WCFA General Meeting, Wenatchee,
December 1, 2018 – 1400hrs
Call to Order by President Kevin Curfman at 1405hrs. Danielle and 15 members were present.
Minutes from the last meeting were read. Greg Bailey motioned to approve the minutes, Harry Kronberg 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. Harry Kronberg motioned to approve the report, Greg Bailey seconded, motion passed.
Old Business
Kevin shared information from the earlier board meeting of which most will be presented shortly. We are continuing to work on the Code of Ethics. He also shared that we are going to pay for those who will be attending meeting on the WCFA’s behalf at the request of the board at the current lead instructor’s pay of $22 plus expenses.
Danielle shared about the earlier Training Committee meeting. See the board minutes for full details about that meeting. It was noted that the Fire in the Field program that we had endorsed in May was now not accepted by the Forest Service.
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. We set aside $7500 from our savings in 2016 to fund this.
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. We have been working on it for 2 years and have overcome the issues the old site was having. 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. A Will Jenkins asked about loading records directly into the database instead of having to send them in. Kevin felt that was not done in the past due to storage limitations in the database. Kevin will ask about it.
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: Inconsistencies are great concerns. What’s coming in the new agreement? Greg Bailey said the agreement is posted on fedbizopps.gov. Kevin discussed some of the changes in the agreement.
One new member was tabled until the spring meeting because we only had the paperwork and no one to represent them.
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 were put in a hat and Greg Bailey was chosen.
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 1535hrs.