SOUTH CENTRAL DISTRICT FIREFIGHTER’S ASSOCIATION
The South Central District
held two semi annual meeting since the last State Convention. The fall meeting was originally scheduled for
September and moved to October due to the evacuation of most of the district
for Hurricane Rita. The fall meeting was
held on 13 October 2005 by
|
Juan
“J.J.” Adame, President 512-974-0130 |
Jeff
Jordan,
1st Vice President |
|
Mark
Lubianski, 2nd Vice President |
John
Wilson, 3rd
Vice President
|
|
Danny
Cox Jr., 4th
Vice President |
Danny
Imhoff, Past
President |
|
Danielle
Hale, Secretary/Treasurer 361-230-0259 |
Barry
L. Fuhrken, Certification Board
|
|
361-549-2533 |
Justin
Martinez, Mascot |
The first Guest Speaker was Mr. Marty Martinez
Assistant Fire Chief, Texas Forest Service.
Chief Martinez expressed the importance of NIMS and how ICS supports
NIMS. He went on to explain how to adopt
and institutionalize NIMS.
The Second Guest Speaker was Mr.
SFFMA Third Vice President, Shawn Snider, provided
information from the state office.
$250.00 has been received to assist fire departments hit by hurricane
Rita. The need for a volunteer task
force across the state the state has been identified by recent event. An organized way for non-effected department
to send help to affected departments is needed.
He encouraged all departments to work on lessons learned from the two
storms to help in the planning of future responses. He asked that each district keep the web page
information updated and accurate. The
State Executive Board will meet in January to cover one topic only. This topic is how can the
SFFMA help increase local departments participation in districts across
the state. All districts are seeing a
drop in the attendance at district events.
RJ Thomas and John Wilson
Reported on the recent district officer’s symposium held by the SFFMA. 15 of the 16 districts in the state were
represented. Various items were
discussed with the top two being participation in the districts and mandatory
training certification of firefighters across the state.
A meal and fellowship followed. Pumper races were not held due mainly to the
rescheduling and hurricane response of some departments.
Spring
Business Meeting was hosted by: Alice Fire Department, Sunday May 21st. The meeting was preceded by an area school on
Saturday.
Delegates in attendance:
Member Departments in
attendance (# represents delegates, firefighters, and guests):
Alice (19), Annaville (3),
Beeville (1), Bishop (3), Falfurrias (6), Fulton (1), Ingleside (7), Kingsville
(10), Odem (2), Orange Grove (18), Premont (2), Refugio (1), Rockport (1),
Sinton (1)
Judge
Arnold Saenz,
RJ Thomas was the second
guest speaker and discussed Regional Mutual Aid and Response. Three hand outs were given to delegates:
Texas Interoperability Channel Plan, Illinois Statewide Mutual Aid Planning and
Reference Guide, and discussion draft of proposed mutual aid legislation. Thomas announced that on July 14-15 in Live
Oak County (Three Rivers), there will be an Incident Command Table Top and
Functional Exercise with an interoperability component. Additional discussion was regarding level four interoperability and the location of the
available communications trailers.
Following
the presentation, Bryan Rickert with the Carthage FD took a moment to speak to
the membership. Rickert will be running
for SFFMA 4th Vice President during the state convention in
State
Officers Report- Kent Watts, Executive Board SFFMA, gave an update of state
affairs including the District laptops, new website, and Info Fire online. He noted that E-Commerce is still offline but
hopefully will be fixed in the near future.
Additionally, Chris Barron moved into the now retired Helen Johnson’s
position as Executive Director. The
state has partnered with Interstate Batteries to raise funds for the Districts,
30% of online orders will go directly to the state to be redistributed to the
Districts. The yearly memorial will now
be biannual in conjunction with the legislator’s fish fry in
The
membership was reminded about the upcoming National Incident Management System
(NIMS) deadlines that were discussed by Marty Martinez at the last meeting.
