WCFA Board Meeting, Wenatchee,
May 19, 2018 – 1000hrs
Call to Order by President Kevin Curfman at 1000hrs. Danielle, Todd, Tim, Dave, Reed, Saul and guest Pete Day were all present. Shayne Poland arrived later.
Minutes from the last meeting were read. Saul motioned to approve the minutes, Todd seconded, motion passed.
Treasure’s report was given by Danielle. Account balances as of April 30, 2018 are as follows: PayPal undeposited funds: $8,859, checking: $40,205, savings: $45, 037. On the Profit and Loss report our income as of April 30, 2018 is: $53,480 and expenses are: $25,588 with a net profit of $27,892. President Curfman will likely be paid $6000 for his work as President when it is approved in the general meeting. Tim motioned to approve the report, Dave seconded, motion passed.
Old Business
Training committee report was giving by Danielle. She went over a few things starting with the news that Tom Leuschen was going to give the association his practice shelters. She also said that if anyone needs shelters repaired that she has a connection to get that done in Twisp. We need another instructor in Yakima since James Harter has started working for DNR and won’t be available for classes in June. Kevin Weed and BJ Valdez were approved to teach RT-130 as lead instructors. New IRPG’s have arrived. Danielle will be sending them to member companies who already took training. She also brought some to hand out at the meeting. Still no word on the S-130 and S-190 rework but it’s coming. She asked, “Since the Forest Service has monitored nearly all of our instructors this season, do we need to monitor them ourselves?” Everyone felt that the FS monitoring was sufficient. We then discussed lowering the cost of the S-131 class. Danielle set the price at $120 because the S-131 was $100 and the S-133 was $20. After doing a cost vs. student’s payments assessment it was decided that it could easily be lowered to $100. Tim motioned to approve the price change, Saul seconded, motion passed. So starting today the cost for the S-131 will be $100.
Political Action Committee
Todd gave a review that currently not a lot is going on. They met early this year with Aaron Schmidt of DNR and it was a good meeting. DNR said they cannot use public funds to train private contractors. We should continue to have contact with them. Also met with the State Patrol about State Mob, Bill Slosson has a background with fire so he understands more about the process. LaBlanc was good about following through with suggestions to see that they would be implemented. We will continue to work with other agencies so that they know we are available. Todd also talked to Bill Slosson about closest resources and letting us self dispatch. No go, politically it won’t work.
Kevin spoke with a Cal Fire person who had been posting on Facebook. Wondering why we don’t get called to California fires. The discussion was that we may not be prepared to fight the urban fires; they are way different than what were used to.
Final note about Strategic Planning Meetings: We’ve got to stay on top of it. Tim agreed that we need to be present at those meetings. Harry Kronberg attended one at Kevin’s request to represent us. Todd said we need to watch political agendas to see if they are discussing fire and plan to attend.
Code of Ethics was discussed. Todd printed out the NWSA’s for a reference. Todd will write something up and forward it to the board for a vote; something to have members sign when they are joining the association.
Kevin brought the idea of tracking resources within our association during the season. Much discussion followed and it was decided not to pursue.
We have a new host for our database and we discussed dropping Server Point. Kevin will follow up with Dan about this.
Kevin brought up the idea of having a resource to hand out at different meeting that highlighted who the WCFA is. Danielle is going to look into the design and cost of a three-fold brochure.
New Business
Election of officers: President – Currently Kevin Curfman, VP – Currently Shayne Poland, EB #1 – Currently Todd Graves. Shayne is planning to resign since he is no longer in the fire service. Since we have never had a member of the EB resign mid-term much discussion and review of the by-law ensued. It was decided that the EB needed to first change the by-laws to give the President permission to appoint a member to fill the position until the next meeting where it would be voted on by the membership. This would be brought to the membership today at the general meeting for approval.
2017 Season-Problems or suggestions: Kevin had talked with Katie Mergel about Canyon Creek fire and also brought it to the state. Discussion followed.
We discussed having a Facebook page. Danielle had started one a few years ago. See if we can’t get it going again. Kevin thinks it would be a good tool for our members to keep in touch.
We discussed if we should continue to have fall meetings as our by-laws require. All decided that we think so. It will be brought to the membership later today.
In other new business, Danielle shared about the new requirement in SAM to have a notarized letter in order to have access to SAM. This has been implemented because of fraud that has occurred in this system. Danielle will share this with the membership at the meeting later today.
Shayne Poland officially resigned as VP. Kevin expressed our appreciation for Shayne’s many years of service to the WCFA. Motion to reluctantly accept Shayne’s resignation by Saul Labanasukas, Tim Logozzo seconded. Motion passed.
Meeting adjourned at 1222hrs.