Spring 2010 Meeting Minutes

West Iron County Fire Department

April 17, 2010

President Iverson called the meeting to order at 10:07 hours.

The pledge of Allegiance to the flag was recited.

Roll call of board members showed:

President Chief Jeff Iverson, Present; Vice President Chief Richard Caudill, Present; Sec./Treas. Chief Jeff Seppala, Present; Trustee Chief Ken Jacobson, Present; Trustee Chief Mike Yon, Excused.

Membership present as represented by the sign in sheet:

Breitung Twp., Watersmeet, Ironwood VFD, Marquette Twp., Skandia/West Branch Twp., Duncan Twp, Spalding Twp, Ironwood Twp FD, Rock River Twp FD, Sagola Twp FD. Alpha-Mastodon Twp FD, West Iron county FD.

Introduction of guests: No guest’s

Introduction of New Chief Jim Seppanen Rock River Twp FD.

Approval of the Agenda

A motion was made by Watersmeet, supported by West Iron County FD to approve the agenda as printed.  All in favor.  Motion carried

Approval of the minutes

A motion was made by Marquette Township supported by Skandia West Branch to approve the September 2009 meeting minutes. All in favor. Motion carried.

Approval of the treasurer’s report

A motion was made by Skandia West Branch supported by Ironwood VFD to approve the treasurer’s report as printed.  All in favor. Motion carried.

Communications

Chief Perlongo in formed the membership that lunch will be at Kermits. 

Unfinished Business

Website - Dan Hammerberg and Ken Jacobson asked If there are items that members wish to have posted on the website, please get in touch with Dan, Ken, or Jeff.  Talked about adding the link to the IMS system. Attempting to get a listserv set up from and for the website for mass email notifications.

Copier – Jeff Iverson asked if a copier had been purchased. Jeff Seppala stated that he had not looked into it yet as he was using the machine in his office to do the mailings. Dick Caudill stated that we had approved the purchase of a new copier some time ago. The majority felt that any costs incurred while using Alpha’s copier can be reimbursed. Jeff Seppala will look into purchasing a copier for the association.

New Business

Tournament book Ad – The membership passed a motion made by Dick Caudill to put a ½ page ad in the tournament book this year.

Reports

Fire Marshal Report

Fire marshal Ron Farr sends his apologies for not being able to attend the meeting due to prior commitments.

Dan gave a brief synopsis of what is happening in the fire service.

The Fire Safe Cigarette Legislation is now in effect and as a result the only cigarettes permitted to be sold in Michigan must have the Fire Safe

Cigarette (FSC plus bar code) marking in them.  This law went into effect January 1, 2010 however there are provisions in the law to permit those cigarettes still in stock prior to January 1 to be sold without penalty.  One of the key things to look for is any cigarette pack that has a Michigan tax stamp dated January 1, 2010 or later must also have the FSC marking.  We expect to have all old stock off the shelves by late Fall 2010.  The Bureau will soon have the Rules for Enforcement finished and will make notification to the fire service on how do

inspect and report for enforcement any suspected violations. Information will be put on the Fire Service Connection.

Ron and Joe thank Dan and Gary for the course scanning they have been doing.  All course scanning is now done at the region offices.  They have worked through the backlog and are now getting courses scanned more quickly than in the past years.

The Bureau continues to look as the Budget and funding methods.  As most are aware there is a proposal (HB 5999 and HB 6000) to legalize all Consumer Fireworks in Michigan and subsequently use the money generated from the Fireworks to fund the Bureau and Fire Training.

May 12 and 13 the Bureau of Fire Services will be partnering with other fire service organization to present a program from Fire Team USA to education all about the value of Residential Sprinklers.  This program will be held at the Marriott Hotel on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti and is available at no cost to participants. Housing for two nights is also available.  If anyone is interested have them contact Ron.

September 27/28 the Bureau will host a Train-the-Trainer for the NFPA Public Education Program, Risk Watch.  This is an all hazard education program for school age kids.  This is a funded program (through a Grant received from State Farm Insurance) and information can be found in the April Fire Service Connection.

