Promote, Unify, Represent and Educate the Fire Service of Texas |
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Executive Director's Corner |
Greetings SFFMA members,
Fall has arrived, and with it (slightly) cooler temperatures, shorter days, and anticipation of the upcoming holiday season…yes, those holidays will be upon us before we know it!
The fall also ushers in the slate of SFFMA district meetings and conventions. I and other members of the executive board have been hitting the road to attend as many of the meetings as our schedules allow. The goal is of course to keep you abreast of all the activities being undertaken at the state level such as testing, certification, upcoming conference plans, and development of the new data management system for everyone’s use. With that said, I am excited to report that we have conducted our first online testing session, with several more scheduled over the next few months.
Although we want to provide regular updates using platforms like this newsletter, I’ve always felt there is nothing better than getting together and visiting face to face. I want to express my sincere thanks for the opportunities to provide a report at your meetings, to answer questions, and to make note of your concerns. I consider attending district functions and other meetings to be an integral part of my job, and I will continue to take every opportunity to do so as we go along. It is as important to me as I hope it is to you. I am committed to serving you and to do my part ensuring that, as an association, we are moving in the right direction and addressing the needs of the members to the best of our ability.
Hoping to see you “out there” at some point,
Tim R.
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Data Management System Update |
Happy October everyone. I’m going to pick where I left off.
The goal is to develop a system that can be easily maintained without prior knowledge and have a low cost of running and maintenance.
How are we to achieve this?
The system will be designed in modules. I will follow a loose Microservice Architecture for the backend and database.
We will have:
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Discipline: Where we define what a certification is, what are its requirements, name, abbreviation, family, etc.
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Core Training: Objective-based training, with Course Completion maps to objectives
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Crosswalks: Ability to map previous training objective to a new one. Very Important!
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Reciprocity: IFSAC, TEEX Proboard, TCFP Certifications, etc.
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Test: This is where we will house all the testing information, other modules will be added for QuestionMark and other providers as needed.
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Skills: Where we will keep the skills so we can randomize them and perform skills tests.
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Entity: This is where we define the roles and responsibilities for entities (Fire Departments, Industrial, Sustaining, etc.).
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Membership: Where we set the price of membership, the renewal date, and add/remove membership types when needed.
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Discrete Training: CBTS, TIMP, Certification Workshop and other courses not defined in Core Training.
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Payment Oracle: Allows us to link to our external payment system for invoicing, receipts, credit card and ACH payments.
That is a brief overview of the system, which will consist of over 30 modules. Each one will be a self-contained module equipped with its own data, which will allow us to update any module without affecting the other modules. This means that if a bug was introduced to one module, it won’t have any effect on the others.
For more information on other benefits and downsides to this type of architecture, Google: Mastering Chaos - A Netflix Guide to Microservices. It can be little complex, but it shows how Netflix uses a similar architecture for their system.
I’m aware that the backend of systems isn’t most people’s cup of tea, so I won’t go into further detail. In future posts, we can start going over the UX (User Experience) that will be available to the public, including some deep dives into some important workflows like ‘Recording Training Objectives’.
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CERTIFICATION BOARD VACANCIES
We continue to have two vacancies on the Certification Board. Zone 13 (northeastern side of Permian Basin District) and Zone 15 (Wintergarden District) are currently unrepresented in decisions made by the Board. A map of the districts is available HERE.
To appoint a prospective new Board Member, the District must submit their name and resume in writing to the President (Richard Van Winkle) and Executive Director (Tim Rutland) of the SFFMA. The SFFMA President fills vacancies due to unexpired terms caused by any reason. See requirements here.
TESTING
SFFMA Certification Staff are currently working to set up testing sessions around the state. We have a small number of laptops and can provide testing support while bringing college/university testing centers online for walk-in testing.
To request a testing session and check availability, we will need your department to e-mail us and provide:
1) Number of students who will attend the session
2) Verification of space for up to 15 firefighters with adequate spacing for COVID mitigation
3) Verification of robust WiFi able to handle up to 15 individuals logging in at the same time
We give preference to the host department’s examinees but open up remaining slots to all who are eligible.
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Membership News
It is about time for our renewal season. In November, we will be sending out invoices for 2022 membership. Now is the perfect time to clean up your rosters, remove any people that are not active with your department, and fill in the missing information (date of birth, last 4 of SSN and personal email addresses). This information will make renewal so much easier! Thank you for helping!
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Convention News and Events
SFFMA Annual Conference will be held June 24 - 29, 2022 in Beaumont.
Reservations for lodging are now open!
Hotel info: MCM Elegante, 2355 I-10 South, Beaumont, TX 77705, Phone: 409-842-3600
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Recruitment and Retention Workshop - Lubbock
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Agenda Sneak Peek!
2-Day Recruitment and Retention Workshop
Lubbock, TX – November 6-7, 2021
Chief John Oprandy and Adapt President Greg Redden Will Be Teaching You How To:
- Keep Current Volunteers Engaged and Motivated.
- Implement Healthy Leadership Practices
- Lead vs. Manage
- Set Goals to Improve Your Department Based on a Needs Assessment
- Market Your Department to Potential New Recruits
- Recruit for Diversity and Equity
- Use Your SAFER Grant for FREE Marketing Materials
- Develop a Volunteer Recruitment Campaign
*To ensure the safety of attendees and instructors we will be following all Texas COVID-19 protocols and limiting the number of attendees to 30*
Dates: November 6-7, 2021
Times: Saturday 9:00 A.M. – 5:30 P.M., Sunday 8:00 A.M. – 3:30 P.M.
Location: Hyatt Place Lubbock
Address: 2309 Mac Davis Ln, Lubbock, TX 79401
Number: 1-888-492-8847
Room Block Name: SFFMA Texas
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Lavender Ribbon Report Update to Reduce Occupational Cancer Risks
IAFC VCOS and the NVFC are proud to release this important report focused on providing actions to reduce the risk factors of cancer in the fire service. We have started to see great strides by departments and responders everywhere in combating and preventing cancer, but more still needs to be done. The time is NOW to make changes.
Our hope is that this report provides a helpful summary of best practice solutions to implement in your departments to prevent cancer. We’ve aimed to keep this report focused and easily digestible to give you
real takeaways and solutions. Divided into 11 best practices, the report provides background information, statistics, resources and action items to put into place.
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Sisters in Fire Event
On Saturday, October 9, Texas A&M Forest Service hosted the inaugural Sisters in Fire event in cooperation with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the USDA Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Austin Fire Department. This was a hands-on, learning experience for young women, ages 12-17, to explore wildland firefighting and emergency response led by an all-female cadre of instructors and support staff. Thirty participants from 2 countries and 3 states spent the day exploring engine operations, dozer operations, chainsaws, fire weather, fire culture and communications activities. And it really was a great and exciting day for not only the girls in attendance but also for our instructors to share their passion for their work.
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New from IFSTA:
This is the Essentials of Firefighting, 7th Edition in Spanish and is the first one to be published since the 4th edition many years ago. IFSTA partnered with one of our international members, the FIRES Foundation, to develop this Spanish translation.
One of the unique features about this Spanish translation by the FIRES Foundation is that the manual has been translated page by page and lines up completely with the English edition. This translation allows students to use existing E7 support products, which contain page references. Additionally, this marks the first two-volume IFSTA manual to be released! Description in Spanish available on the store page.
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