Preventing Organizational Disasters

If you’re like anyone in the fire service who reads the press about members of our profession who have gone crossways with legal issues, city policies, moral-turpitude issues or financial miss-dealings and your response to reading such offends your moral compass, you aren’t alone.

Across this country, not a day goes by that we can’t read about someone in the fire service profession that has miss-stepped, causing a reactionary response by the local jurisdiction in handling the matter.

On March 31, when I wrote this article, I found online with little effort 28 articles exposing the misdeeds of our fellow brethren. From sexual deviation to drinking on duty to fighting in the stations, the public gets the dirty details of each event in news stories that include the name of the fire department where the member is, or was, employed.

The fire service, through all its noble causes and deeds, tries to employ upstanding, law-abiding people to serve our communities. People are not machines; people have feelings—complex emotional synapses that drive their actions. Most of those who serve in the fire profession are well-balanced, moral, righteous folks who do the right things for their communities and families.

Yet, we all know of a few people engaged in the fire profession who have crossed the line and acted poorly or unlawfully, thus causing the news wires, internet and YouTube to broadcast these unfortunate events worldwide.

Well, even the employees and members themselves post their misdeeds on YouTube.

As the leader at any level of the organization, you know the potential damage these misdeeds will cause to the fire department, municipality or community. As a fire chief, you know that these misdeeds will create an enormous amount of work to react to, respond to, rebuild from and prevent in the future.

From personnel matters, financial dealings and political challenges to operational miss steps, today’s leaders must be sure their organizations are prepared for and can quickly respond to organizational challenges that have or will be made known to both the internal membership or external constituents and peers.

Attend Responding to Organizational Disasters, Wednesday, August 13 at 9:45 am at FRI. Take an in-depth look at how to pre-plan a structured approach to dealing with the challenges of today’s fire services in a YouTube world.

Chief S. Jeff Piechura, Northwest Fire District Tucson, Ariz., will present this session at FRI with Chief Mark Gaillard, Goodyear, Ariz.

Program Online, Registration Open

The answers and solutions you need are all at FRI ‘09. Go online to view the complete educational program and to register. This year’s program offers education and training for everyone, from firefighters and company officers to emergency managers and fire chiefs. You asked for something new, and we’ve told you it’s coming.  A sampling of what’s new: Weathering the Economic Storm – A panel of industry leaders has put together a 2 day seminar with additional workshops specifically designed to guide you through these tough economic times and come out thriving. The Technology Pavilion – From the classroom to the expo floor, you’ll increase your understanding of available technologies, how they work and how they can improve efficiencies in your department. Presented by the IAFC’s Technology Council. Company Officer Leadership Symposium, Level 3 – Learn the core competencies company officers need to set themselves apart. We know you are facing many challenges, not the least of which is your ability to travel to conferences and events. Yet now more than ever, you need the knowledge and connections with your peers to prepare yourself for making the tough decisions. We are confident that with the changes and additions we’ve made to FRI, you and your team will experience more value than ever before. Check out the complete FRI schedule and register today!

Welcome to the FRI ’09 Blog!

Welcome to the Fire Rescue International (FRI)  2009 blog.  Here you will find information about the latest news,  activities and events — all leading up to FRI ’09 in Dallas, August 25-29.

In the months leading up to FRI, our focus is to share meaningful information that will help you prepare for the event.  As such, we’ve created a new FRI website with improved navigation, making it easy to find what you need with respect to the program agenda, exhibit information, hotel and travel, special events and much more.  We’ve also added some new search features, including the ability to search program seminars and workshops by date or educational track.

In addition to the blog and website enhancements, we are launching several new social media tools, including  webcasts, IAFC-TV, as well as new features in the electronic version of On Scene to keep you informed and engaged before FRI.  We encourage you to utilize these tools to learn about the many new features at FRI ’09 and to connect with your fellow IAFC members and peers before, during and after the conference to enhance your experience.

Stay current on the latest blog postings by subscribing for e-mail updates or through the RSS feed (see window to right of this message).  For complete information on FRI ’09 , visit www.iafc.org/fri