Education Committee
- Committee Members
- Committee Mission
- Committee Reports
- Committee Minutes
- Other Information
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Committee Chair |
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Dale Specken, Chair– Hopkins Fire Department |
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The mission of the Education Committee is to enhance the Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association’s membership by providing high quality and current educational workshops at the annual conference and promoting additional educational opportunities.
Education Committee 2011 – Brad Emans
We are excited to be in St. Cloud for the 2011 MSFCA Conference!
A few decades ago REO Speedwagon sang “You got to learn to roll with the changes”. That pretty much sums up our country over the past 3 years; the MSFCA Education Committee is no different.
The Education Committee meets just three times annually, the rest of the work required to successfully present an educational opportunity for fire chiefs is completed electronically throughout the year by our various topic sub-committees.
Education Committee Goals:
1. Understand that every chief is important to the MSFCA, therefore we must listen to and consider the needs of the state as a whole when establishing the various educational opportunities;
2. Determine what the timely topics currently are and then locate the most highly regarded experts to present them to the membership;
3. Defend the present day thought that chiefs attend the fall conference to learn and then provide the most education opportunities possible with-in the timeframe;
4. Recognize that it is vital to keep the conference affordable for all chief officers and therefore work with-in the allotted budget.
The Education Committee is by design very flexible, and welcoming. Every year some committee members retire, or leave the committee for greener pastures; however, due to the structure in place we are able to blend new members into the system very easily. Let this fact be an offer for you to join our group.
The MSFCA is your association, if you want change, get involved. We did!
Education Committee Report 2011
Education Committee Report 2010
Education Committee Report 2009
Education Committee Report 2010
MINNESOTA STATE FIRE CHIEF’S ASSOCIATION
Chief’s Education Committee
January 14, 2009
MINUTES
Members Present: Emans, Specken, farmer, Mashuga, Hansen, Hewitt, Thill, Dahm,
Guests: Brace, Executive Director for MSFCA, Beckering, MNSCU
Chair Emans called the meeting to order and the minutes of the previous meeting were approved. Chair Emans welcomed new members Dale Specken and Lee Gatlin. Sarah Larson asked to be removed due to time constraints. Rich Gasaway asked to be removed due to time constraints. He offered a replacement.
Executive Director’s report
- There were 530 delegates, not including spouses/significant others.
- Collected a little over $61K.
- Total educational expenses were $12,576, which does not include the lunch. The costs did not concern the leaders of the organization.
- Traditionally, the conference brings in around $60K.
Old Business:
- Evaluations were sent out by Warren Jorgenson.
- Overall, evaluations were good.
- Suggestion was that if there is more than one speaker, there is more than one evaluation form or line.
- Warren is already working on that.
- Chair Emans thanked everyone and stated they all did a wonderful job.
- Comments were received from Rick Kline and distributed. His comments will be taken under advisement.
- Everyone is reminded to give all speakers the speaker form, even those from within Minnesota.
New Business
- We need to make sure and go the extra mile for this conference.
- With tight budgets, many will not be able to go out of state for training, which means our conference may be the only educational opportunity many will get in 2009.
- This may be their only chance to hear a national speaker so we need to bring good speakers to them.
- Per Tom, the new format is definitely a go.
- Thursday morning – Pre-conference
- Thursday afternoon – classes
- Friday morning – classes
- Friday afternoon – General meeting
- Friday night – Dance
- Saturday morning – Symposium
- Discussion on limiting the number of classes for 2009.
- All classes in 2008 seem to have had good attendance.
- If we reduce the number of classes, that will increase class size. Will the rooms hold higher numbers?
- It would be OK in Duluth.
Pre-conference: Farmer – will see if Mick is still interested
New Chiefs: Zikmund
- Suggestion to add a leadership component.
- Change the title of New Chiefs to New Officers.
- Suggestion to do New Chiefs (lowest number attendance) at same time as Pre-conference. But many new chiefs are not career, so they may not be there Thursday morning.
SFM Workshop: Dahm
- One of the best attended last year
- Asking for ideas
- Recap of new MFIRS program
- Possibly public safety education
- Anything new on residential sprinklers Maybe how they work
- Maybe “After the Fire” type subjects
- Possibly Human Behavior in Fire
Chiefs Issues: Mashuga, Specken
- Last year was Kline
- Tom suggested an Architectural firm to talk about fire station design
- He has one contact
- Maybe GIS and National Grid
- A speaker has offered on National Grid
Emergency Management: Rollwagon and Olson
- Bob Dahm will contact Kristi to check her interest
Hot Topics: Seal and Hewitt
- Per Joel, there was a problem in Tempe with a restrained patient
Professional Development: Hansen
Safety: Pearson
- Kline would like to talk about the Safety Symposium
Symposium: Hewitt
- Need to find places for Gatlin, Thies, and Gasaway's replacement.
- The rotation will be as follows:
- Pre-conference 8:00 AM- 11:30 AM – Thursday
- SFMO – Thursday
- Hot Topics – Thursday and Friday
- Safety – Friday
- Chiefs Issues – Thursday
- Emergency Management – Friday
- Professional Development – Thursday
- New Chiefs – Friday
- Symposium will run 8:00 AM to Noon – Saturday
Meeting adjourned.
Next meeting: May 13, 2009, St. Paul Kelly Inn, 10:00 AM
No other information at this time.