Meeting was opened with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. The minutes of the June meeting were sent out prior to the July meeting and were accepted as presented.

Financial Report from: July 24
Available Checking: $1058.42
Available Savings: $331.89
Cash on hand: $140.50

50/50 Drawing from 4H Fair—
$96.50 added to cash on hand to make $247.00 total cash on hand. $96.50 winner Julie Butler. Bob Brown will contact Julie and deliver the money to her.

Thank you to everyone who helped with set up and represented the LCFFA at the Fair. There were a few small problems, but nothing we didn’t live through!

Danny Gillespie created a nice photo display from pictures submitted by the various departments for the fair. We voted to repay Danny for the costs of the display.

We’d like to keep adding to this display and use it for Fire Prevention as well as the Fair. If you have department photos to share, but didn’t get them in this time, please feel free to forward them now and I’ll take care of archiving them and adding them to the display.

Fire Prevention—
Will decide at the next meeting if we plan to set up Monday – Friday or concentrate only on Saturday activities. Luke suggested giving out batteries for smoke alarms again this year but would like to order them earlier then last year to insure delivery before the event. He’d also like to contact insurance agents from last year to see if they would make donations again this year. The batteries have not increased in price since last year and it would cost apx .50 cents each if we ordered 600. We will vote at the next meeting on making the purchase if we don’t receive donations.

There is a meeting scheduled at Bedford Fire on Tuesday, August 5th at 6:30 pm. I contacted Scott Gillespie to see if we could reschedule this meeting but have not received an answer at this time. If he contacts me with alternant arrangements I’ll send out a corrective meeting notice ASAP. Chief Gillespie would like to make a new Fire Prevention Educational program. For this to work it will require an ongoing commitment from the members of the volunteer departments. Please make arrangements for at least one member of your department to attend the meeting on the 5th so they can relay information back to the individual departments. We can have further discussion on this at the next County Wide meeting.

Air Evac—
Brandon Robertson attended the meeting briefly to remind us to please locate areas in our territories that could be used for predestinated landing zones. He hopes to have at least 2-3 landing sites from each department. If you already have approved landing zones please forward the location and coordinates to me and I’ll get them to Brandon so AE has a chance to do a fly over to confirm coordinates and safety. Air Evac will forward their lists on to the hospitals and other helicopter services.

I’m also adding this information to the information I have for each department so this information will also be forwarded to EMA and the Sheriff’s department.

Brandon plans to attend the next few meetings to see what kind of progress we’re making and if there’s anything he can do to help. He also pointed out AE is willing to come to each department to do LZ training or medical In-Service. I can forward contact information to Brandon for anyone who would like to set up training.

If you haven’t already done it I need a current roster from each department. Please list all members and the officers. I also need phone contact information, at least for the officers. This goes along with the update to the SOP with the Sheriff’s department. Please also mark you medical personnel and their cert levels.

NIMS
All FD members are to have NIMS 100, 200, 700 & 800B. (If you have already taken 800A you don’t have to take the B level, but anyone not having either 800 is required to take 800B) The deadline for ICS 300 for officers is October of 2008. Here is the schedule I have from Val on training in the area:

300 Day Classes:
Sheriff Department September 3 & 4 8-5
Bedford Fire Training Room July 28 & 31, July 30 & August 8, August 1 & 7
Indian Creek Fire Department: September 11 6-9 p.m. September 12 6-9 p.m. Sat. Sept. 13th. 9 a.m. – finish which should be by noon.
Marion: August 5th 5-9 and if they can’t get there until 5:30 that is okay. August 18th & 19th 5-9 same as above.

Salem August 11-13
evening Salem 8 & 9 8-5
Ellettsville: August 5, 6, & 7 days
5, 6, 8, & 9th evenings: 6-10 p.m. and Saturday 8 - 5
To register with Ellettsville you email: dlmedley@ellettsville.in.us or call 1-812-876-4819 ext 200

ICS 400 for officers is required by October 2009.

Dave Redman from the Purdue Extension office came and talked to us about a Farm Safety class to be put on at the Perdue Farm here in Lawrence County. He hopes to have enough sponsorship that this will either be a no-cost or low-cost training session. He tentatively plans to have this on a Saturday morning, probably from 8-noon. He will contact us with further information when it becomes available. Basically he attended to see if there was any interest from VFDs for this training. Bill Fields will be the instructor.

District 17B
The 17B meeting is coming up and we will need to find a replacement for Tim Deckard. Tim was elected IVFA President and the 17B District Representative position will now need to be filled. As soon as I can find out the date and time of the meeting I will let everyone know. Tim announced at the convention that he owed much to the IVFA members in Lawrence County. There were 7 representatives from Lawrence County, Tim won by 3 votes.

District 8 Training
Strategy and Tactics has been moved. Once a time is announced I’ll let everyone know. Adam Flynn will be the instructor for this class. Also planned for this year: Instructor I and Fire Officer I (early in 2009). Dates and times will be announced.

Don’t forget there is equipment available for use for training. (Ventilation, wall breaking, entrapment, etc) This is available by using the District 8 Training Trailer and Equipment. Just contact Adam Flynn at Bedford Fire for information.

Once the new Fire Training Tower for District 8 is complete it will also be available for live burns and other training. This will be in Bedford, and will belong to District 8.

If anyone has any upcoming fundraisers or training to share please let me know and I’ll forward the information to the rest of the county.