Art "Chief Reason" Goodrich's Blog – December 2011 Archive (5)

2012 is just around the corner.

If you haven't already made plans for the new year, then you'd better start now.

I am speaking to volunteer fire departments.

Have you made plans to recruit, and then retain new members?

There are people in your communities who are sitting on the fence. They want to get involved in their community in some way. Do you know who they are and have you reached out to them?

The days of…

On December 22, 1999, we lost three (3) Keokuk, IA firefighters (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face200004.html).

I received the news on the fire in Keokuk, IA that claimed the lives of Assistant Chief Dave McNally, Firefighter Nathan Tuck and Firefighter Jason Bitting as they attempted the rescue of three, small children, who also perished in the fire.

The headline in the Thursday,…

My wife and I were at the mall finishing up our Christmas shopping and taking in the sights of the holiday season.

There were grade schoolers singing Christmas songs or I assumed that they were. I couldn’t hear them over the Christmas music blaring over the mall’s speakers.

There were dancing sugar plum fairies. Check that; it was mall cops chasing another shoplifter.

Everyone was in the Christmas spirit. Some could be heard complaining about how crowded it was. Others…

Note:

My other blog on the situation in Moline IL entitled “City Fires; Chief Retires” can be found here. Pertinent links to local news coverage can also be found under the Comments section.

After watching the Moline budget talks being covered on local TV, in the local papers and listening on local talk radio, I am convinced that fire departments will NEVER win another battle against manpower cuts, as…

They are questions that are often asked by both those wishing to be a firefighter and by those trying to understand why someone would be a firefighter: what does it take and why do you do it?

I will often reach back into my past and resurrect some of the mental tools that I used during my time as a firefighter. It is a characteristic that is so ingrained into your being that it is yours’ to be used for the rest of your life. You will react to decision-making in a much different…