President Larry Jennings called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Fire Fighters Association of Missouri to order at 10:00 a.m., Sunday, December 4, 2022, at the Missouri State Fair Fire Department in Sedalia, MO. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Roll Call of Board of Directors and other officials
Officers
President Larry Jennings, Johnson County FPD; First Vice President Charlie Peel, Southeastern Randolph FPD; Second Vice Present Grant Oetting, Higginsville FPD; Secretary-Treasurer Jaime Miller, Johnson County FPD #2; Sergeant-at-Arms Rex Reynolds, Southern FPD of Holt County.
Directors
District 1 Terry Wynne, Galt FPD (V); District 2 Greg Wright, Shelbina FD (V); District 4 Joe Vaughn, Pleasant Hill FPD (V); District 5 Terry Plumb, Southern Stone FPD; District 6 Gary Berendzen, Cole County FPD; District 7 RB Brown, Union FPD; District 10 Greg Brown, Eureka FPD; District 11 Billy Smith, North Central Carroll Co FPD; District 12 Rob Francis (V), Fruitland Area FPD.
Assistant Directors
District 1 Janet Cain, Shoal Creek FPD; District 2 Vernon Cash, Shelbina FPD; District 3 Rob Erdel, Little Dixie FPD; District 4 Jonathan Evans, Lincoln FD; District 7 Andrew Caldwell, Boles PFD; District 10 Harriett Vaucher, Eureka FPD; District 11 Kris White, Mayview FPD; District 11 Josh Koepke, Kansas City FD (V).
Others
Past President Ken Hoover, Little Dixie Fire Protection District.
Guests
Gail Hagans, David Hedrick, Harry Ward, University of Missouri Extension Fire and Rescue Training Institute; Kegan Wilson, Benjamin Burd, Johnson County FPD; Ed Daugherty, Chillicothe FD; Chris Thompson, Holts Summit FPD; Scott Todd, Spire Energy; Jake Stephens, Eureka FPD; Eric Hartman, Tim Bean, Missouri Division of Fire Safety; Keith Smith, Warrenton FPD; Brian Zinanni, Supporting Heroes.
*(V) denotes Virtual Attendance
Agenda
President Jennings asked for additions to the agenda.
Gary Berendzen moved to accept the agenda as presented. Grant Oetting seconded the motion and all approved.
Minutes
President Jennings asked for approval of the October 9, 2022, meeting minutes. RB moved to accept the October 9, 2022, minutes as presented. Billy Smith seconded the motion and all approved.
Financial Report
President Jennings asked for a review of the September-October 2022 financial report. Charlie Peel moved to accept the financial report presented. RB Brown seconded the motion and all approved. President Jennings reported that the reserve funds CD was renewed at 4% interest for 12 months.
Report of Officers and Special Guest(s):
Harry Ward with the University of Missouri Extension Fire and Rescue Training Institute reported Winter Fire School will be held February 3-5. There are several new in-person classes and three webcasts available. The Virtual Reality Incident Management pilot program will be at Winter Fire School.
The annual report is now available. During the fiscal year, they reached all 114 counties in Missouri and 27 other states.
There were 545 course deliveries and 10,073 students that attended.
They will be holding meetings in each region to get feedback on what works for training and what doesn’t. They want to know what departments want to see in their areas for training.
Gail Hagans reported that 91 applications were received for the MFA matching funds grant.
The FFAM directors will assist with grading. They will be sent out this week.
Tim Bean with the Missouri Division of Fire Safety reported that $24k was raised for Supporting Heroes and the Firefighters Memorial in Kingdom City during the memorial stair climb.
Eric Hartman reported that 63 departments responded for mutual aid to the Wooldridge fire on October 27. Resources were called from multiple areas in order to maintain continuity of coverage in region F due to a large number of fires in other areas of the region.
Fire department registration roll-out was done but there were some glitches with the online system. The issue on the back end has been fixed but they are still experiencing some issues with the Chrome browsers.
DFS will be hosting a Chief Fire Administrator 12-week course from January 4 – March 23. It will be held on Wednesday or Thursday for 1 hour per week. If you sign-up, please commit to that time spot and don’t skip around. The cost is $150 if you are a member of MO Chiefs or $200 for non-members. You can register on the MO Chiefs Facebook page and website.
Tim Bean reported that the 2023 Firefighter Day at the Capital will be April 12.
Bill filing in the legislature started Friday. There are a lot pertaining to mental health and PTSD.
The new fire officer 3 certified class was held in Gravios FPD with 20 attendees. This was the 1st time the class was offered.
They received good feedback.
There will be three more held in 2023.
If you want to host a training at your department, all requests must go through the Division of Fire Safety. Call if you have any problems.
Correspondence
Charlie Peel reported that he spoke with Larry Jones who is doing better. He is still receiving treatment. There will be a benefit soup dinner at Madison Fire Department on December 11 from 4 pm – 8 pm.
