Feedback from FDIC roundtable on CTC's (Brunacini/Abbott)

Anyone else out there attend the roundtable discussion on Thursday evening (4/10)?

If you missed it, Don Abbott and Chief Brunacini talked about creating a network of instructors and organizations interested in Command Training Centers, along with issues surrounding their development and operations. Four groups presented some initial work (Clay Fire District (IN), Montgomery County, MD, and a department in Montana, and Jon Brunacini, from BShifter.com).

It was interesting to see that the b-shifters wanted to create a networking site for interested departments and organizations, yet no one was talking about this Fire Engineering community site! I am certainly going to make that suggestion once I see some emails flying around, so stay tuned. It seems to make the most sense to consolidate such discussion in a place that also has links and members interested in related training topics that certainly occur within such training centers.

Don Abbott (and others) spoke about the time investment in creating new scenarios (I think they estimated about 40-60 hours), and the need to promote scenario sharing. This sounds like a nice idea, but my impression is that there are some stumbling blocks that have prevented this idea from developing into something real. Of course there is a compatibility issue across different software platforms, but I think there's enormous value in laying out the flow, teaching points, and components of scenarios that transcend software format. What kinds of issues do you see that prevent or limit the ability to share scenarios/curricula?

Bobby Halton spoke at the end about perhaps creating a two-day seminar on this topic later in the year. I think that'd be a great way to focus some time on common issues and further develop networking, so we all can learn what works well and how to avoid common pitfalls.

We'll see if anything really develops there, which I hope. What was your impression of the event and its potential?