Fire Wire Blog Post from your SC Firefighters Association From our president, Will Vaigneur In my first correspondence with the membership, I would like to thank Past-President Jonathan Jones for a great year as president and putting on a great conference. It has been an honor working with him for the past six years, and I look forward to the work that we will do in the future. Time flies when you are having fun, and my year as President is off and running. I want you to know that your Association continues to work hard for you. We are committed to providing the firefighters of this state with member benefits, training, and education that aid in providing a high level of service in your communities. At the conference I unveiled my slogan for the upcoming year, “Fully Involved Membership.” Over the years we have tried many different strategies and tactics to get the membership to attend training, attend quarterly meetings, attend the conference, vote for your 4th Vice President, and take advantage of benefits provided. We advertise, email, mail out, and have built a great website in attempts to keep the membership informed. The truth is, for our Association to be as great as I believe it can be, we must have engaged membership. The Association has an extended hand to you, and I need you to reach out and grab it. Become involved with what we have going on, and if you are already involved, bring some members with you. Our Association is currently at 17,500 members. I have a goal to reach 20,000 members by next year’s conference. This is an achievable goal. If you do the math, we have around 500 departments in our Association. We can reach that goal if each department adds just five members. I would like for you to evaluate the needs of your department as well as your community as you recruit new members. Are there people in your community that can benefit your department in ways other than fighting fire? In my department, fighting fire is just a small portion of the services we provide. This membership goal is really not about the Association. It is about providing additional resources for your community and the people you serve. Often times when we have limited resources on scene, we sacrifice on-scene safety. Support functions such as scene lighting and traffic control are vital roles for the overall safety of an incident. You have people in your community that want to be part of your organization but do not want, or are not physically able, to fight fire. Find those people and use them. It is also time that our fire department’s demographics match the community that we serve. Your department and community will be better for it. I look forward to this upcoming year. I plan to travel the state visiting counties and fire departments. If you are reading the FireWire, you have taking it upon yourself to stay informed. That is not good enough. Make sure all members in your circle of influence are doing the same. Make plans to attend quarterly trainings, come to the seminars and conferences, invite the Association staff to your department to tell about the great benefits we provide, learn about the candidates that are running for 4th Vice President, and visit the website often. I am committed to working with you to make this great Association even better. Honored to Serve, Will Vaignuer Will Vaigneur President Phone: 843-525-1654 Email: [email protected]
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 12:59:27 +0000
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