The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) held their Spring Meeting in Fairfax, Virgina, with 40 states attending. The April meeting dates not only conflicted with our own Firefighter’s Day at the Capitol but they transitioned to Washington DC for that meeting only, with no Capitol Hill meetings with our Representatives. After conferring with President Jennings and weighing the expenses versus what needed to be accomplished, a joint decision was made for me to stay in state and focus on the Fall meeting and 2023.
NVFC was awarded another grant in March from Anheuser-Busch for $200,000 to support volunteer recruitment and retention. They received 116 applications in 24-hours of releasing the sign-up information to members. Our new Chief Executive Officer Sarah Lee has been very successful in the past six months securing several large grants in several NVFC focus areas.
NVFC has also launched a special Amazon Business promotion. NVFC members can now take advantage of special offers and discounts for their fire or EMS department purchases through Amazon Business. NVFC members can access thousands of sellers who offer public safety supplies, business-only selections, quantity discounts and time saving features. Members can visit nvfc.force.com to learn how to set-up your business account.
The NVFC’s Health and Safety Training Summit is quickly approaching on June 24-25 in Orlando, FL. They still had space available for this event at the time of writing this summary, plus travel stipends were still available to help offset the cost of attendance. They have an excellent line up of speakers and some great networking opportunities. To find out more visit nvfc.org/summit.
The staff have updated and enhanced the makemeafirefighter.org site recently, including a rebranding of the page, one-stop-shop for departments and recruits versus separate web pages. They have added content to the materials generator plus several new videos that better inform a potential recruit about the life of a firefighter.
No surprise, NVFC is a great place to work and grow. With Sarah Lee moving up from Deputy Director, they advertised this opening plus the requirements and received over 70 resumes. They included some board members, executives/managers from sister organizations, state associations and some high-profile corporate members. That will be a very involved process in selecting the very best one.
Colorado Director Paul Acosta recently developed a board mentor program tailored to on-board and mentor new board members. It has a very detailed information structure with history, processes, procedures, polices, best practices and great to know information, including a checklist on key items. It is intended for a new member to talk with a mentor once a month or more, for an hour, more or less, and work through the program. Perhaps in retirement I would like to do something similar for the Foundation. It is certainly a great example of having captured a library of information and carefully sharing through a controlled process with a trusted individual, a selected mentor.
Regarding the support of firefighters in Ukraine, Poland. Currently there are coordinating efforts to get more equipment to the Ukraine firefighters. IAFC is also working with the Polish State Fire Service on what is most needed regarding specific resources and shipping those as soon as possible.
Also on a sad note, Kentucky Director Gregory Schultz (65) passed on April 20th. Greg is the second state director that has passed this year. The cancer subject continues, but I will pause things right here for this report. Thank you for your time and allowing Rob and I to serve on your behalf with the NVFC.
FFAM
