Greetings membership, I Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year and that you got to spend it with the ones you love and cherish. The FFAM is starting the new year with a bang with lots of activities coming up in the coming months. By now you should have received your membership packets for renewal, please make sure that you get those back to us as they were due back January 1, if you have not done so yet. You don’t want to miss the activities and benefits the FFAM has to offer you.
At the December meeting, if you have not heard President Hoover announced that he will be retiring as Chief of the Little Dixie Fire Protection District. Chief Hoover served for 45 years in the Fire Service and has been the face for the FFAM for many years. Thank You Chief Hoover for your leadership and what you have done for the Missouri fire service.
On December 22, I had the privilege of standing with my union brothers and sisters of IAFF Union 2195 with the Lee’s Summit Fire Department on the corner of 3rd and Douglas to help collect funds for the Needy family fund in Lee’s Summit. We did this for 3 days and we collected a record amount of 30,000 in those days, on a boot block. This is quite an accomplishment and congratulations to IAFF 2195 on a job well done. Keep up the great work.
I was invited to the Paris Fire Protection District Christmas banquet on December 27, along with Fire Marshal Tim Bean. Paris FPD is served by 30 dedicated volunteers that answered 132 calls last year, mainly being grass fires and helping mutual aid to their neighboring departments. After a nice steak dinner, I had the privilege of presenting the department with a FFAM certificate of appreciation for their donation of Gatorade to the State Fair Fire Department. Thank you Chief Jones, and Firefighters Ronnie and Cy Fields for the invite, and keep up the great work with the department.
Winter Fire School will be here before you know it. The MU FRTI staff has been working hard for a another successful fire school. The dates for Winter Fire School are February 1-3, 2019. The expo is on Friday, February 1, at the Holiday Inn. Please make sure to come by the FFAM booth and say hello and introduce yourself. We will be glad to meet you. Thank you to Kevin and Gail from MU FRTI for your hard work and opportunity for the FFAM to be a part of your event.
Convention is right around the corner. The dates for convention are April 12-14, in Sedalia at the Missouri State Fairgounds. The FFAM board of directors is hosting this years convention. This will be the 60th anniversary of the convention. The directors are trying some new things to get attendance back on track. I can tell you one of the new ideas is that they plan on feeding you on Friday night so you will not have to go out to eat and that you can attend the opening ceremony and go straight to having a meal and socializing with others across our great State of Missouri. If you have not booked your hotel yet, you better try to get it done. I followed up with several of the hotels and they tell me they are booked already. The list of the hotels are on the website and also in this newsletter
On May 11, in Columbia at the Mid-America Harley Davidson dealership, there will be a Missouri Fire Service Charity BBQ and a Smoke Out to benefit the Firefighters Memorial Foundation and the Firefighter Cancer Support Network. This event will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. If your department has what it takes to win a BBQ contest, please get your team in soon. Four people maximum to a team. The Missouri State Fair Fire Department has a team representing the FFAM at the event. You can contact Gail at MU FRTI if you have any questions.
In July, I will be attending the Missouri EMS Conference at Tan-Tar-A. I will be there promoting the FFAM and trying to get more potential members. The FFAM membership last year voted to include EMS workers and 911 dispatchers into the membership. If you know of a ambulance service or 911 dispatch center that would like to become members, please let me know.
If the FFAM can be of any assistance to you or your department, or you would like us to attend your event, please feel free to contact us, we will do our best to attend. I can be reached at grant_oetting@yahoo.com or by my cell phone at 660-229-4525. Stay safe my brothers and sisters… Until next time.
FFAM
