Question on merging

We are going through a possible merger with surrounding areas to form a dispatch center. I was wondering if anyone else had done this or they had plans. And if you've done it how did it go? We have a couple of people who are somewhat against it. We have been a small department who works 1 dispatcher a shift and a couple of us have been here for almost 40 years collectively. Just wondering, thanks.

Well, I've seen it done before locally and although I don't know how it has gone with those agencies, I can say with the our State Police we have gone from 5 dispatch centers in the state to 2 and it has always been a huge trauma and never been done right. Ooopsie...did I say that? The problem is the legislature gets involved with our stuff and when these folks dictate to us how things are going to run, it always ends up in a mess. On a local level I suspect the growing pains might include integrating equipment and learning how that works, learning new areas to dispatch (which is always such a joy) and procedures for each different department. If they are smart, they will have the individual departments comply with the dispatch center rather than the other way around. If you want to ask on another forum, there is a pretty great group of people over at www.oregon911.com and there is a forum you can join to chat with everyone. There are a lot of folks from other states who have joined in, so don't be shy. I'm sure you'll get some answers there. Dina