Great Quote for Today

 "The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you DO. And what you have to do to get where you want to be may not be pretty or may not come easy." Bill Phillips

Federal Firefighter Furloughs

As many of you may know, our Federal Government is in a financial mess. To solve this problem, all federal employees are facing a furlough. What does that mean to you? Probably not much, other than there will be a lot less money being spent in the local economy, which will effect sales and income taxes for local and state government. We Federal employees are staring at a 20% reduction in pay for the 6 months, maybe more.

I am appealing to you for help. If you know a federal firefighter with a part time business, please support them. I have a business and would really appreciate your consideration in supporting my family during this difficult time. Please check out AMSOIL for your full synthetic lubricant needs.

Go to the AMSOIL Application guide for a recommendation of the products for your vehicle. You can purchase at wholesale by following this link and signing up as a Preferred Customer. If your retail order is more than $100 you will save more than the price of the Preferred Customer membership.

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Sharing the Sequestration Pay Cuts w/Congress and the President

Federal Civilian Firefighters on military installations worldwide are serving to protect the military members, families, and your tax payer assets everyday. We agree there is tremendous government waste in the federal budget. We believe that there are several opportunities to save money in the budget without forcing your firefighters and other employees to take a 20% pay cut through furloughs that will run from April to October. These furloughs will cause severely reduced staffing, which will make interior firefighting unsafe in both structure fires and aircraft fires. Not to mention our inability to provide Hazardous Material response and Confined Space Rescue responses. We will not be able to provide mutual aid responses to our neighbors because of our severely reduced staffing.

If federal employees are required to take furloughs and suffer 20% pay cuts, Congress (Senate and House) members and President Obama (the people who are responsible for the sequester and the resulting furloughing of federal employees) will "share the pain" by taking 20% pay cuts themselves.
Members of Congress and the President (due to their inaction) will take responsibility and in a show of solidarity and unity with the 800,000+ employees - who through no fault of their own will be forced to accept 20% pay reductions - will share equally in the pain and suffering that they themselves are responsible for.

Follow this link to sign the petition so the Presdient and Congress are forced to take a 20% pay  cut also. It only seems like the right thing to do.  https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/sharing-sequestration-pay-cuts-wcongress-and-president/LLQCqKJb

Which "E" Word Describes You?

I saw this the other day and got me to thinking. I'm sure we have all used each of these at one time or another.

Excuses: The words we use to fill the gap between wanting something and achieving something.
Exceptions: The excuses we make to explain why other people succeed.
Excellence: What is achieved just because you kept showing up anyway.

I have often said that setting and working toward goals is the most important thing a person can do. If you don't achieve the goal, you know that you have worked toward that goal. That is more than most people do anyway.

UPDATE:  After seeing a Facebook comment from Chief Jim Duffy, I decided to add one more "E" word.

ENTHUSIASM: Because being enthusiastic about showing up and working toward achievement makes it a whole lot more fun. When things are fun, it makes it easier to achieve.

Remember, there are thousands upon thousands of people that would love to have our jobs. If you aren't working toward continued improvement in all phases of your career/calling, move on and find something else, or find that passion again.

Another Update:
EXTRA: Taking the extra step to succeed. When we stop making excuses and exceptions, excellence will come through with enthusiasm and the extra step will be easy to take to work for success.

Yet another Update: Thanks to Chief Duffy for giving me another word. Engaged!
ENGAGED: When you are paying attention and learning. This is the enhancement to the word excellence from above. I think showing up is important, but by being engaged you are taking it to a higher level.
I must admit that I heard Chief Pete Van Dorpe from Chicago speak a couple of years ago at the Brunacini Leadership Conference and something he said hit home. He said that he went through part of his career where he was not engaged. I had never heard anyone admit it out loud. It made me re-evaluate my career and it made me relize that I had dis-engaged a few times. Thankfully, when he said it and still today I am engaged. Being engaged makes being a firefighter fun and challenging.

2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference Wrap-up

WOW! We had a great conference again this year. Excellent attendance, excellent instruction, and excellent fellowship.

We had a student from as far away as Santa Monica, CA attend this year. He told me that the dollar cost value was unbeatable. We provide high quality instruction from Nationally know instructors for an excellent price. It is exciting for me to see people attending from other states.

I hope you choose to attend next year. At least consider this conference when planning your training budget.

The dates have been set for next year. Mark your calender for February 7-9, 2014 and keep an eye on the Nebraska Society of Fire Service Instructors website for information. Also, the NSFSI has an online bookstore to help raise funds for the Society and fund the Conference. That is one of the ways they are able to keep the price of the conference so reasonable.   http://www.nsfsi.com/default.asp

P.J. Norwood from East Haven, CT and I visiting at the end of the first day of the 2013 Les Lukert Conference. P.J. and Jim Duffy were working together to present and excellent 8 hour class and on Sundady delivered another 4 hour class.

Anthony Avillo from North Hudson, NJ was sharing a fun moment after being interviewed. A great quote from Anthony: "Taking care of business before it becomes business."



Brian Brush of West Metro Fire and I enjoying some good fun after day 1. Brian taught an excellent hands on ladder class.



Recharge time!

This afternoon I'm heading out to Kearney, Nebraska for the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference, hosted by the Nebraska Society of Fire Service Instructors (http://www.nsfsi.com/). You know, I always look forward to gaining new knowledge or maybe just a different perspective on the knowledge previously gained.

One of the biggest reasons I attend fire conferences is to recharge. Being around a group of like minded firefighters makes me feel good. I love seeing my old friends and making new ones. Especially ones that are motivated enough to take time to attend conferences.

