It's a great day to be a SC volunteer firefighter

January 15, 2014

It’s always a great time to be a volunteer firefighter and none more so than these very days in our great state of South Carolina. As a former and now soon-to-be again volunteer firefighter, I know schedule conflicts make it difficult to attend all the courses and fire related activities you’d like. But at the Fire Service Improvement Conference this past weekend a new day dawned on the delivery of information and training to you the South Carolina volunteer firefighter. It’s been a desire and project in process over time and last week saw the first live streaming feed of a conference from the Denny Auditorium. Are there challenges and opportunities to improve some technical aspects of the process to make the delivery superb? Certainly, but as with all trial runs, the technical challenges will be overcome and you will have an opportunity to be engaged in future conferences and meetings. Remember Edison didn’t get the light bulb correct or Marconi didn’t send a wireless signal on their first attempts. Your S.C. State Firefighters’ Association SAFER grant continues to make a difference. The Career and Technology Center Education curriculum Instructor Guide, Student Workbook and educational crosswalk is complete. The SCFA staff is finalizing the content portion of the curriculum while contacts with the SC Department of Education continue to process the delivery of the curriculum to state educators. Microburst Learning continues their efforts with the Fire Chief 101 project, and those in attendance on Sunday morning of the conference viewed a teaser of the program. There was good discussion on the project and overwhelming support in delivering the Fire Chief 101 concepts to the fire chiefs of the state. Also during the conference, Vicki Pritchett, conducted a grant writing workshop focused on showing attendees to use data to tell the story of why they need grant dollars. There is a wonderful resource at the S.C. Fire Marshal’s Office for just such data. The Community Risk Reduction Office can and will assist you to develop information you may need, not just for grants but for any project or presentation for which you need data. The Recruitment and Retention Committee approved $7500 in grant awards to the following career centers: R.D. Anderson, Barnwell County, Lancaster County, Sumter County and Westwood High School. The R&R Committee will fund an additional center with grant year two dollars and received approval from the Department of Homeland Security to fund one more center with retained grant year one funds. DHS also approved the awarding of $1000 scholarships to fire service personnel pursuing fire education at the Associates, Bachelor, or Master’s degree levels. The funds to make these scholarships were also from retained dollars from grant year one. Additionally, DHS granted permission to use the limited dollars remaining to conduct public relations campaigns in three specific counties. A contract was awarded The Para Marketing Company to provide outreach in Oconee, Newberry, and Dorchester counties to attract more volunteer fire and emergency service personnel. Lastly, the contacts and outreach made by members of your state fire service, combined with those from around our nation, brought relief from provisions of the Affordable Care Act with the announcement last week from the U.S. Treasury that volunteers will not be treated as employees for the purposes of the ACA. We are victorious on all fronts. Stand tall S.C. volunteers; hear the applause and take a bow. These victories are for YOU!