President Larry Jennings called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Fire Fighters Association of Missouri to order at 9:00 am Sunday, October 12, 2025, at the Missouri State Fair Youth Building, Sedalia, MO.
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 President Grant Oetting – Higginsville FD; Secretary/Treasurer Jaime Miller – Johnson County FPD #2; Sergeant-at-Arms Jonathan Evans – Lincoln Comm FD (V).
Directors
District 2 Vernon Cash – Shelbina FPD (V); District 3 Rob Erdel – Little Dixie FPD; District 5 Terry Plumb – Southern Stone FPD (V); District 8 Bob Floyd – El Dorado Springs FD; District 10 Romona Kaminski – Fenton FD; District 11 Billy Smith – North Central Carroll Co FPD; District 12 Rob Francis – Fruitland FPD (V).
Assistant Directors
District 1 Janet Cain – Shoal Creek FPD; District 1 Blake Callen – Grundy County FPD (V); District 3 Dale Ransdell – Madison West Monroe FPD; District 3 Josh Loyd – Martinsburg Area FPD (V); District 6 Alan Braun – Cole County FPD (V); District 7 Andrew Caldwell – Boles FPD (V); District 11 Kris White – Mayview FPD; District 11 Josh Koepke – Kansas City FD (V).
Guests
David Hedrick (V), Gail Hagans – University of Missouri Extension Fire and Rescue Training Institute; Tim Bean – Missouri Division of Fire Safety; Keith Smith – Warrenton FPD; Larry Eggen, Cameron Lauber – Johnson County FPD; Roy Pennington – Pettis Co FPD; Doc Kritzer – Memorial Foundation; Kyle Arnold – Kearney FPD; Ken Hoover – Little Dixie FPD.
*(V) denotes Virtual Attendance
Agenda
President Jennings asked for additions to the agenda. Rob Erdel moved to approve the agenda as presented. Dale Ransdell seconded the motion and all approved.
Minutes
Present Jennings asked for a review of the August 3, 2025, meeting minutes. Billy Smith moved to accept the minutes as presented. Rob Erdel seconded the motion and all approved. Present Jennings asked for a review of the August 27, 2025, meeting minutes. Grant Oetting moved to accept the minutes as presented. Bob Floyd seconded the motion and all approved.
Financial Report
President Jennings asked for a review of the July – August 2025 financial report. A discussion was held, and the board was advised to file the report for the annual compilation.
Report of Officers and Special Guest(s)
Gail Hagans with the University of Missouri Extension Fire and Rescue Training Institute reported that the Instructors Conference will be held November 7-9 in Osage Beach. Registration is going well and there are still spots open.
The annual report is now available.
The Fire Service Leadership Enhancement course starts in January.
The MFA grant period is now open through November 30.
Tim Bean with the Missouri Division of Fire Safety reported that, through Senate Bill 71, there is now a Public Safety Recruitment and Retention Act Scholarship available. The scholarship is administered through the Department of Higher Education and departments can now apply online. There is approximately $1.5 million being awarded.
$1.4 million for a volunteer fire service grant will open October 15 – November 14. This grant is available for volunteer membership-based departments and associations with less than $50k in revenue. This is a matching funds grant for equipment and supplies.
There is also $200k available for a work comp grant for volunteer fire departments. Only 30 departments have applied.
NERIS for fire reporting is starting soon, with NFIRS ending at the beginning of 2026.
District reports
District 5
Terry Plumb reported that he has made contact with a Southern Stone Ambulance District and provided membership information.
District 8
Bob Floyd reported that he has been in contact with Milo and that Cedar County Ambulance District has now joined. He has a meeting with Vernon County Ambulance. Rusty Darnell is now the Chief of Strafford FD and will be hosting a grand opening next week.
District 10
Romona Kaminski reported that she is working on reviewing and updating the department contacts in her district.
District 11
Billy Smith reported that he discussed membership with Pleasant Valley. Jason Deitch is meeting with Arrow Rock today. Kris White reported that they participated in a 9/11 memorial motorcycle ride.
