Exciting changes coming to SAMatters! - Situational Awareness Matters!™

In case you missed the announcements made in the October newsletter, there are some exciting changes coming to the SAMatters community.

This month (October 2014) marks the three-year anniversary since the launch of the SAMatters website and the popular “Get in the Loop” live tour events.

And while we have enjoyed many wonderful accomplishments since the launch, there is no time to rest. Sadly, flawed situational awareness (and the barriers that flaw situational awareness) continue to be implicated in nearly every near-miss, casualty and line-of-duty death report published. There is A LOT of work that needs done to improve situational awareness and to reduce the catastrophic impact of the barriers that destroy situational awareness.

For three years I’ve been sharing content and listening to your ideas and suggestions. Now is the time to take some action to meet the growing needs of our community and we are making some exciting improvements.

Two Membership Levels

Coming soon there will be two membership options for the SAMatters community – Basic and Premium.

Basic Membership Level

The Basic membership level is designed for individuals who want to casually stay in touch with our mission and want to learn about things happening in the SAMatters community.

Features of the Basic membership will include:

• A monthly newsletter containing:

o Links to weekly articles from the SAMatters blog.

o Links to weekly SAMatters Radio podcast shows.

o A list of upcoming events (to alert members of opportunities to attend live events in your area)

o A list of new members who have jointed the community that you can connect with.

• Sign-up gift:

o New members signing up the Basic level will receive a free special report titled: “25 Best Practices for Improving First Responder Safety”

• The Basic membership will continue to be free.

(Thank you to the more than 5,000 people who have signed up to receive the newsletter since 2011.)

Premium Membership Level

We are adding a new Premium membership level, designed for individuals who want to take their knowledge and application of situational awareness skills development to a higher level.

We understand this level of commitment to learning about situational awareness won’t be for everyone. And this membership is completely optional.

Features being added for Premium members include:*

• Video content in the newsletter

• Audio downloads of blog articles

• Transcriptions of podcast shows

• Exclusive content in the a Premium monthly newsletter

• Discounts on books and videos and tuition for online classes

• Webinars and teleseminars

• Access to a private Facebook mastermind forum

• Access to my course outlines

• Access to exclusive podcast interviews

• Live meet-ups

• Streaming video/audio of select live program events.

• Tutorials for instructors on help you teach your members about situational awareness

• Model operational policies and procedures designed to enhance situational awareness.

• Sign-up gift:

o New Premium members will receive a free class titled: “Situational Awareness Lightning Round: 30 situational awareness barriers” (A $99 value).

• Premium membership will cost $108/year ($9/month).

* Not all features of the Premium membership will be ready for rollout at the same time but know that we will be working hard to make all the features available as quickly as possible. Thank you, in advance, for your patience as we develop and implement these improvements.

Re-launch of the Online Academy

The Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy initially launched in October 2013. The feedback from the students has been awesome and we’ve taken your great ideas and rolled them into an updated version of the Academy. One of the new features will accommodate a department enrolling ALL their members in the academy for one discounted price. Previously, the only enrollment option was for individuals.

We are also adding:

More video and more audio content.
Researching how we can administer examinations to students and issue certification credentials for graduates.
In the process of cross-referencing the Academy’s 14 modules to NFPA standards.

The Online Academy will be THE most affordable way to get your entire organization trained on the critical skills of developing and maintaining situational awareness essential to working in high risk, high consequence, rapidly changing, time compressed environments.

Watch for the announcement of the new Academy launch date here and on our social media outlets:

Facebook: SAMatters fan page

Twitter: @RichGasaway or @SAMatters

Linked in: Rich Gasaway

More on-line classes

We are also in the process of developing shorter (1-3 hour) online classes. The goal here is to bring our most popular live programs to you in a convenient online format.

If you have ideas for how we can help improve the safety of your members or if you have any questions or concerns about the improvements outlined above, please email me at (Rich@RichGasaway.com) or call my cell phone (651-331-8518).

I’d love to hear from you… even if it’s just a note of encouragement for our mission or a quick call to just say “hi” and let me know how you’re doing.

The mission of Situational Awareness Matters is simple: Help first responders see the bad things coming… in time to change the outcome.

Safety begins with SA!

Share your comments on this article in the “Leave a Reply” box below. If you want to send me incident pictures, videos or have an idea you’d like me to research and write about, contact me. I really enjoy getting feedback and supportive messages from fellow first responders. It gives me the energy to work harder for you.

Thanks,