All Blog Posts Tagged 'FDIC' (32)

A mentor once told me “Good things are hard but hard things are great.”  It always stuck with me, sadly though he passed away before I could put his great mentorship and guidance to use.  I often think of him in a lot of my daily interactions and regret losing touch as my career took me on a new path.  I share this because I feel his message warrants a larger stage, so with that I’ll keep this as short and to the point as I can.

When you’ve failed a test, missed out on a career,…

Out there today there is triple the number of people who want the job than there are “on the job.” Over time many give up, they settle for a separate career, or they become consumed with resentment towards others who got the job. The Fire Service whether you volunteer, or career is the greatest job in the world, no matter if you either are paid or not it is a profession. That being said, there is a large population of citizens and volunteers out there who want this job. With the competition…

Look at your Fire House right now, look at the people that make it up. Are they being inspired? Do they appear to be a goal setter, the person that gets it or do they lack passion and are just there. Inspiration is an important thing in life, it is a psychological fact that human beings work harder and set goals for success by being inspired.

You

Let’s start with you first; are you inspired? What inspires you? Do you find inspiration in something or from…

 What comes to mind when you hear “The Pursuit of Happiness?” For me it’s a lot of things, first would be finding what makes you happy. What makes you feel fulfilled? What brings you joy? What defines success to you?

Success. That’s what we feel defines true happiness. Be that as it may, than what defines success?

The word pursuit is…

I was watching a Simon Sinek “Ted Talks” motivational video on Leadership. He spoke on something that opened my eyes, he said “why do we do it?”

Instantly my brain adjusted to referencing how that statement could apply to me as well as the people I work with and more importantly the people we serve. I first started with why I became a Firefighter.

Why did I become a Firefighter? Such an odd question that when asked many of us are seemingly caught off guard and can’t describe…

Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) International is considered by many in the Fire Service as “the Greatest Show on Earth.” This is a place where Chiefs, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders, Firefighters and all walks of life in Emergency Services come to learn, network and more importantly get their batteries recharged.

Batteries Recharged? This got me thinking…

As I walked through the show room and the halls and took in every second of everything I could that was offered…

I returned from FDIC 2017 with the nagging impression that the American fire service remains divided into two general camps regarding our tactical approaches: those who embrace the results of research, and have modified their methods accordingly; and those who have little accord for experimental evidence, and continue to embrace familiar methods.  There was even a significant imbalance in the reactions to the different viewpoints: presenters who spoke of the duty, honor, and sacrifice…

If, like me, you are a regular visitor to the FE Community, you will have noticed a sparsity of postings over the past few weeks, my own blog included.  I suspect that the explanation for my slacking is shared by many other regular contributors, and that is the vast amount of ideas and information we are sorting through since returning from FDIC International 2017 in Indianapolis.  While I spent a lot of effort on my own presentation, adding updates right up until my assigned time on the…

So, think you know how to fight fire?  Sure you do!  And, as a reader of this blog, you’ve shown your interest in trying to keep up with all of the advances in knowledge that continue to come out of fire dynamics research.  But, have you translated this information into practical use?  That is, have you or your department made changes to your operational procedures that take advantage of the increased speed, effectiveness, and safety of the various MFA methods?  Even if you are…

Ron Kanterman, February 2017

That’s exactly what I said to the urologist on the day after Christmas, when he told me that my tests came back positive and I have prostate cancer. Actually, he said I had a “little cancer” to which I asked, “is that like being a little pregnant?” After we both had a chuckle, he started to drone on about the test results, what they mean and possible treatments. For the first 30…

Everything we do revolves around this fairly new concept for the fire service. Even keeping the fire in the room of origin is risk reduction. The National Fire Academy developed an entire curriculum and delivers it across the board from a two day state weekend program to the Managing Officer program to the Executive Fire Officer program. There must be something to it if they are pushing it out at all levels.

I recently attended the Connecticut Fire Officer’s Weekend at the…

As a servant leader hopefully you will not fall into the trap of focusing your efforts on self-serving ventures or only focusing on the organization.  As a servant leader you must be focused on what is truly the most valuable resource in the fire service, the others around you.  

It is important to remember there is no I in team.  This is a hard area to over come and it takes constant effort with successful leaders as they are always striving to get better, focused on the vision…

Officer development is far more than just attending classes.

To truly develop you must  combine a servant leadership attitude with training, education and professional experiences accompanied by sound leadership and mentoring to get a quality…

The Overhaul    

     Cultural Change for a Safer Fire Service…it starts with ATTITUDE and TRAINING!  The first step is looking at what is already in place in your department.  If someone has developed something and it is seems to be working, then maybe all it needs is a little tweak. But remember there is always room for improvement. If…

Having just weeded through a very large queue of FDIC 2016 speaker proposals, I thought I might share some tips and pearls for prospective conference speakers and presenters.  Three times or more each year, I cull through speaker proposals, grading and selecting those I believe would best serve the needs of FDIC, EMS Today (our sister magazine "JEMS" annual conference) and Pulse Check (a small New York State EMS Conference).  Some conferences limit the number of submissions, others don't. …

Every adversity you and the team you are leading will ever encounter is either a problem or an opportunity. Although one might think there are many different variables that would distinguish one from the other, there is really only one difference between the two – YOUR ATTITUDE. That’s right. Often times the difference between a problem and an opportunity has everything to do with how you look at the challenge at hand.

Opportunities exist…

I try never to make promises I cannot keep. That being understood, I'd like to share with you why you should invest your valuable time and hard-earned money to attend the annual Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC).…