District 12
Rob Francis reported that he attended the Cape County Firefighters Association and Region E meeting recently. He will also be retiring at the end of October and is visiting with another chief about possibly taking over his director position.
District 14
Jaime Miller reported on behalf of Kyler Oliver that he is making contact with several departments in Gentry County.
Correspondence
None
Old Business
No old business.
New Business
Secretary Miller advised that she received notice from Missouri Employer’s Mutual that they would not be renewing our workers’ compensation insurance for 2026. Discussion followed. Rob Erdel moved to allow Secretary Miller to pursue workers’ compensation coverage as necessary. Andrew Caldwell seconded the motion and all approved.
Committee Reports
Awards Committee
The nomination deadline is February 28.
Budget Committee
Charlie Peel reported that budget requests should all be turned in and the committee will present a proposed budget in December.
Bylaws Committee
No report was given.
Chaplain Committee
Dave Hedrick reported that the Missouri Fire Chaplains Corp (MFCC) conducted its annual Conference and Training session in September. At the meeting, the current slate of officers was re-elected. Steve Martin is the new SW Regional Director. The MFCC will be doing a Winter Conference training February 4-5, 2026, at Campus Lutheran in Columbia. The classes will be Essentials of Fire Chaplaincy and Pastoral Crisis Intervention. At MU FRTI’s Winter Fire School, they will have a booth at Winter Expo and be conducting the class Grief Following Trauma February 7-8, 2026. At the WFS Expo Booth the MFCC will be handing out copies of the guidance document Developing a Successful Fire Chaplain Service in Your Fire Department, produced by the IAFC Volunteer and Combination Officers Section and the Federation of Fire Chaplains. For more information contact Chaplain Ed Hatcher at edhat@earthlink.net .
The dates for the MFCC Annual Conference have been set for September 14-15, 2026.
The Federation of Fire Chaplains (FFC) annual Conference is starting this week in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
The SEMA Disaster Chaplains will be conducting their quarterly conference call and meeting on November 12.
Contest Committee
Rob Erdel reported that they will be ready for the convention.
Convention Committee
Josh Loyd reported that due to hotel issues, Maryville is unable to host the 2026 convention. Liberty Fire Department has agreed to host, and the 2026 convention will be held April 24 – 26. Jaime Miller reported on behalf of Kyler Oliver that Home 2 Suites and Best Western Premier will be the hotels with discounted rates. Banquet tickets will be $30 for adults and $15 for Juniors. Registration is free. The caterer is booked, and the event will take place at Heritage Hall in downtown Liberty. They have letters out to sponsors – if anyone would like to reach out to sponsors, it would be very helpful, and they can forward you information on sponsor packages/and a sponsor letter as well. If anyone has any additional questions, please let Kyler know or reach out to Support Services Chief Jason Whitteck with Liberty Fire at 816-439-4310
Education Committee
Josh Koepke reported that they have spent all of their training budget this year.
Fire Prevention Committee
Andrew Caldwell reported that posters are due April 24 and the theme is “Charge into Fire Safety: Lithium-Ion Batteries in Your Home”.
Legislative Committee
Charlie Peel reported that there will be an FSA meeting on November 19 in Jefferson City. They are looking at SB 71 reference career personnel only and SB 2 language that affects personal property taxes.
Membership Committee
Grant Oetting reported the following membership counts: 482 Directors/Councilmen; 442 Retired; 26 Associate; 26 Sustaining; 14 Corporate, 347 Fire Departments; 6808 Active; 2 Educational Entity; 16 Educational Active; 151 Juniors; 4 EMS Department, 78 EMS individuals; 0 911 Entity; 0 911 individuals.
NVFC Committee
Keith Smith reported that he and Rob Erdel attended the NVFC fall meeting in Rapid City, South Dakota, September 21-23. This 2 ½ day meeting included a dozen individual committee meetings plus the General Session each day to conduct and vote on the general business of NVFC. They agreed the best approach concerning the sharing of committee information would be split those in half to compose a brief bullet point summary of each committee meeting plus the General Session work.
