California Fire Technology Directors Association

New 1-29-07

ITerry Koeper ask me to put this on the website. Attracting woman to the fire service has always been a problem, click here to view more information about this topic, Click here.

New 1-26-07

Its that time of the year again for the .Art Mendez Scholarship, which is offered through Allen Handcock College, Click here for more information.

New 1-25-07

STEAC Activities: The Statewide Training and Education Advisory Committee (STEAC) is working on the T&E Strategic Plan (information below) and Policies and Procedures for Accredited Regional and Local Academies . They are also comparing the NFPA 1021 Standard for Fire Officer with the California Fire Officer and Chief Officer Career Development Guides for currency and relevance to the National Model. Additionally, they are evaluating the Chief Officer Management Courses for appropriate “off the shelf” instructional materials and textbooks. And last, STEAC just approved a Beta Test delivering the Fire Officer classes in an on-line and hybrid format.

California T&E Strategic Plan: STEAC will have a conference call on Thursday, February 8, 2007, to vote on the final draft (Draft 3.0) of Blueprint 2020 California State Fire Service Training and Education Strategic Plan 2006. A copy of the document is attached. If you have any input, please send it to me at: dancoffman@aol.com by February 1^st. David Senior and myself represent you on STEAC.

FESHE Conference: The 9th annual Fire and Emergency Services Higher Education (FESHE) conference is June 2 - 4, 2007 and will be held at National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg , Maryland . Information will be coming in the Newsletter. FYI. California should be well represented, Chief Ronny Coleman will be the Keynote Speaker and a presentation on the California T&E Strategic Plan will be made.

Also, Terry Koeper of Crafton Hills and Ralph Del Ossa of Long Beach continue to represent us on the FESHE Steering Committee throughout the year and Tim Capehart of Bakersfield is the President of the International Association of FESHE.

New 1-25-07

CFTDA Membership: The 2007 Membership Form is attached, please complete the form and attach your payment for membership. Also, please offer our invitation for membership to all of your Fire, Emergency Service and Public Safety faculty. The bigger the membership, the better the network and stronger we are. Steve Dixon of College of the Canyons is the Treasurer. He can be reached at: steve.dixon@canyons.edu

Old 2-22-06

Its that time of the year again for the .Art Mendez Scholarship, which is offered through Allen Handcock College. Click here for more information.

Old 2-22-06

The Fire & Emergency Services Higher Education (FESHE) Conference will be held in Emmitsburg, MD, June 3-5, 2006.

The Conference announcement has been sent by Virtual LAMP Post (VLP) email. To subscribe to VLP please visit the bottom of webpage http://usfa.fema.gov/about/subscribe

To see the posted FESHE announcement please visit our February 9, 2006 VLP archives at the bottom of webpage http://www.usfa.fema.gov/training/nfa/higher_ed/forums/

Contact Lori Welch at Lori.Welch@dhs.gov

Old 10-14-05
Here is the link to Dan Coffman discussion page. The discussion page concept came from the last Directors meeting.

Go to the Blackboard Web page:
http://coursesites.blackboard.com/ ? Go to Login Here on the right side of the screen, in User: type in CFTDA, in Password repeat the same as entered under User and click on Login. Under My Courses click on CA Training & Education Discussion and follow the instructions in the Announcement.

If you have any questions or need assistance please contact Dan Coffman at: dancoffman@aol.com.

Old 10-6-05
Below is the California Fire Technology Directors Association consolidated response to the three question survey the State Fire Marshal asked for. SFM CFTDA Survey

Old 9-21-05

Here is a link to the new complete White paper, please read the article below for some back ground on the white paper. Thanks to Richard Bridges from Santa Ana for the article.

Four years ago after our meeting with the SFM, newly appointed at that time from CDF. The request was formulated by Orange County Training Officers Association and approved by the Orange County Fire Chiefs Association and forwarded to the SFM. Santa Ana College has representation at both of these meetings. We were the first Regional Academy in the State and the Orange County fire service has been involved in the evolution of state fire training for nearly 30 years.

