WCFA Board Meeting, Wenatchee,
December 1, 2018 – 1000hrs
Call to Order by President Kevin Curfman at 1015hrs. Danielle, Todd, Tim, Dave, Reed, Saul, new board member Greg Bailey and guest Will Judkins were all present.
Minutes from the last meeting were read. Greg Bailey motioned to approve the minutes with small revision, Saul Labanauskas seconded, motion passed.
Treasure’s report was given by Danielle. Account balances as of November 26, 2018 are as follows: PayPal undeposited funds: $200. checking: $29,407, savings: $45, 044. On the Profit and Loss YTD report our income as of November 26, 2018 was: $88,493 and expenses were: $72,644 with a net profit of $15,849. Discussion of the report ensued. Expenses yet to occur by the end of the year were discussed. An overpayment to Tim Logozzo for instructor pay was made and will be returned to the WCFA by the end of the year. Greg Bailey motioned to approve the report, Dave Rains seconded, motion passed.
Old Business
Training committee report was giving by Danielle. She reported that the RT-130 was well received this season. She asked if we should continue to have a quiz at the end. All reported that it was a good addition and had favorable results. She asked for input to the upcoming refresher and the 9 line/8 line report was mentioned. Todd said we should be sure to include the California fires. Danielle will begin working on the refresher for next season very soon. Other topics were repairing or replacing practice shelters. Danielle shared her site visit with the FACT team. It went very well and they were quite impressed with our procedures and file storage. One thing that came up from that visit was that “Fire in the Field” training (since it is accredited by DNR) is not an acceptable training for R-6 contractors. Since we promoted it at our spring meeting, we will let them know at the later general meeting today. We also discussed the need for a Yakima area instructor. Tim said he could teach some but would prefer not to. Will Judkins said he may have a guy that has previous teaching experience that might work. Tim is going to follow up and see if we can implement that. Danielle also asked if instructors needed new T-shirts. Todd (XL), Saul (L), Charlie (L), Tim (XL), Dave (L), Greg (XL). Danielle will purchase new shirts in navy for the group.
Political Action Committee
Gordy Reynaud resigned from the PAC and we asked the board for a replacement. Tim Logozzo accepted. PAC will be meeting after our general meeting today. Todd shared an agenda of actions we should implement in the next year. Many civilians don’t even know that private contractors exist. Danielle asked if we would continue as members of the Fire Chiefs. All agreed that it is good to stay connected with as many organizations as possible.
Greg Bailey attended the Fire Defense Committee meeting and he gave a report of it. They plan to add attritional full time resources to DNR. (Kevin clarified that the FDC is run by the fire chiefs). More discussion followed. Greg Bailey also attended the NWSA meeting. He shared his findings from that meeting. He said that NWSA is writing a letter to DNR to urge them to use contract resources instead of adding full time employees.
WCFA Facebook page was reconfigured by Will Judkins. Kevin still feels that this would be a great resource for our members. Will shared all the updates he did and how the site will work.
Kevin shared that the new database and website hosting was complete. The previous cost of the hosting was $262/yr. The new hosting will by $108/yr when purchased in a 3 year block. Dan Curfman our administrator feels that this will be a bigger, badder, faster server for all our needs.
Code of Ethics was discussed. Todd printed out the NWSA’s for a reference. Todd used the NWSA ethics as a template, changing names and a few things. He presented a copy to the board to be reviewed and make suggestions by the end of the month. Kevin and Todd will do the bulk of the editing. We plan to make this something for new members to agree to when they join and current member sign hopefully as an electronic signature in the database. Kevin will look in this possibility.
In the spring Kevin brought up the idea of having a resource to hand out that highlighted who the WCFA is. He said the target audience would be new members and political contacts. Danielle prepared a sample. Cost is $60 per 100. Kevin took the sample to do some edits. All seemed to like the sample.
New Business
Associations/PNWCG meeting was in November. Unfortunately no one could attend. Kevin gathered answers to the questions they ask and sent them to Katie Mergel to take to the meeting on our behalf. One of the things brought up at the meeting was the Scope of Agreement issue. Much discussion followed. Greg Bailey shared changes to the upcoming agreement. The 30 day release of resources that came up this season was intended for people, not resources. They admitted it was a mistake to remove resources.
2018 Season-Problems or suggestions: Tim Logozzo said the DNR was pre-positioning with out-of-state FD & Govn’t. Much discussion followed. Refer to PAC. Reed Gracie said closest resources aren’t always closest. Some venders are posting they are in a geographic area when in fact they are not. Are we being ethical if we are not being truthful about our resource locations?
NWSA conference is coming up March 6, 2019. WCFA will send Kevin along with one board member. All decided to only include the names of those who haven’t gone. Dave Rains, Reed Gracie and Greg Bailey. The names will be taken to the general meeting to choose one.
Suggestions for spring meeting seminar topics seem to have settled on L&I. Kevin will look into this. Meeting will most likely be May 18.
In Other New Business, Todd Grave wanted a clarification on how much some who was asked to attend a meeting by the WCFA would be paid hourly and if expenses would be included. All agreed to pay at the Lead Instructor rate, currently $22 for hours attending a meeting. Travel would be paid at the current rate and lodging in meals would be included. These expenses will be paid by WCFA for attendance at the requests of the EB, President, VP or quorum. $7500 had been set aside from saving in the May 14, 2016 meeting. (We formed a Political Action Committee (PAC) of Todd Graves, Gordy Reynaud and someone from the membership to be added at the general meeting. We allocated $7500 for the process.)
Meeting adjourned at 1310hrs.