That combined summary will be submitted to President Jennings to share with the entire board. You can then review as much or as little as you have an interest in doing. You can contact Rob or Keith if you have any questions.
The ongoing OSHA Standard that impacts 29 states was the dominate topic, followed by funding of federal grants and the ongoing heart burn with the NFPA process, which has contributed to the rising costs of everything fire service.
The 2026 spring meeting is again in Alexandria,VA on May 15-17, and the fall meeting is in Owensboro, KY, September 23-25.
Nomination Committee
Ken Hoover reported that District Directors 1, 3, 7, 11, and 14 will be up for election in 2026. Interested people need to contact him by March 1.
Public Relations Committee
Secretary Miller reported on a new law that takes effect October 31, requiring government entities and other groups to have an ADA compliant website. There is no clear directive on whether this applies to non-profit organizations. The Board advised to table the topic until further clarification is received if FFAM is required to modify their website.
Scholarship Committee
Larry Eggen reported that scholarship applications are due February 28.
State Fair Committee
Roy Pennington presented a year-end report on behalf of RB Brown. There were 40 new members this year. More than 329k attended the fair and the MSFFD responded to 224 total incidents. This is the last year in the current building. Construction of the new station will begin this year with a projected completion date of August 2026.
Historian’s report
No report was given.
Fire Funeral Team report
No report was given.
EMS Funeral Team report: Secretary Miller reported on behalf of Greg Wright. The team has responded to one non-LODD since the last meeting. They took delivery of a new 7×14 trailer that will be put into service in a couple of weeks. It will be staged in the Springfield area. The annual conference is October 17-19 at Camden on the Lake. The 2026 conference will be October 16-18 at Camden on the Lake with seven classes and eight instructors. It will be the biggest conference to date. Information will be shared after the first of the year.
Foundation report
Report from Keith Smith as follows:
The 2025 Candlelight and Sunday Services are in the history book. We honored 104 Firefighters, 10 of whom were line of duty. Rough estimates of attendance numbers were close to 500 for the Candlelight Service and over 600 for the Sunday service. Weather fully cooperated and both services were held on site.
The Sunday service was live-streamed through Facebook and YouTube. Just 3 days later, the video posting on our Facebook account had 4,200 views, 45 shares and over 100 likes.
Big thank you to the FFAM board and spouses who assisted this past weekend. Twice as many vs. last year, filling several key operational areas. Additional Funeral Response Team members were also there.
Numbers in every area were much higher than anything previous – far higher. Total engraving for walls and bricks was 125. Advance shirt sales (pick up on site and shipping combined) were 100 more than last year at 310. We had 59 extra shirts for sale and sold out Saturday evening. A second printing is in the works.
One way we track Sunday numbers is by having an exact count of ribbons. We started Sunday morning with 611 ribbons. We had 24 left over keeping in mind several people did not want one – we know numbers were over 600.
The 500 new chairs received a big workout, and yes, we did not have enough for the Sunday service. Dozens of people were standing, some by choice. 600 programs were printed off for the combined services. All of the remaining gray scale printing from the Candlelight service was passed out on Sunday morning. Just a few of the color programs arranged for the line of duty families are left.
Two 6-person courtesy golf carts were added to the operations this year, which provided assistance from the adjacent parking lots of businesses and side streets. We plan to continue that convenience.
Mark James, Missouri Public Safety Director, was able to attend, speak and present the Governor’s Proclamation to each Line of Duty Family. Keynote Speaker, Russell Hobbs, Surviving Son of Ricky Hobbs, who was honored two years ago, delivered a phenomenal message.
Current construction phase with the museum project involving interior walls and mezzanine in the north end of the museum is nearly completed. Temporary electrical has been added in this space. We are going to hold off on the classroom / theater for now. Currently reviewing options with the next phase involving HVAC and additional electrical build-out.
President Jennings adjourned the meeting at 11:00 am.
FFAM