The core of the report is this one recommendation. That the SFM give to Santa Ana College a series of course numbers such as 100 numbers at a time, and allow us to assign them at our level rather than using the request system now in place. The reason for the change was that it is simply ridiculous to take up to six weeks to assign a class number and that by allowing regional the ability to assign the numbers and verify faculty assignments that we could expedite service to fire departments throughout Orange County. Let me give an example of why the system needs overhaul. If Santa Ana College wants to deliver a class on ventilation to Orange County Fire Dept. we can complete the entire process in less than 4 hours. Four hours! Not 4-6 weeks but four hours. And quite frankly the actual labor involved is about 45 minutes.

If Orange County wanted us to do a Fire Officer class and they wanted it in a week or so and we had approved state faculty it would still take 4-6 weeks to get a number out of SFM. And frankly, that doesn't serve the customer. Thus, the request for pre assigning numbers. The regional would still be accountable for insuring compliance with state guidelines, but hey, we do that now. Our college also prints our own handouts and Fire Officer curriculums.

And you should be aware that there has been more than one discussion with Chiefs about pulling the entire state fire marshal training program back and returning it to the California Fire Chiefs Association, or alternatively, just abandoning the system and setting up a system that would be run by the Community College system.

Old 8-16-05

Here is a link to a website that is getting a lot of attention lately, I will talk more about it
in future articles.

Old 8-10-05

I have some good news for all board members. As you know the recent Public Safety Conference that CFTDA was responsible for in Sacramento was a great success, well the bills have been paid and CFTDA was issued a check for $11,000 for all of our hard work. Thanks again to all who helped out.

Old!! 8-9-05

Art Cota has retired, he has taken over as the Fire Director for Shasta College. Good Luck Art in your new endeavor. We haven't heard yet who will be taking his place. This will be a concern to us all, stay tuned.

Old!!

The IAFESHE association is coming along well. I will post some of the work that is being done on the Fallen Firefighter Memorial walk-way, this will be of interest to everyone. I am working on the web-page for it, we hope to have all the paperwork for our non profit status completed by the first of the year. The next FESHE conference will be a great one to attend. There is a lot happening I will try to keep everyone up to date.

Old!!

The Community College Homeland Security Conference is over, and a great success. Thanks to Jerry Austin, Phil Kelleher, and all of those who helped out. The final bills have not been paid yet, so I don't know how much we made. The Conference Evaluations were all positive. I just received yesterday a re-imbursement check for the $1,000 we fronted for materials and supplies. I video taped most of the conference let me know if you would like a copy of it, the editing is just about complete.

Old!!

The Community College Homeland Security Conference is progressing well. Notices have been sent out with ten confirming already. Here is the flyer that went out " Announcement ".

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The new Fire Prevention Simulator software program will be released at the April meeting in Bakersfield. Chief Colman was not able to make it, so software distribution will take place at the next meeting.

OLD!!

Click Here to download the FESHE new graphic logo.

OLD!!

Click here for information on the new SFM Fire Officer Cmd 1-C class.

OLD!!

Can Homeland grant monies be used for CA. SFM Rescue Systems classes? Click here to find out.

California Community College's VTEA Reauthorization Survey

Above is the address for the California Community College's VTEA Reauthorization Survey. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. Please fill it out and submit it at your earliest convenience. Your responses will give California Community Colleges a voice in the coming reauthorization debates and help let others know that VTEA programs are important to our colleges.

We need your input by May 1, although responses will be accepted through May 10. The quick response is needed because Vice Chancellor Boatright is going to Washington D.C. the first week in May. She will be using the survey results in discussions with members of Congress, the US Department of Education, and at the National Association of Career and Technical Education director's meeting.

Responses from all groups (administrators, faculty, students, project directors, community members, and others) are invited. Community responses are especially helpful. Please forward this email and web link to others who are involved. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you!

Merlyn J. Newlin, DPA
Dean, Vocational Education Services
Chancellor's Office
California Community Colleges
1102 Q Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-327-5494

The 2004 FESHE Conference