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Board Minutes
November 6, 2007
Cocoa Beach, FL
Members Present
Victoria Yeakley, Chair
Puddin Race, Vice Chair
Carmela Bollinger, Public Relations
Leslie Adent, Secretary
Bob Smallacombe, Past Chair
Andrea Santa, Task Force Training
Chuck Akers, Executive Director
Guests
Cheryl Edwards, Brian Haas, Charlie Raiken
Absent Excused
Fred Franceschini, Historical Task Force
Jeanine Mayo, Research Task Force
Meeting called to order
at 10:12 am by Chair Vicky Yeakley.
Officers Report
Chair
Chair Vicky began the
meeting by introducing Brian Haas from Network Software. His company
works with non-profit organizations and assists with the writing of
grants to fund projects.
Initial contact was
made with Puddin Race on this project. The idea was to provide the State
with a Juvenile Firesetter Tracking Program. The program would be role
and user based with permission access. It would have the ability to work
with other systems by interfacing. Charlie Raiken advised he has a
system down in Broward County that we could use as a base for this
project. He program is already in place and is working well for his
Juvenile Firesetter Program.
Discussion included the
need to speak with the State Fire Marshal’s Office about the program.
The State would need to be involved to administer and manage the
program. Vicky agreed to contact the State and ask for their support
with this project. There would be an annual maintenance fee of
approximately $10,000 that would need to be funded. The deadline for the
grant is November 30th, 2007 and we must move quickly to get our
application in on time.
Vice Chair
Puddin reported the
newsletter is progressing well.
The Scholarship fund is
at $1,465.68. We had eleven people attend on a scholarship at the last
conference. Money to support the fund came from a donation from Mr. Ross
and from items sold at the auction.
Past Chair
Bob advised on the PIER
Committee. Currently they are working on a Resource Disc to assist
Public Educators on where to find things. The Resource Disc should be
available in late spring.
As a note, Janet Lehman
is no longer employed by the State for Elder Affairs.
Task Force
Public Relations
Carmela would like to
get Florida’s Association of Fire and Life Safety Educators out in the
public eye. She suggested doing some PSA’s on Juvenile Firesetters
and/or smoking. Carmela suggested putting some PSA’s out on our web
site.
Membership
Chuck advised the hotel
has been signed and currently we have reserved 150 rooms. Charlie Raiken
advised he will give us as many people as we need for the conference.
Chuck is working on the topics for the classes that will be provided.
Chuck also advised about Christian Olsen Florida First program which
puts contact information on your driver’s license. It allows FHP to
contact relatives listed in the event of an accident by extracting the
information provided on the license. A booth was set up at the Fire and
Emergency Safety Expo in Manatee County this past October. Discussion
included having someone from NFPA to talk about messages we give to the
public. We are also interested in new products that are available for
consumers. This includes but is not limited to: flameless candles, car
seats, and smoke alarms.
Training
Andrea did a Generator
Safety Class in July. The generator contactor brought in a room full of
generators for show and tell. It was a good class for the beginning of
hurricane season. It was suggested that she could do the class at the
next conference.
Andrea suggested having
a class on silent call for the deaf and hearing impaired. She knew
someone who would be willing to come and talk to the group on the
subject.
New Business
Idea Bank will have the
Spanish speaking Juvenile Firesetter DVD available soon.
The Nomination of
Officers for next year’s election is in full swing. No one has yet to
come forward. The By Laws are on the web site and it was suggested to
put them into the newsletter.
Hot Issue: Banning of
Novelties Lighters. These lighters are dangerous and difficult for an
adult to identify if it is a tool or a toy. They are in the reach of
small children at specialty stores all over the country. Many foreign
countries have already banned these lighters.
Keep ideas coming for
the next cruise. May or September are good months to go. A fall leaf
peepers was suggested as a possibility.
We discussed getting
together in the last week of July on the off year of the cruise.
Vicky will be kicking
off the Smoking and Home Fires, January 8, 2008, in Washington D.C.
FFMIA approved of the travel and Vickie is our representative from
Florida.
Adjournment
The meeting was
adjourned at 1:55 p.m. |