Five Year Plan was presented to the membership a few goals that have been discussed by
the officers but is seeking recommendations from the membership to add to or
remove from the current list. The
executive board is trying to provide to the members what is needed and
expected. Input from the membership is
needed in the process. The following
goals were presented by John Wilson;
1. Revitalize the District Organization- includes
corrected organizational issues by the Executive Board and improving
communications with members to include mailings, website, and list serve.
2. Increase Membership Participation- includes enhancing
benefits of membership and addressing generational issues within the fire
service structure.
3. Increase Training Oppurtunities- includes working
with member departments to offer training and develop cooperative partnerships
for additional training.
Suggestions
were offered by the membership to include:
4. Award ribbons/trophies to poster contest winners
5. Make the officers more accessible by providing
contact information- business cards
6. Make the meetings more family oriented- children’s
activities and auxiliary
7. Collect lessons learned from convention host center
to develop and a planning binder to include guidelines, supplies, vendors
8. Provide protocols/SOP sharing for member departments
to enhance planning
Training
Program- Mark Lubianski gave an update on available District sponsored
training. Annaville FD will host a
quarterly training. Two basic level
courses will be at their fire field and two advanced level
will be at the RTFC commissioned field.
The next advanced course will be June 24. These courses are approved for reimbursement
by the Texas Forest Service. Training
prerequisites for the RTFC courses will be strictly enforced. If there is any fire department that needs
help with training, please get with a member of the board.
Thomas
announced that
Gibson
reminded the membership that District patches are available for $1. Get with her after the meeting if interested.
Thomas
announced a fund raiser to shave Vic Enspares beard. Thomas made motion that the South Central
District should NOT support Vic Enspares having his beard shaved. Motion did not carry in support of the beard
being saved. Additionally, notice was
given to the membership that the Panther got loose in Annaville.
Meyer
announced that Halo-Flights guardian program is free to all first responders
for the first year.
Don
Pullin announced that those firefighters going to Texas A&M
this year will be riding the bus, no personal vehicles will be allowed at the
fields. Wednesday night’s exhibit has
been canceled this year. The new
building should be finished by July of next year.
Next
Meeting- Kingsville announced that they will host the fall convention in
October. Orange Grove will host the 2007
spring convention.
Adjourn
to Memorial Service-
Sunday, May 21, 2006
1 Coyote Trail
Hosted by: Alice Fire Department
Poster Committee Chairman- Valerie Fuhrken
Kindergarten Division:
1st-
Jaelah Davis-
2nd-
Chayanne Longoria-
And
Serena Morales, Susi Franco
Primary Division:
1st-
Osvaldo Rios III-
2nd-
Ryan Maldonado-
3rd-
Isabel DeLeon- Kingsville
Intermediate Division:
1st-
Hallie Perez-
2nd-
Farishta Estok-
3rd-
Danielle Hinojosa- Kingsville
Middle Division:
1st-
Elsa M. Parr- Kingsville
2nd-
Zach Perez-
3rd-
Tony Rivera-
High School:
1st-
Juan Manuel Alejandro- Orange Grove
2nd-
Jennifer Michelle Harlien- Orange Grove
3rd-
Elisa Reyna- Orange Grove
Sunday, May 21, 2006- 4 pm
1 Coyote Trail
Hosted by: Alice Fire Department
Prepared by Danielle Gibson, Secretary/Treasurer
061006
Judges-
Barry
Fuhrken- Discharge
Bob
Richardson- Tail Board
Mark
Lubianski- Hard Suction
Billy
Schmidt- Hose
Timers-
Danielle
Gibson
Lynn
Kirschoff
Cody
Rusk
Six Men-
Falfurrias-
32.06
Three Men-
Orange
Grove (team 3)- 14.2
Alice
(team 1)- 17.23
Orange
Grove (team 1)- 20.6
Orange
Grove (team 2- “old guys”)- 24.43
South
Central District- DQ ~12.3
Falfurrias
(team 1)- DQ ~ ?
Falfurrias
(team 2)- DQ ~15.3
Alice
(team 2)- DQ ~ ? (unsportsmanlike
conduct- John Wilson)
Premont-
DQ ~ ?
Three Ladies
Orange
Grove (re-run due to faulty nozzle)- 13.1
Alice-
DQ ~17.2