VSFA_RedBook2019

1 District 12 Report to the Virginia State Firefighters Association

Executive Summary

This report covers the activities of the District 12 Executive Representative to the Virginia State Firefighters Association (VSFA) for the period of July 2018 through June 2019. This has been a challenging year for me, personally, and for our district, professionally. Work and family demands have been unrelenting for me, but I still strive to represent the members of District 12 to the best of my ability, and have visited with new, existing, and prospective members whenever and wherever I can. I had an unprecedented opportunity to share the knowledge, skills, and abilities I have acquired through more than 42 years of emergency service experience in Virginia to help six West African nations to build their own capabilities to manage emergencies. In that opportunity, I helped to forge curriculum and

Figure 1 - The Town of Warrenton has enjoyed some form of fire protection since 1852, but the volunteer fire department was not formally incorporated until 1924. This December, the department will achieve its 95th Anniversary of service in Fauquier County. This photo from the front of fire headquarters demonstrates the company’s values in service to community and country. Congratulations to the WVFC.

deliver pilot courses in subject matter including emergency communications and warnings, and incident command systems. The classes were held over a series of trips covering more than five weeks in the summer and fall of 2018 and were delivered at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra, Ghana. It was among the most rewarding experiences I have ever had in the emergency service community and was the most rewarding experience I have ever had as a training instructor. Meanwhile, evidence that things change and that we in the volunteer fire service must change with them, was seen in the form of volunteer companies in Prince William County surrendering their properties and, in some cases, closing their corporations and ceding all fire and rescue responsibilities to the county. This is not just happening in Prince William, but in Loudoun, too, and in other counties around the country. Our volunteer fire and emergency medical service organizations must evolve, or we will lose more companies in the future. Please know that I welcome the opportunity to visit with any member organization, be it at a company meeting, Board meeting, or special event to share news from the VSFA, to hear about the challenges your organizations are facing, and to work with you to try to address them. If your jurisdiction has an association to represent the volunteer companies therein, and you would like me to attend a meeting to meet the group at-large, all I need is your invitation. You can reach me electronically at kirbys4@outlook.com . You may also contact me on the VSFA hotline at 1+ (804) 873-5955 or at home at (703) 815-0444. Please note this is a new telephone number for the VSFA.

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June 23, 2019