F.F.A.M.

Meeting Minutes – July 2013

President Kenneth Hoover called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Fire Fighters Association of Missouri to order at 9:00 a.m., Sunday, June 2nd, 2013 at the State Fair Fire Department, Sedalia, Missouri.

Roll Call of Board of Directors:

Officers:
President, Kenneth Hoover – Little Dixie FPD; First Vice President, Tim Bean – West Plains FD; Second Vice President, Charlie Neubert – Highlandville Rural FPD; Secretary Treasurer, Jaime Miller – Johnson County FPD; Past President, Keith Smith – Warrenton FPD; Historian, Kay Asher – Wentzville FPD.

Board of Directors:
District 1, Terry Wynne – Galt FPD; District 2, Greg Wright – Shelbina FD; District 3, Larry Jones – Madison West Monroe FPD; District 6, Richard Gordon – Cole County FPD; District 7, RB Brown – Eureka FD; District 9, Roy Sims – West Plains FD; District 10, Doug Christ – O’Fallon FPD; District 11, Monty Thompson – Kearney FPD; District 14, Rick Dozier – Southern FPD of Holt County.

Assistant Directors:
District 1, Janet Cain – Braymer FR; District 5, Terry Plumb – Southern Stone FPD; District 7, Ed Kriska – Eureka FPD; District 11, Ryan Miller – Norborne FPD; District 11, Roger Meyers – Concordia FPD; District 14, Glenn Dittmar – South Central Buchanan County FD.

Guests:
Greg and Brenda Carrell – Missouri Division of Fire Safety; David Hedrick – MU FRTI; Larry Eggen, Larry Jennings, Joe Jennings – Johnson County FPD; Donald Vaucher, Harriett Vaucher – Eureka FPD; Steve Gentry – Little Dixie FPD; Rob Schrage – Jefferson R7 FPD; Zach Jones – Salisbury FD; Gary Berendzen – Cole County FPD; Jamie Volk – Sedalia FD.

Agenda:
President Hoover asked for additions to the agenda. Monty Thompson moved to accept the agenda as presented. Rick Dozier seconded the motion and all approved.

Minutes:
There were no minutes for approval.

Financial Report:
President Hoover asked for a review of the May 2013 financial reports. The trophies expense from the contest should be moved to the convention committee budget. Terry Wynne moved to accept the financial report as presented. Greg Brown seconded the motion and all approved. President Hoover advised the Executive Committee would be reviewing the Y-T-D expenses and receipts with Treasurer Miller after the meeting as recommended by the auditor.

Report of Officers
and Special Guest(s):
David Hedrick with MU FRTI reported that the 81st annual Summer Fire School will be held June 5th – 9th. Registrations are up.

Their fiscal year ends June 30th. Funding requests have been presented to the state for fiscal year 2014 and funding has been allocated.

Hedrick complemented all those that conducted the annual Fire Fighters Memorial Service in Kingdom City. The 2013 MU FRTI annual report will be available later this summer.

Assistant State Fire Marshal Greg Carrell with the Division of Fire Safety reported that the legislative season has ended. The additional $200,000 in funding requested was denied but the original funding was approved.

The Division is getting a new training tech and the 1st haz-mat training will be held in Springfield later this year.

The FMAM conference is July 29th – 31st at Tan-Tar-A with a special Division of Fire Safety class called Vision 20/20 on Sunday the 28th. The topic for the 20/20 class is Performance Measurement and Evaluation of community programs. For the FMAM conference, topics will include alarm and sprinkler systems and there will be a roundtable discussion on the morning of the 31st addressing school safety at the FMAM conference. All these courses offer CEU’s for Inspector recertification.

Several house bills went through the legislative session.

HB 28 – allows counties to enact burn bans if drought conditions exist and upon notification by the State Fire Marshal.

HB 336 and HB 307 contain most of the same provisions – but the highlights are allowing political activity by first responders, allowing an increase of filing fees for board elections (up to $50), and state employees in first class counties may run for open fire district board positions.

HB 533 – contains a provision which allows a fire chief who has a CCW endorsement and upon approval of his/her board to carry a concealed weapon while performing his/her duties.

All these provisions are contingent upon them being signed by the Governor and as of right now, none have yet to be signed. The effective date of the law, if signed, will be August 28th, 2013.

68% of all fire departments in the state have completed their annual registration through the Division. All departments are required to register annually. Anyone with questions can contact the Division.

Correspondence
No correspondence was received.

Unfinished Business
No unfinished business was presented.

