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Spring Meeting
Indianapolis
March 3, 2000
State and Provincial Directors/Representatives in attendance:
Guests in attendance:
WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS
President Steve Edwards (Maryland) welcomed members and thanked Pennwell and Delmar for hosting the meeting and luncheon.
Mark Huth of Delmar Publishers addressed the group and discussed the new "Firefighter's Handbook" that they are publishing. There will be complimentary copies sent to each state fire training director. Copies were made available at today's meeting for all attendees. President Edwards thanked Mark and Delmar for hosting the lunch prior to the meeting.
Katrin Beacom of Brady Publishing discussed their efforts in developing a line of fire service textbooks for both the college program and fire service markets.
Pat West of Virtual Fire Expo discussed their upcoming events and programs.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF 10/22-23/99 MEETING AT ST. LOUIS
Minutes were distributed to all members in December. Moved, seconded and voted to approve as written.
NAFTD Officer Reports
Steven T. Edwards - President
~ President Edwards thanked the NAFTD membership for being active and supportive of the organization. NAFTD as an organization continues to be active at national meetings and events that require our attention. I think we are at the table and having an appropriate opportunity to discuss our concerns and issues regarding the national fire service agenda. The following items were reported on:
~ Thanks to Glenn Pribenow (Kansas) for the hosting of the NAFTD list serve. This has been a very valuable resource and a good forum for all NAFTD members. Many members are using this to obtain and provide information.
~ Reported on December 16th meeting with Ken Burris (USFA) and Denis Onieal (NFA). Both of these individuals are very receptive to maintaining a strong working relationship with state fire training programs. Several issues were discussed regarding state fire training and how we can strengthen each others organizations through partnerships and sharing of information.
~ Attended the Fire Service Leadership Summit and the CFSI National Advisory Committee representing NAFTD. Meeting results were reported in previous correspondence. It would be good to have as many state fire training directors as possible attend the Congressional Fire Service Dinner on May 3, 2000 at the Washington Hilton Hotel. If you are going to attend please let me know, so I can pass along how many state fire training directors were in attendance.
~ Discussed the re-appointment of NAFTD Committees and the Chairpersons. Same as last year with one additional person added to each committee. The Chairpersons remained the same since they are doing such a good job.
~ Art Cota (California) has been appointed by James Lee Witt to the National Fire Academy Board of Visitors. NAFTD had lobbied for a state fire training director to be appointed and this was supported by Ken Burris and Denis Onieal. Congratulations to Art, who I am sure will do an outstanding job.
~ Discussed the lack of funding for the DOJ National Domestic Preparedness Office and the letter that NAFTD sent to Janet Reno regarding the issue. A copy of the letter is attached for your information.
~ The FIRE Act which proposes 5 billion dollars for fire service programs is in the form of S-1941 and has 15 co-sponsors and HR-1168 with 225 co-sponsors. We will continue to track and support these bills. There is also a bill, S-1899 that will rename FEMA to the Federal Fire and Emergency Management Agency.
Richard Jaehne - Vice President
Vice President Jaehne reported that he and President Edwards attended the National Fire Service Summit, in November 1999 that had 15 national fire service groups in attendance. The issues included:
~ America At Risk Report: Priority issues to be addressed in the report. One of those five issues is training, along with firefighter safety and sponsorship. IAFC carried these recommendations to the report committee. The report should be published soon after the next meeting, which is scheduled for May 2000.
~ A request by a smokeless gun powder organization for endorsement of a video training package by NAFTD was denied as not appropriate for this organization. Discussion followed and President Edwards suggested that NAFTD's role should not be to endorse products, but to inform members of the availability and let the members make their own decisions on matters like this. Motion by Bill Hollick, (Massachusetts) seconded by Rock Mason (New Hampshire) that NAFTD as an organization would not officially endorse products or services. Motion passed.
Randy Novak - Treasurer
Randy Novak (Oklahoma) distributed the Financial Report (March 2000).
Steve Willis - Secretary
Steve Willis (Maine) circulated the NAFTD roster and asked guests to sign the roster and to update any information.
Report of National Fire Academy Superintendent Denis Onieal
~ Superintendent Onieal briefed members on the effort to increase the availability of NFA courses on the local level in a proposed partnership with state fire training programs.
~ Grant funding to State Training Agencies: $1.2 million was requested to provide each state training agency $20,000 for course delivery, plus $5,000 for reporting/administrative services each year. Due to the structure of the federal government budget this funding is not available yet, but the appropriate transfer between budget categories is being worked on. Onec this is accomplished, we will be able to move forward with this effort.