Old Business
Charlie Peel presented the proposed 2023 budget. No changes were made to the proposal presented in October.
Discussion followed. Grant Oetting moved to approve the 2023 budget as presented. Gary Berendzen seconded the motion and all approved.
A discussion was held on the meeting time being moved from 9 am to 10 am with a review to be held at the end of 2022. Discussion followed. Andrew Caldwell moved to move the meeting time back to 9 am with the meeting to be supplemented by Zoom. RB Brown seconded the motion and all approved.
New Business
President Jennings reported that Assistant Director John Scheper has resigned from his position due to work commitments. Gary Berendzen will be working on finding a replacement for the position. If you have a committee with missing or inactive members, get the information to President Jennings by February.
Scott Todd, Public Safety Specialist with Spire Energy, gave a presentation on the free training opportunities available through Spire for 1st responders in the Spire Energy service area. Contact him at 816-447-6709 or scott.todd@spireenergy.com to request training.
Committee Reports
Awards Committee
Joe Vaugh reported that the award nomination deadline is February 28. Departments are encouraged to start nominating now.
Budget Committee
No report was given.
Bylaws Committee
No report given.
Chaplain Committee
David Hedrick reported that the MFCC Winter Training Session will be conducted before Winter Fire School on February 1 and 2, 2023 at Campus Lutheran Church in Columbia. Training sessions will be Essentials of Fire Chaplaincy and Pastoral Crisis Intervention. Additional Information will be sent out to MFCC members next week. Also, you may contact MFCC Secretary/Treasurer Ed Hatcher at edhat@earthlink.net.
MFCC will have an exhibit booth at the Winter Fire School Expo on Friday, February 3.
On behalf of the MFCC and the FFC, we wish all of you and your families a safe and blessed holidays.
Contest Committee
No report was given.
Convention Committee
Charlie Peel reported that the 2023 convention “Bringing the Family Together” will be held June 2-4 in Springfield. The registration and hotel links have been sent out and posted on Facebook. The host hotel is the Oasis Hotel & Convention Center. The contest will be held at the Crossroads Baptist Church parking lot near the hotel. Sponsorship packages will be sent out soon, and each director is challenged to bring in at least two sponsorships from their local area.
Education Committee
Kurt Wilbanks reported that four winter fire school scholarships for 2023 were awarded to personnel who attended the state fair.
Fire Prevention Committee
No report was given.
Legislative Committee
Greg Brown reported that pre-filing bills started last week. The Behavioral Health Coalition is still working on 1st responder mental health. Senator Huff has committed to setting up a program and funding.
Personal property tax is a target area again. The federal reimbursement for ambulances continues but must be reauthorized.
The Critical Illness Pool will be holding training around the state in February and March to educate departments on what it is.
There are lots of new legislators. Everyone is encouraged to meet their legislators. It does help.
Membership Committee
Grant Oetting reported the following membership counts: 521 Directors/Councilman; 433 Retired; 15 Associate; 14 Sustaining; 32 Corporate, 348 Fire Departments; 6379 Active; 1 Educational Entity; 4 Educational Active; 123 Juniors; 8 EMS Department, 156 EMS individuals; 0 911 Entity; 0 911 individuals.
Nomination Committee
No report given.
NVFC Committee
Keith Smith deferred his report to the upcoming magazine.
Scholarship Committee
Ed Daugherty reported that the deadline for scholarships is February 28, 2023.
State Fair Committee
RB Brown reported that the 2023 Missouri State Fair is August 10 – 20. Applications for firefighters who would like to attend will be online at the beginning of January.
Thanks to Vernon Cash and Ed Daugherty for their work on the 1929 engine. It recently went to a parade in Chillicothe.
Website Committee
No report was given.
Magazine
Jaime Miller reported that the next magazine deadline will be December 21.
Historian report
No report was given.
Fire Funeral Team report
Brian Zinanni reported that the team responded to 10 LODD and 30 non-LODD this year. Many were COVID and cancer presumptions.
The new SOSA rules that firefighter suicide will qualify for federal benefits and back dates to January 2019. Contact him if you know of someone who might qualify for the benefits.
EMS Funeral Team report
Greg Wright reported the team has had one non-LODD call-out since the last meeting. The 2023 convention will be held October 13-15, 2023, at Lake of the Ozarks.
Foundation report
Keith Smith reported that the foundation will be meeting this week.
COMO gives selected the memorial as a recipient of their fundraising program. Information about how to donate has been shared on Facebook and the website.
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation kept running into issues with their annual services held each October, so they are now holding services the 1st weekend in May. The foundation will be moving the Missouri annual memorial services to October 7-8, 2023, and then from 2024 forward, it will be held the 1st Sunday in October with July 1 as the cut-off date for recognition names.
The memorial has new lighting on the north side. The south side along I-70 has had some brush cleared. There will be a car dealership moving in on the west side.
Museum updates will be given after this week’s foundation meeting.
President Jennings adjourned the meeting at 11:45 am.
FFAM
