Promote, Unify, Represent and Educate the Fire Service of Texas

June 2022

Executive Director's Corner Greetings members, Well, the conference is upon us! We are excited to be able to gather in Beaumont for a full agenda and traditional conference schedule. Please be sure to review the information on the SFFMA home page regarding conference registration, the conference schedule, classes being offered, registration for some specific activities, and other important info. I strongly recommend registering for the conference ahead of time so as to save some time once there. A reminder about most of the classes being offered this year: Pre-registration for MOST of the classes is not necessary. You will simply register with TEEX at conference and receive their scan tag. Your tag will then be scanned as you enter a class, and you will be provided an attendance certificate from TEEX later. With that said, we are encouraging you to pre-register if you are planning to attend the two-day recruiting and retention workshop on Monday and Tuesday of the conference. This workshop is made possible through our SAFER grant and because of that, two nights of lodging and travel expenses are fully reimbursable to the participant through the grant program. I also wanted to mention that the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) will be onsite for two or three days to get anyone wishing to do so set up with their new ID cards that have been developed for statewide responses. This is a system that has been long in coming but will be invaluable for personnel responding to large incidents around the state. Finally, a quick word about locations for conference events: As we will be using two different venues for the conference, please pay close attention to the location of any particular event. The locations are listed on the conference schedule, found on the SFFMA home page. With that, we hope to see you in Beaumont! 

Conference News and Events SFFMA 146th Annual Training Conference and Convention June 24-29, 2022 Beaumont, Texas TRAINING A wide variety of training sessions will be offered at the annual conference. Classes will be held 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday and Tuesday, June 27 and 28, at the MCM Elegante hotel. In addition to Firefighter 1 and 2 level courses, a HazMat refresher course will be offered on both days, and online certification testing will be offered for HazMat, Firefighter 1, and Firefighter 2 both days.  Registration for individual classes is not required this year, but in order to get training credits, registration with TEEX is necessary. Register with TEEX at this link to receive a separate badge with a QR code to scan for class credits.  To view the full conference training schedule, CLICK HERE To register for the Annual Conference, CLICK HERE  2022 CONFERENCE DELEGATE LISTS NEEDED Chiefs, if you have not turned in your delegate lists, you can do so by clicking THIS LINK. Please fill out the delegate Approval Form and email it to Events so that we will have time to confirm eligibility of your voting delegates before the general business sessions.

Certification Update

Certification Workshops In addition to Zoom workshops held monthly, we are offering two in-person Certification Workshops at our annual conference in Beaumont: Monday, June 27 at 8:00 a.m.; and Tuesday, June 28 at 1:00 p,m.. Both workshops are open for attendance even without conference registration. Links to register for either workshop are found HERE. Attendance is open to anyone wanting to learn more about the Certification Program but is a requirement for all Certification Coordinators. SFFMA recommends Fire Chiefs attend a workshop every three years to be aware of any changes to the Certification Program. Certification Testing HazMat Awareness and Operations exams have shown a need for some refresher training on the material as it may have been an extended amount of time since initial training. To meet this need, we are offering HazMat A/O refresher training at conference this year along with written exam sessions. Those interested in taking one of the refresher classes will need to register for a one-day pass for either Monday or Tuesday, if not already registered. Testing without the refresher is open to eligible candidates and includes multiple Firefighter I/II exam sessions. All individuals interested in testing (including one-day registrants) need to register for the exam sessions (Monday or Tuesday) and Austin staff will review eligibility before final authorization. Enrollees are responsible for checking the registration pages to verify authorization has been granted before showing up to the testing session.

Prepare Your Community Before Wildfire Strikes There have been over 29,000 wildfires in the U.S. so far in 2022, burning over 2 million acres. If your community is at risk for wildfire, make sure your residents are prepared before disaster strikes. The NVFC and U.S. Forest Service offer the Wildland Fire Assessment Program to provide training and resources to help fire service volunteers conduct home evaluations and provide residents with recommendations to protect their property and make their community more fire adapted. Learn more.

CHEMTREC® HELP Award CHEMTREC® is the world’s leading source of 24/7 call center support and information during hazardous materials incidents. For over 50 years, our engagement with emergency responders around the world has been the engine that drives our success. In light of that relationship, CHEMTREC has partnered with the NVFC to award $10,000 to two volunteer fire departments in the U.S. that are also members of the NVFC. The awards are intended to help the fire departments enhance their response capabilities and increase local preparedness to respond to and prepare for hazardous materials incidents. Read on.

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