~ Emergency Response to Terrorism: The courses will be out very soon and an in-service is scheduled for April 2000.
~ Residential Courses: 3 residential courses and one EFO course will be released to state training agencies this year. Fire Investigation, Interpersonal Dynamics and Strategic Management of Change course materials will be provided to states. The states will need to use NFA adjunct instructors and absorb the costs of delivery.
~ Endorsement Concept: The basis of this concept is local needs that cannot be met b the NFA. Criteria will be established whereby a state can nominate courses for evaluation by third party evaluators applying the criteria. Once endorsed, NFA grant funds can be used to deliver the course. NFA's goal is to train and document additional students each year through existing methods and the endorsement program. This will mean that more students will receive training using federal funds at the state and local level.
~ NFA Course Development and Handoff: A new approach to development and handoff will cut development and handoff time substantially by allowing either direct delivery or train-the-trainer formats for NFA courses in state. Second generation train-the-trainers will be allowed. Superintendent Onieal asked that states make sure they maintain course quality and report the numbers.
~ Student Manual Support: Denis distributed reports showing that 144,000 manuals were provided to state training agencies, and 63,000 students reported trained during 1997-1999. We have to do better in documenting and returning this information to the NFA.
~ Internet-Based EMS Course: States interested in pilot testing the course should E-mail Denis.
~ TRADE Grants: Increased from $60,000 to $100,000 for the next fiscal year. We need to look at the process for the future.
Review of Draft NFA/NAFTD Endorsement Program
President Edwards distributed the March 2000 version of the endorsement program plan and reviewed item by item. Agreed to send final draft of the plan to all NAFTD members with a ballot so members can vote on adoption of the plan as written.
NFPA and National Board for Fire Service Professional Qualifications (Pro Board)
Don LeBlanc introduced Ken Elmore and briefed members on NBFSPQ current activities. A recently-developed CD-Rom describing the Pro Board mission and procedures will be provided to NAFTD members via President Edwards.
The Haz Mat standards (NFPA 472 + 473) are in revision cycle. Proposals are open now through July 2000.
Steve Willis explained that the haz mat standards are not currently part of the Professional Qualifications standards, but should be. Since those standards are not within the Pro Qual "umbrella", the Pro Qual technical correlating committee does not have oversight or ability to coordinate the various requirements within the various standards that deal with technical competence.
The NFPA Training Committee has completed the update of three documents (NFPA 13E, 1410, 1452), and they are available from NFPA.
NFPA 1404 was FD Training Program for SCBA. In revision, the new standards will focus more fully on training, and leave selection, maintenance, care and other issues to other standards.
Pro Board has welcomed several states (New York and Florida) as new members. The issue of gearing up the registry for larger participant numbers is being addressed.
Bruce Pirringer (Missouri) reported that discussions are on-going regarding consolidation of the two agencies.
NAFTD Committee Reports
Old Business
New Business
Combat Challenge: Paul Davis reported that the requests for Challenges far exceed his capability to deliver. States interested in hosting a local challenge, sanctioned by The Combat Challenge, should contact Paul Davis.
Meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM
The spring meeting of the North American Fire Training Directors (NAFTD) was called to oder by President Steven Edwards (Maryland) @ 1:00 p.m. in Room 210 of Fire Department Instructor's Conference (FDIC). The meeting room was hosted by Penwell Publishing and followed a luncheon sponsored by Delmar Publishers.
Joe Morabito, DE
Ivan Nevil, IN
Steve Edwards, MD
Rick Mason, NH
Randy Novak, OK
Mike Wisby, TX
D. Jeffrey Gleason, LA
Randy Napoli, FL
Glenn Pribbenow, KS
Bill Hollick, MA
John Mueller, NY
John Mogan, TN
Troy Lapetina, VA
Dick Jaehne, IL
Steve Willis, ME
Bruce Pirringer, MO
Greg Drew, OH
Rick Tye, TX
Larry Hughes, NC
Denis Onieal, NFA
Katrin Beacom, Brady
Publishing
Becky Ryan, NFA
Thomas Wutz, NY
Pat West, Virtual F/R Expo
Tom Sturtevant, TX
No items
List Serve: Glenn Pribbenow reported on the status of the list serve. He encouraged that as members install new E-mail software, they need to switch to plain text. If you don't receive messages for 1 week or so, it may be the computer has dropped you from the list serve. E-mail Glenn to re-establish. Message size limit on the list is 256k. Glenn suggested we not send attachments unless you have to. It's important that everybody install anti-virus software. If you use the reply button, your reply will go to every list-serve message. Please do not automatically reply messages on your Email unless you notify Glenn.