Training Officers Committee
Minutes of the Meeting
April 7, 2006




Special Thanks to Westport Volunteer Fire Department for their hospitality and a wonderful lunch.

Meeting called to Order by President Steve Wells.

Introductions

Minutes were reviewed, motion to approve the minutes by Mike Ciancio, seconded and passed.

Treasurer’s Report-Not available, but we are in the black at this time.

Program: Not available today.

Old Business

Academy-Mike Ciancio advised that there are approximately 20-21 enthusiastic students in the ongoing academy. Feedback from the students has been positive. Mike said he is getting some feedback from the instructors that more practice needs to take place in the home departments to reinforce instruction. It was brought up to those present that restroom facilities must be made available to students in one form or another. Discussion followed. Mike was asked if this committee needed to review tuition and costs incurred, which was tabled until next meeting.

Anderson Valley-Anderson Valley Fire Department is seeking a FC3 instructor to sign off on a burn recently held by that department. Discussion followed.

Northtree Simulator-Kevin Jennings reported that the Northtree Simulator was received positively by the academy members and by the county fire department firefighters that spent some time there. Northtree very popular with the local departments, and is a good resource for networking of firefighters.

ROP-Mike Ciancio announced that Nona may be leaving our County. Also for ROP instructors, all blue sheets must be in by June 30th for the Fiscal year. Additionally, the scheduled EMT class will be canceled until mid September.

Website-Steve Wells said that the WebMaster would like to meet with this committee at the next meeting, to go over the website, and get some general feedback on what we would like to see changed.

New Business

Northtree Simulator-Discussion followed on having this committee provide some funding for sending students to the Simulator. Discussion followed. Gregg Smith motioned to provide 1/2 reimbursement to Westport Firefighters whose members paid ¼ of the tuition to go to the Northtree Simulator in April, seconded, and passed.

Western Propane Gas Association-WPAG will be holding two classes in Mendocino County on May 12 and 13. The first class will be in Fort Bragg, and the second will be in Ukiah. Classes have been well received in the past. WPAG would like 100 students for each class.

USAR-Mike Ciancio asked the committee to keep the momentum going on current USAR training. Gregg Smith advised that there was some interest in a county-wide team being pursued by Chief Marvin Howard. Discussion followed on planning for a County USAR class in 2007. There was additional discussion on the having another county-wide USAR drill, including when and where.

Ukiah Valley Fire Department will be hosting two classes, Fire Command 1C from May 22-26 and Incident Dispatcher May 31, June 1-2. Both classes will be held during at Ukiah Valley Fire Department.

HazMat Technician Class-At the request of Environmental Health and some local Fire Chiefs, Carl is doing some groundwork in preparation of bring the four week HazMat Technician class to Mendocino County. Discussion followed.

Rich Boehm will hosting an ICS 400 class on May 10-11 at Howard Forest Training Center. Also on April 26, there will be a Strike Team Leader Refresher held.

Gregg Smith said that Brooktrails Fire Department will be holding Driver Operator 1A and 1B sometime this year.

Danny Hervilla stated the Mendocino Fire Department will be holding a Helicopter Operations over Water class on May 18, 19 and 20. Danny also asked about the County wide HazMat Decontamination class that was discussed, and when it might be introduced to the County. Discussion followed.

South Coast Fire will be hosting an open local departments, Ropes class in late July. Class will be about 20 hours long.


Open Discussion

Mark Robertson’s last day of work will be Monday April 24.

Next Meeting

Fort Bragg, 1000 on June 2.