I wish I could make the time, and afford the money to attend the International Society of Fire Service Instructors FDIC. It just isn't in the cards for this year. Hopefully soon. http://www.fdic.com/index.html

Follow-up

I’m writing a follow-up to my post, Time For Change

I am humbled by the response from the post from Facebook, email and face to face. I am actually quite surprised by the number of people that actually read the post.

Almost everyone has been very supportive. There are a few people that didn’t really understand why I would request to step back to a Captains position. I wasn’t exactly clear in the post, mostly because I didn’t want to air dirty laundry or sound like a whining cry baby.

The Fire Service is a MERITOCRACY! The truth is that I know merit is more important than fairness. I believe that those that are performing and putting out the most effort deserve the choice assignments, and the benefits that go with effort and performance. There is always someone making excuses why they don’t know something or can’t do something. Excuses are like a-------s  oh you get the point.

I think training and working on the craft of firefighting is the most important thing we can do during our shift. I believe that we should seek opportunities on and off duty to improve our knowledge, skills and abilities. In our area of Nebraska, there are ample opportunities for FREE and low cost high quality training.

I believe that the traditions of the fire service are important. I believe that people should have pride in the fact that they are lucky enough to be firefighters. I believe that we should be willing to maintain and clean our fire apparatus and our fire stations, so that the people we are protecting can see that we are proud of what we do for them.

So you wonder why I stepped aside. It had nothing to do with me wanting less responsibility. It had everything to do with me not agreeing with my Chief’s on what is important.

Now I’m back to being a Captain, and loving every minute of it. I am feeling recharged again. The crew and I are making plans for more company level training. Back to basics type stuff.  

For those that have asked me to call them, please be patient. I will get you all called in the next couple of weeks. For those of you going to the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference, we can get together there.

http://www.nsfsi.com/

Speaking of the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference, I am looking forward to attending this year as a student. Hopefully I will see a lot of you there. If you are attending, Friday night is the Nebraska Society of Fire Service Instructors membership meeting. Please plan on attending this meeting, as this will be election of President and Vice President for a 2 year term.

2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference

You still have time to sign-up for the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference. This is an excellent training opportunity. Cheif Ed Hadfield will be the keynote speaker at the leadership banquest.

Is there a difference?

When you are presenting a training class, do you approach the material differently if the class is for certification verses continuing education classes?

Speaking for myself, I want to make sure that I am the subject matter expert in the room when I am presenting a class. If the class is for certification, such as Firefighter 1 or Driver Operator, we as instructors neeed to make sure that we are presenting all of the information in a manner that the students are prepared for the examination. Of course we want to make the class an enjoyable learning environment. The biggest challenge for me is making sure that all of the learning objectives are covered well enough that I give the students the greatest chance for success when performing the certification exams.

When teaching continuing education classes, I feel like I have more latitude to explore the subject matter, and have more fun in class.

What are your thoughts?

Great Quote I saw today.

IF IT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU, YOU WILL FIND A WAY.
IF NOT, YOU'LL FIND AN EXCUSE

Time for change!

I once saw a quote somewhere that has stuck with me. It was something along the lines of; If you don't like the direction you are going, Change directions. Well I made a decision to change directions.  I decided to turn in my white shirts and white helmet, and step back into a red helmet.

This was not a decision made out of anger or without thought. It was made after considerable thought.

I am a huge believer in bringing solutions to the "bosses" when I see problems. When I realised that the solutions I was bringing did not align with the overall culture of the organization, I couldn't continue to compromise my principals.

"When you have to start compromising yourself and your morals for the people around you, it’s probably time to change the people around you."

After a year of frustration over the direction of my department and shift, I decided that I could no longer meet the expectations of my supervisors. After what turned out to be a very private but ugly disagreement on what is important for a fire department, I requested a reassignment back to Captain.

I discussed the request with the Deputy Chief and the Fire Chief, whom were reluctant to make the change. I pressed hard, and made a formal written request about a week later. It has taken about 3 months for a selection of a replacement to take place, and finally the switch.

So, last Sunday, January 13, 2013, the change was made effective. I immediately had a sense of renewed purpose. My new crew seems excited for the opportunity to work together. I feel a reduction in stress.

For those of you that want to discuss this privately, I would be more than happy to do so.

I will be at the 2013 Les Lukert Winter Conference next month. This will be the first time in several years that I will be attending as a student, and I am really looking forward to picking up some new information, or at least new ways of seeing things.

For more information on Nebraska Society of Fire Service Instructors and the Les Lukert Winter Conference go the their website. http://www.nsfsi.com/default.asp

Goal Setting...

Cowboy Logic: "If you’re doing what everyone else is doing, you will never be better than average.”

I think it is natural to start the new year with resolutions, which are nothing more than goals. Some set resolutions to loose weight, quit something, etc. Many of these resolutions are quit before we ever get started, or within a week. I wonder why we give up so easy on these resolutions. It makes me think about other things in our life that we do that involve goal setting.

When we respond to an incident, we set a goal. We typically call it a strategy. Do we abandon our strategy and pack up our gear when the incident gets difficult or things aren't going our way? NO! We make adjustments, evaluate our priorities and keep on working to mitigate the incident.

So as the Cowboy Logic states, we can keep doing what everyone else is doing, or begin to do what others won't do.

Some of my goals for this year:
Complete 100 Push-ups ( I haven't done this since 1998)
Complete 5 Pull-ups ( I've never done this)
Lose 4 Inches off my waist
Write meaningful articles for this blog
Seek out others that want to do something meaningful this year