FFPCogs

While employer sponsored or "official" help is a good thing and I'm not saying that avenue should be rejected, sometimes a more grass roots approach can make all the difference. By that I mean something more along the lines of AA or other "A" for anonymous group. An ear and a bit of advice from a group of people in your shoes often times provides just what's needed more so than what a PhD can offer. They have never seen what you've seen or done what you've done and thus cannot relate in real terms to the life of someone in public safety and the pressures that life can exert on every other aspect of our lives...only we know that. Often times just knowing you're not alone can have a healing effect in it's own right and lift the haze of hopelessness and depression as people not only get the help they need but help others. Besides in today's world of therapy it seems to me it's more about prescribing this or that pill to solve a problem rather than learning the skills to cope and face it squarely.

Not much different than before, but with this behind us I'm sure change is in the wind. What and when those changes will be remains to be seen.

Well it's been quite awhile since there has been anything to report from "the City that works", but it seems we now have a judge's ruling in the latest (and hopefully last) round of legal wrangling over the Charter. Here's a link to that decision for those who may be interested: http://civilinquiry.jud.ct.gov/DocumentInquiry/DocumentInquiry.aspx?DocumentNo=7014661 I'd translate, but I don't speak Legalese...

She's beautiful...CONGRATS!!!!

Peer and self help groups can be an invaluable tool in helping people cope, but those groups should meet behind closed doors. The internet is not the place to share some things, and personal turmoil or stress stemming from one's service definitely top the list. What EMTBravo or other such sites could offer is a guide to finding such groups.

Fair enough B, but I think many forward thinking FFs and junior Officers hit a wall when trying to implement standards. People, especially those resistant to change, often times find necessary changes easier to swallow when they come in smaller doses. As these relatively small changes become commonplace the sought after changes become easier to implement, at least that's been my experience. As I said earlier even the smallest improvements are improvements and more often than not they lead to greater ones. The first step is always the hardest but once it's taken and the world doesn't end others do often come easier.And lets face it, for many VFDs even the mere thought of doing what their neighboring department a 1/2 mile away is doing is abhorrent, so keeping up with the Jones' so to speak may not be the best tactic to use when trying to move forward either.

And herein lies one of the major pitfalls of requirements if taken too far. Some departments in an effort to ensure only qualified people fill positions make the standards difficult to meet and end up having vacant positions. Others cast in stone the requirements and then don't provide a means for members to achieve them. Worse of all though is when the "clique of the moment" sets standards that only they posses and then do everything possible to keep others from attaining them so they can hold on to the reins. Setting Officer standards can be a great way to help move a department forward, but they have to be tailored to the realities of the membership that is going have to fulfill them, otherwise they become counter productive and ultimately detrimental to the department itself. There are ways to address this situation. 1) Any requirements should be set based on a realistic assessment of the practical needs of the department and not necessarily what the NFPA suggests or your neighboring departments are doing 2) Requirements must be attainable and that means more than anything else that if a department is going to require certification X, X and X that they then provide the classes necessary (or access to them) and pay for them as well 3) Begin the process slowly and work up to the goal. If no one is FF 2 it's impossible to require Officer 1 and expect you'll have qualified candidates. You'll find yourself with great requirements but no officers that meet them. 4) Allow members to be voted in (or appointed) with the provision that they must attain the desired requirements within a set time frame to remain in the position 5) Set FF requirements such as FF 1 or FF 2 first and get the majority of the membership to that level so that a springboard exists to move on to officer requirements such as Instructor and Officer 1. 6) Remember you only have to get the vote once, so no matter how many times the meeting shoots down a proposal keep working on it. If a change of tactic or a change of face is what's needed to get the message through, DO IT!!

So would I Alex, so would I. But the point is if elections are the system in place than that's the system that has to be used to change things. I've been a volunteer FF for over 35 years and been a member in 8 different volunteer departments in that time as I've lived or worked in different places. I've also had the good fortune to work with volunteers from about another 150 VFDs across the nation while overseas. All of the departments I've been in and all but one of the others use elections to decide their leaderships. And while popularity is surely one of the pitfalls of the system all of them have managed to put out fires effectively, save people, purchase equipment, provide training and write and update SOP/Gs all under the direction of leaders chosen by the memberships. Is it perfect, no of course it isn't, but neither is having a volunteer Fire Chief appointed by his pals on the Board of Fire Commissioners who then fills the lower ranks with his lackeys and keeps the doors of opportunity and progress shut to all other comers. I will reiterate again that elections in and of themselves aren't the problem and change can only happen from within. I agree on the idea of standards to hold office, but to get those standards in place takes perseverance, patience and yes a bit of salesmanship. And quite frankly very few city or state governments are going to put restrictions on how or when a volunteer FD determines their leaders as most are private corporations. So what then are the options? Simpy put they are to play ball on the field that is until you can change the field or quit. I choose not to quit and keep striving to better the departments I'm in for even the smallest of improvements is an improvement.

We as a Nation do that every four years, Should we abolish that election as well?

In my VFD if you don't make your points for the year by December 31st then you lose your voting privileges. Our elections take place in April so anyone short cannot vote at the subsequent annual meeting. As I stated earlier this is all under review and is in the process of being revised and fine tuned. As it appears now participation requirements will be on a quarterly basis rather than annual in the near future and will move from points to service hours or some combination thereof.

