about the concerns that the proposed changes raised i.e. statutory authority of State and Regional Councils, number of Regional Councils, Certificate of Need (CON), etc. It is my understanding that there is a plan to hold subsequent meetings this summer to continue these discussions. We have made our issues and concerns clear and I will continue to strongly advocate for our members. I will provide more information as it becomes available. Currently, the New York State Legislature is in recess. We will continue to promote our Legislative Agenda at every opportunity. I also want to remind all member agencies that they are eligible to participate in the North Central EMS Cooperative. It is a great member benefit that provides member agencies products and services at great prices. For more information please contact the Coop at [email protected] or Henry Ehrhardt at [email protected]. Pulse Check 2013 is approaching! The Committee is working very hard to make this year's conference the best one ever. The Conference Registration form, hotel registration and seminar schedule are all on line. We have some vendor space still available. We continue to look for sponsorships and journal ads. All the information is available on our web site www.nysvara.org. When making your hotel reservations, USE GROUP CODE KNZ on the hotel registration form. We are still accepting applications for our scholarships, as well as our Special Awards. Applications must be post marked by September 1, 2013. Details can be found in the Pulse Check section of our web site. As always, I want to thank everyone for your continued support. NYSVARA is the voice of Volunteer and Not-for-Profit EMS in New York State. We are constantly looking for people willing to assist us in our mission to represent the interests of Volunteer EMS in New York State. If you are interesting in helping us, please contact me at [email protected]. Be safe! Michael J. Mastrianni, Jr. President | 
