NPSTC is a federation of organizations whose mission is to improve public safety communications and interoperability through collaborative leadership.  We thank our Governing Board organizations and volunteers for their expertise and commitment to public safety communications.  NPSTC sends heartfelt thanks to our participants for sharing your time and expertise by participating with NPSTC over the last 25 years.  We hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to kick off the new year with us.

As we begin our 26th year, NPSTC is making several temporary changes to our workflow in 2023.  Meetings and goals for 2023 will be as follows:

In 1997, NPSTC came together following the PSWAC project to create a single unified voice for public safety communications.  In July of 2012, we completed the original Public Safety Communications Assessment 2012–2022 report which was an update to the original PSWAC project.  This report provided a technology, operations, and spectrum roadmap assessment of future needs of public safety for the next 10 years.  A copy of that report can be found on the www.npstc.org website or by clicking here.

In 2022 we began work on updating the original NPSTC AFST report.  Soon, we will be asking you to complete a survey.  The survey will ask you to provide input on what parts of the original report have been accomplished, what needs to remain, what needs to be removed, and what needs to be added to the new report.

To reach our goal of completing this enormous project by the end of 2023, we are focusing most of NPSTC's Working Groups' attention on creating the AFST 2022–2032 Report.  In consideration of this increased workload and to better utilize our resources, we will be reducing the number of Committee and Working Group meetings held each month.

• The NPSTC Technology and Broadband Committee and the NPSTC Interoperability Committee will be combined into a single group under the Technology and Broadband Committee.  During each meeting, the Committee will receive updates from active Working Groups as well as other topics important to the Public Safety Community.  Following the regular meeting agenda, we will have an update on the work being done by the AFST Committee to ensure the entirety of NPSTC has a chance to provide input on this project.  This group will meet monthly on the third Wednesday of each month at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
• NPSTC Working Groups with a current deliverable will continue to meet as needed to complete that work.  The regular meeting notice will be sent to keep everyone informed of the dates and times.
• The NPSTC Spectrum Committee will continue to conduct meetings as needed when developing responses to the FCC.  Meetings will be scheduled on an as needed basis to develop consensus documents.  A monthly summary of what is happening in the Committee will be sent to the groups.io listserv to keep members updated.

The current four AFST Committees will be consolidated, forming one single Committee.

• The AFST Operations, Spectrum, Digital Transformation and Technology Committees have finished their individual reviews and will be combined to begin moving the report forward as a single Committee.  This change will ensure consistency in the final product.  In the final report, the Digital Transformation topic will be covered in the technology section.
• This consolidated group will focus only on the AFST 2022–2032 (Assessment of Future Spectrum and Technology) Report.  This group will meet monthly on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
• We are encouraging all our NPSTC participants to engage in this important meeting whether you were previously involved or not.  We will need input from all of you to reach our release date of December 2023.
• The first meeting for this working group will be Wednesday, January 25th from 2–3PM EST to review the current state of the survey.

NPSTC Working Groups with current goals or deliverables will continue to meet at their normal meeting times.  A meeting reminder will be sent out as usual at that time.  The groups that will continue to meet include:

• LMR LTE Integration and Interoperability Working Group will meet, as needed, starting March 2023.
• Public Safety Cybersecurity Working Group will continue to meet to complete their current work plan as needed beginning February 2023.

NPSTC looks forward to an extremely productive year with results benefiting public safety communications for decades.  Our ongoing dialogue on national public safety telecommunication issues affects policies and technologies that affect local organizations every day.  NPSTC actively seeks your participation as a person interested in public safety telecommunications.  As a NPSTC participant, you will impact national policies of tomorrow and be a part of planning the future course of public safety communications today by being part of the debate and discussion.  For more information, please visit www.npstc.org.

We are thankful for your involvement for over twenty-five years and hope you will continue to participate as we continue this important work.

National Public Safety Telecommunications Council | www.npstc.org