Michigan Fire Service Instructor’s Association
Executive Board Meeting
May 7, 2003
Minutes

Executive Board Meeting
Macomb Community College Regional
May 07, 2003

Call to Order: V.P. Cousins called meeting to order at 11:00 a.m.
Roll Call:
Present: Cousins, Wilson, Bigger, Sytsema, Underwood, Lawfield
Absent: Austin, Bloomstrom, Gries, St. Croix, Schwarz, Mata, Tracey
Minutes from Last Meeting: Accepted as read.
Communications: Change Chief Purchase business mailing to Norton Shores FD from Plainfield FD
Treasurer Report: No Report

Standing Committees:
Constitution and By-Laws: No report
Public Relations: Nothing to report
Membership: Nothing to report
Education/Research: No report
Instructor of the Year: Nothing to report
Conference/Program: Austin and Cousins are working on obtaining a flashover simulator for conference. Conference is coming together.

Special Committees:
Joint Council: No report
FFTC: No report
Fire Service Expo: Detail between Fire Service Expo and MFSIA all set.

Application for Membership: No report

Old Business:
Fire Officer Curriculum: Letter per request of MFSIA sent to FFTC re: curriculum comments. Letter received from Schwartz to Austin Re: U.P. Fire Officer classes. Discussion ensued re: the different FO classes that could be developed in the State due to dislike of the MFRI Curriculum. Lawfield brought up for Denny Fouchia a concern re: Firefighter I/II practical testing regarding ropes and knots. Discussion followed with Cousins asking for more details on concerns.

New Business:
Ken Lawfield brought up for discussion the position of MFSIA in regards FFTC /CIS / Training funding issues. Cousins responded with explaining these are two separate issues 1- CIS potentially taking over parts of the fire marshal division which would include FFTC and 2- the training funding bill. Regarding CIS and FFTC, as we understand it, this decision is going to be an Executive Order from the Governor's office, which does not leave much for discussion. The second issue, on the training funding, at our last MFSIA Board meeting in Mt. Pleasant, we discussed this topic, at that time we were told of a proposal that would shift funding from the insurance companies to vehicle registrations and the police and EMS was interested in joining the fire service for this funding and it would be split among each of the three services. We discussed the pros and con's of this and left with no clear decision but leaned towards keeping the training funding as is. President Austin and Vice President Cousins later learned that the Chief's Association had some good contacts in the Senate who were supporting this bill and that the insurance companies lobbyist would help support this funding bill / source and not oppose it in it's original content (funding thru the insurance industry). With this information, and believing the best thing for the fire service and the instructors in this State was to support the Chief's in this training-funding bill. The Chief's have been working on this for some time and have done a great job with it. This bill if it were passed, would provide money for training of fire fighters in the State of Michigan, which is what we the MFSIA are all about. A question was raised as to who Austin and Cousins were representing... Cousins was very specific on the fact that Austin and himself are representing the Instructors and the betterment of the fire service. This bill would benefit the entire fire service and that was the thought process behind the decision to support this bill. Cousins also explained MFSIA's training bill representative for several years has been Chief Dave Purchase from Norton Shores. Chief Purchase was given the direction from Austin and Cousins to take back a change of support, to coincide with the Chief's on the direction that would be most profitable for the fire service. Don Bigger requested a vote of support for the direction Austin and Cousins are leading the MFSIA, Underwood said a motion was not needed but a vote of support was taken and was unanimously endorsed.

Good of the Order:
Cousins thanked Macomb Community College for hosting this regional meeting and thanked Brent Chartier, Supervisor, Employee Assistance Center for a well-done presentation on various training programs.

Adjournment: 13:00

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Sytsema
Secretary