New Business
Discussion was held on travel expenses for the person designated to take the contest trailer to and from convention each year. The Board discussed several options for covering contest travel expenses. The budget committee will discuss and present their recommendations at the December meeting. Kay Asher moved to approve travel expenses for the person designated to take the contest trailer to and from convention each year. No second was made and the motion died for lack of a second.

Discussion was held on the application of the SAFER recruitment and retention grant. The FFAM applied for the grant previously using a hand-off program developed by the Iowa Fire Fighters Association but was not awarded the grant. Discussion was held on hiring grant writer Steve Myers to assist with the rewriting and reapplication of the grant. Discussion followed. Charlie Neubert moved to hire grant writer Steve Myers for $250 for services in assisting the FFAM with rewriting and reapplying for the SAFER grant for the upcoming year. Doug Christ seconded the motion and all approved.

President Hoover advised that Richard Gordon has requested the appointment of Gary Berendzen for District 6, Assistant Director. Rick Dozier moved to appoint Gary Berendzen with Cole County FPD to District 6, Assistant Director. Larry Jones seconded the motion and all approved. RB Brown has requested the appointment of Greg Light for District 7, Assistant Director. Rick Dozier moved to appoint Greg Light with Eureka FPD to District 7, Assistant Director. Monty Thompson seconded the motion and all approved.

Committee Reports

Awards Committee:
No report was given.

Budget Committee:
Tim Bean reported that budget requests will need to be submitted to the committee by the August meeting.

Bylaws Committee:
No report was given.

Chaplain Committee:
David Hedrick reported the annual meeting/training for 2013 was held on May 6th – 7th in Arnold, Missouri. New officer elections were held.

The National Federation of Fire Chaplains Conference will be held in Seattle, Washington in October.

Contest Committee:
Richard Gordon thanked those that assisted with the convention contest. He has submitted a request to add an additional person to the contest committee. President Hoover is taking the request under advisement. There were several items broken at the contest that need to be replaced so more equipment has been ordered.

Convention Committee:
Larry Jones reported that Carthage Fire Department will present the 2013 convention report at the August meeting. The 2014 convention will be hosted by Jefferson R-7 Fire Protection District in Festus. Rob Schrage reported that the convention will be May 2nd – 4th, 2014 at the Best Western in Festus and the Best Western does have rooms still available.

Education Committee:
No report was given.

Fire Prevention Committee:
RB Brown reported that three counties participated in the annual poster contest. The 2013/14 theme is “Prevent Kitchen Fires”. The committee is also reviewing the poster contest requirements to provide clarification on several items.

Legislative Committee:
Assistant State Fire Marshal Greg Carrell referred back to his earlier report regarding house bills approved.

Membership Committee:
2nd Vice President, Neubert reported the following membership counts: 425 Directors/Councilman; 231 Retired; 10 Associate; 6 Sustaining; 9 Corporate, 352 Departments; 7795 Active. Discussion was held on updating the membership DVD and PowerPoint to be sent out to prospective departments.

Nomination Committee:
Keith Smith reported that there are still no recommendations for District 8 or District 12 director positions.

NVFC Committee:
No report was given.

Scholarship Committee:
President Hoover reported that Larry Eggen has been appointed to the committee to fill a vacant position.

State Fair Committee:
Monty Thompson reported that the fair will be August 8th – 18th. The next work weekend July 12th – 13th.

Website Committee:
Rob Schrage reported they are working on updates.

Newsletter:
The deadline for the next newsletter is July 1st.

Historian report:
Kay Asher reported that she has added several new boxes of items to go through.

Foundation report:
Ron Paubel reported the annual memorial service was May 18th and May 19th. Attendance for the candlelight service was down. There are 11 names so far this year to be added to the wall. Harriett Vaucher has been appointed to the committee. The next meeting is June 30th.

Harriett Vaucher reported that the 2014 National Fallen Firefighters Foundation annual Survivors Conference will be held May 4th – 9th in Clayton, Missouri. There are several upcoming fund-raisers to assist with funding. July 15th is a golf tournament in St. Peters. August 24th is a murder mystery dinner in Kansas City. There will be a 5K run on September 7th and memorial stair climb September 8th in Clayton. The help patch a broken heart campaign is also looking for departments to send in two patches and a $150 donation for their department patch to be placed on a quilt and given to a survivor.

Discussion was held on holding webcast meetings in the future. President Hoover advised the directors to check with the membership to find out if there is any interest in webcast meetings.

President Hoover adjourned the meeting at 10:55 a.m.

Jaime Miller, Secretary
Fire Fighters Association of Missouri