Ron states he looks forward to attending the summer meeting.  If anyone has any questions for the bureau, please don't hesitate to contact him.

Office of Firefighter Training Director’s Report

Joe sends his apologies for not being able to attend the meeting due to prior commitments.

Dan spoke about the IMS system and how far it has come and seems to be working well.  There was some discussion on the system as to getting away from the use of social security numbers and how it can work for you. Scan sheets are using the user ID of the firefighters so have them print out the ID card and use it.

Tanker shuttle is now back on the course menu in response to inquires made by

the UP Chiefs.

Discussion about using your County training money provided by the state or giving it to a neighbor so that it get used one way or another.

Jeff Seppala Read a brief portion of a cc letter he had received from Joe Grutza, OFFT Director, to the U.P Association of County Commissioners. The letter stated that the MFFTC and the Governors office has asked his office to investigate the possibilities of allowing transfer of Firefighter training credentials between Michigan and Wisconsin and report back to the council with a procedural recommendation.  Much discussion was had on the subject.

Firefighter Training Council Report

The MFFTC is working on the reciprocity issue.  The issue has been discussed at the MFFTC work sessions.

Dan & Dick spoke of the necessity of spending county training monies or giving them to another county to spend again.

Michigan State Firemen’s Association Report

No Report

National Volunteer Fire Council Report

No report

Dick Caudill mentioned that he had enrolled his department in the insurance package they offer; last year it was $10.00 per member for 10k accident/life insurance that covers you off the fire ground as well.

Comments

Jeff Seppala thanked everyone for making him secretary while he was away.

Jeff had a letter from Mike Yon he read mentioning the excellent training provided with Dick’s expertise that took place in Gwinn. He also apologized for not being able to attend the meeting as he was on a family vacation to Disney.

Dick Caudill said he has been making contacts for future training instructors and would like to provide another session if the membership would like. He has one contact that would provide a class for free but he is booked up till February or March next year. He mentioned the association that Ray Hoff belonged to may have other classes available and will be looking into it. Other instructor contacts he came across charge $3500.00 t0 $6000.00 per class. Membership agreed to get something going.

Dick also mentioned that he found out the Saginaw County fire chiefs association purchased a fit testing machine & software that it rotated to different departments that belong and inquired if it was something we could look into possibly for a regional grant for the UP or a collaborative of such in the western UP. The unit he was aware of cost $8300.00. There was some discussion on the subject.

Al Perlongos pager went off.

Ken Jacobson thanked everyone for attending and spoke of ways to get more members to attend the meetings and recruit more members. He asked for suggestions and there was discussion about ways to do just that.

Jeff Iverson mentioned he had received an e-mail from a woman representing Muscular Dystrophy and would like to make a presentation at the next meeting. She was unable to attend this meeting but Jeff felt that if she could attend the meeting in Munising she could have her spot on the agenda. Membership agreed.

Jeff also inquired as to what other departments were doing on the narrow banding of pagers & radios. There was some discussion and most departments are being helped by their 911 or EMD committees. Jeff Seppala offered his Minitor V programming software if it would save departments money.

Dick mentioned that Saginaw County has cell phone text capability with their paging system, when they are paged a text comes across your cell phone with the address and info of the incident.

Membership comments

The membership thanked Dick for his hard work researching and setting up the training class in Gwinn.

New Chief Jim Seppanen- Rock River Twp FD said he got more information by coming to this meeting than he ever has hearing things second hand or not at all. There was discussion about how to get information out to the membership i.e. Such as Links on the web site etc.

Next meeting is the Annual Meeting to be held in conjunction with the U.P.V.F.F.A/ tournament in Munising on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010, 10:00 am local (eastern) time, at the William G. Mather Elementary School.

President Iverson asked for a motion to adjourn.

Motion by Duncan Twp supported by Skandia West Branch to adjourn at 11:30 hours.  All in favor.  Motion carried.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jeffrey D. Seppala

Secretary / Treasurer