September, 2009 President's Report by President Dan Winkel
MSFDA President’s Report
September 18, 2009
- While I have not attended as many regional meetings as I would like since our June conference, I would like to thank all of you for sending the minutes of your meetings to me. The MSFDA has been involved with many different activities and most of them will be reviewed at our September 19, Board of directors meeting.
- The MnFAC group has been working very hard preparing for the next legislative session. The group has solicited ideas for the legislative action and is now in the process of redistributing to firefighters to have them prioritize the feedback received.
- The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education has met on a regular basis with the newest of the MSFDA appointees in attendance. The Training Board has submitted a budget proposal to the Fire Safety Advisory Committee for their review and consideration.
- The Fire Safety Advisory Committee has met twice since our June meeting and has had an opportunity to review budget proposals from the State Fire Marshal’s office as well as the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education. At the most recent meeting strategy was discussed regarding how to plan for the legislative action that would allocate the remaining balance currently in the fire safety account to the S.F.M., Training Board and designated regional response teams. There will be a review of the current financial status of the fire safety account at the Board of Directors meeting.
- The Joint Fire Council has also met a couple of times since June and is now in the planning process for the 2010 Fire Service Day at the Capital. The event will be held on Tuesday March 2, 2010. The Joint Council also reviewed some of the fire service legislative proposals that may be brought forward during the next session.
- The Minnesota State Certification Board continues to move ahead with development of new levels of firefighter certification. It is recommended that all fire departments check the new certification board web site for additional information. The MSFDA has, as recommended at the June Board meeting, contributed funds towards the purchase of new equipment as discussed at the June meeting.
- The MSFDA and MSFCA joint NVFC conference committee has also met twice since the June meeting. The planning committee is working hard to get ready for the Minnesota fire service to host the fall 2010 NVFC conference. A large contingency of Minnesota representatives will be heading to Coralville, Iowa next week to attend the 2009 NVFC fall conference. The committee members will meet with representatives from Iowa to discuss some of the required events and activities and also to see how Iowa has planned for this event.
- The States Networking group will be meeting on Friday and Saturday October 23 and 24 in Johnston, Iowa. The meeting was held in the same location last year and had a great attendance from many mid western states. The MSFDA President had an opportunity to attend this meeting last year. The MSFDA board needs to discuss sending representatives to this years meeting as well as funding for gifts that are usually brought by each state for all those who attend the meeting.
- The MSFDA and MSFCA Executive committees will be meeting on October 1, to discuss many of the current fire service activities and perhaps to move towards finalizing the 2010 legislative agenda. The joint meeting will also include discussions about meeting with the Minnesota Fallen Firefighters Memorial Association to work towards establishing guidelines for firefighter non line of duty deaths. Part of the agenda will also include the discussion about job descriptions for MSFDA and MSFCA regional representatives.
- The board also needs to discuss a recommendation from the Executive Committee to allow St. Cloud fire department to have a reduced membership fee or no membership fee at all because of the use of their station(s) for our board meetings.
- The Public Safety Commissioner’s Fire Advisory Council has also met twice since June. The main topics of discussion have been legislative agendas as well as the idea of sharing fire services between cities, townships and others. The Commissioner has established a sub committee to actively start looking for information that could be shared with those who may be looking to create fire districts or some other kind of shared fire services. This is not about consolidation but rather just fact finding for those looking to share services. The MSFDA does have a representative on the task force looking at this concept.
- The MSFDA board should also discuss magazine ads as well as informational information that could be placed in the Minnesota State Fire Chiefs magazine. The New Editor, Jena Noah, has done a great job stepping into her new role as the editor of the magazine and certainly is looking for appropriate articles that could be used in the magazine.
- Now is a great time to contact all of the fire departments in your region and remind them that they need to get on line with the State Fire Marshal’s office for completing their MFIRS. This is a free service and there is no reason that we can not have 100 % participation in our state regarding the completion of the MFIRS forms. Recently the SFM had visitors from Iowa and Wisconsin who were here to see how Minnesota has such great participation with MRIRS. We have all done a great job so far but we now need to get every fire department on board.
- We need to remember to thank all of the fire department from your regions who participated in the Governor’s Fire Prevention Day at the Fair. The MSFDA President had the honor of participating in the memorial service and carrying the wreath for that service.
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