Alex, The first phase of our planned changes to our By Laws deals with training. I don't know if this will help you or not but here is the first draft of what we are proposing: Section 4.Members shall be required to maintain minimum attendance standards for training and Department meetings. Junior Probationary and Probationary members shall attend every drill and meeting unless excused by a member of the Service Board; Active members with five (5) years or less of service shall attend a minimum of six (6) drills and two (2) meetings each quarter; Active members with more than five (5) but less than ten (10) years of service shall attend a minimum of four (4) drills and one (1) meeting each quarter; Active members with ten (10) or more years of service shall attend a minimum of three (3) drills and one (1) meeting each quarter. Veterans members should attend enough drills and meetings to remain fit for duty and retain voting privileges. All Active members shall be required to attend any mandatory drills unless excused by a member of the Service Board. Now while some may find the above to fall short, in our circumstances this is what we believe is the most practical and thus attainable standard that allows us to maintain a duty ready membership while still respecting the life changes that occur within that membership. Our goal is to keep members not drive them off with unrealistic or impractical standards that don't take into account the realities of their lives while still ensuring we maintain a trained and effective force. As you can see it is a tiered system with older, more experienced members having to train less frequently than newer and less experienced members. The reason for this graduated scale are threefold:1. In real terms the new 18 year old kid has more time to devote to training than the 25 or 30 year old with a career, new wife (or husband), and possibly family to support.2. Newer members need more training to learn the skills necessary, while for older more experienced members training is more a matter of reinforcing these already learned skills.3. This change will allows us to ensure to at least a reasonable degree the competency of the members climbing on the rigs. As I and the other members of the Committee see it these three points consider the realities of the volunteer world and offer a practical means to address them. The next step in the works is duty or service hours. Each member will be required to provide a set number of hours each month or quarter at the firehouse to remain in good standing. Again there are those same realities to deal with that make simply setting an arbitrary number difficult. Our goal is to set a standard whereby the house is covered, but members still have a life. We have a few ideas, but at present feel a graduated scale in this area would not be practical based on the needs of the department. A redoubled recruitment effort will also factor into this as well.

My FD has never allowed our Associate (non firematic) members to vote for line positions, but they can vote for and hold administrative positions i.e. President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer and Trustee so long as they have met and maintain their attendance requirements. We use a point system to determine member eligibility to vote and Service Officers must also pass an in house test (which we call First grade FF) to be eligible to run for and hold office.This system is currently under revision leaning towards monthly or quarterly service hours along with more in depth testing for each line positions. As one would expect there is resistance, but that has more to do with the amount of service hours required rather than actually requiring the hours themselves. Fortunately the BFD has always held firefighting as the principle mission of our department with social activities and memberships being a secondary concern.

Great post!! Elections aren't the problem. If you feel change is needed than use the election process to get into a position to make the changes that will make your FD better. How? By drawing members to your cause. How? Perseverance. One thing's for sure quitting won't solve anything. Change happens from within, not from the outside looking in. .

or Maybe we all should just tell the folks in DC to go F**K themselves cause we're tired of them f**king us!!

That's called PRIDE!! Kudos to Armonk for keeping this beauty in such great shape.

Forced compliance with ACA (Obamacare) would sound the death knell for many VFDs, no ifs, ands or buts. I'm all for giving guys as much as we can, but the line has to be drawn somewhere and that somewhere is when the Feds say we MUST do it. If a local electorate chooses to give stipends, LOSAPs, medical insurance or nothing that's their call to make, not Washington's and surely not the IRS's

True room, board and transportation are all covered, transit through New Zealand. And for those so inclined you can join a relatively small fraternity and go to the South Pole...weather permitting of course...

Those who made the ultimate sacrifice 72 years ago today, the first of the 405,399 American war dead in World War 2 http://www.usswestvirginia.org/ph/phlist.php RIP

I know a few guys who've done this gig. Overall they liked it as a one time experience. The biggest gripe is the pay is not so great for being isolated for months at a time. Some of the scientists also tend to have a rather dismissive attitude towards the "blue collars" at McMurdo, but that's to be expected. Not much in the way of work either, unless fire prevention/inspection is your thing. One of the key points to remember is that once winter sets in, that's it...your there for the duration in 24 hour night until spring rolls in, stuck inside with the same people hour after hour, day after day, week after week in very close quarters. One of my colleagues who's done it likens it to being on a submarine at sea. For all that though there are plus sides for those looking to do something different. Anyone interested PM me and I'll see if I can't get you in contact with someone at PAE directly. Stay safe and good luck

Here's brotherhood for ya. For a true fireman once it's in the blood it never leaves. http://www.firerescu...refighters-son/ I won't be able to get to Brooklyn, but I just wanted to pass this along to anyone who can make the trip. Even if you're not a match for Owen, your marrow may help save someone else's life. Hats off and thanks to Mr. Buscemi who has shown time and again his support for his FDNY brothers and fireman in general. The least we can do is return the favor when ever possible. Wish there were more celebrities like him.

The firefighting 101 handbook. Obviously someone moved it from the milk crate and didn't tell anyone.

That's exactly what I said repeatedly while watching this video.

There's safety and then there's dereliction of duty ...you decide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7-nV...&feature=share

While this may be so, unfortunately there are many firefighters and departments out there that grab on to the "latest and greatest" in an effort to be "progressive" and "safe" without fully comprehending the entire scope of what that entails. They tend to apply these "magic bullets" across the board as the end all be all of their tactical doctrines and in doing so disregard proven tactics in their zeal to modernize. This is but yet another aspect of a growing trend in today's fire service to put US above THEM, (the them being those we serve) in the name of safety. I'm sure some of you know what 'm talking about, You know, the we come first attitude. Well I for one don't subscribe to that nonsense. I know, I know we've all heard the arguments about today's fire loads and how getting ourselves in trouble by being too aggressive amplifies the problem and that's all true enough. But long before we get into that situation we should be training ourselves on how to operate in the conditions we're going to face, not looking for some way to get around them. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the most effective way to be safe on the fireground is to know your job, and that means knowing all the tools, tactics and techniques that go in to doing it right.

Charles Darwin has it right for the evolution of the fire service too: