Art "Chief Reason" Goodrich's Blog (109)

This year at FDIC, I was a lone wolf. I guess that made me more mobile and I didn’t have to worry about the schedules of others. I only had ME to worry about and my nights there were shortened considerably.

I buy two shirts when I get to the Indiana Convention Center.

I always go to the Indianapolis FD Emerald Society booth and purchase their shirt, because the money is going to a great cause. It is an awesome group that provides a valuable, time-honored service that is such a…

Captain Bill Gustin of the Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue Department was a perfect complement to FDNY Captain Mike Dugan’s opening conference address.

Where Dugan was telling the young firefighters to turn introspective; to soul search for their reasons that they are firefighters (“Why Are We Here”)-Gustin was telling them what they could expect.

From budget cuts hurting both career and volunteer departments to the changing attitudes of the public, “doing more…

For the sports-challenged, my title means that FDNY Capt. Mike Dugan hit a home run with his keynote address.

I was fortunate; like so many of us who couldn’t be there today, to watch the live streaming video. A big shout out and thank you to the FDIC technical staff for making it possible.

FDIC has been described as the Mecca and the Super Bowl of fire conferences. It is Woodstock, Lollapalooza and Farm Aid all rolled into one. And for some, it is like Spring Break at Daytona…

Blog Note: Don Rickles (young ones will need to Google) said: “We make fun of the ones we love”. So, feel the love!

For the record, I am a fire district trustee and I have struggled to find a diplomatic way to address my thoughts on this issue, so I am going to just jump in and use my usual recipe of humor, sarcasm and just a dash of cynicism.

There have been several discussions and blogs written on the “aging of the fire service”. Most of the conversations have centered…

I don’t know if I have been lucky, in the right place at the right time, blessed or a combination of the three.

I started writing my thoughts down and sharing them over 10 years ago; not only on discussion boards, but in op-ed pieces.

It started at Firehouse.com. They were in the process of rolling out a “MembersZone” section and for a subscription, you could get additional content that wasn’t accessible as part of the free membership. I was a charter member of MembersZone and…

UPDATE: Here is the link to the story of the Wednesday, March 2nd trustee meeting:

I can’t put my finger on it, but it seems as if I’m seeing more and more departments involved in some degree of discourse.

It’s running the gamut;…

Blog note: On March 6^th, many of us paid tribute to the memory of Assistant Chief Dennis Olson of the Monmouth, Illinois Fire Department, who died in the line of duty on that day in 1993. This blog raises many questions, may raise many dormant feelings, but it is done with the utmost respect for family, friends, community, fire department and most of all, Assistant Chief Dennis Olson.

Monmouth, Illinois is known as the “Maple City” in west central Illinois.

At…

Blog Note: Another public sector employee has been fired for posting disparaging remarks about their employer. Is it a freedom of speech vs. employee conduct issue?

Read the article here: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110224/NEWS/102240313

Good or bad; the explosion of the use of social media for its velocity and reach comes with some…

Edit Note: I wrote that "protesters are getting doctors' notes". It should have said "teachers". I apologize for the error.

In addition, the Taft-Hartley Act outlawed the closed shop in 1947, but allowed for union shops. The errors have been corrected.

February 23; this just in:…

With the mid-term elections behind us, we now need to look forward.

With a nation concerned about the economy and our growing deficit that was created by out-of-control spending, it should come as no surprise that spending cuts are a reality that we must face.

As a push to limit federal government begins to kick in, I believe that less federal money will be made available to local government and in particular; local fire service.

Local and state governments will be asked…

I have been in the workforce full time since I was 19 years old and now, I am 58.

I have been fortunate for almost 40 years to change jobs at my own volition. That is to say that circumstance dictated that a change was wanted/needed and I made that decision.

The same held true with my fire department. It was always my decision to change it up, move up and finally, to move on. I didn’t feel any pressure to do so; in my mind, it was time to change my focus, so I went from fire…

Blogger Alert: Joe; thanks for resurrecting this: http://community.fireengineering.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1219672%3ABlogPost%3A251410. You have inspired more thoughts.

Where it comes to the strategies that are employed at an incident scene that gets everyone back to quarters safely, are we coming from different corners?

Does this place somewhere in the…

I want to know how something works.

I want to know when something doesn’t work and why it doesn’t work.

It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a product or process. I want to know what makes it go and how to fix it when it doesn’t.

Please try to control your excitement as I tell you this…

The report on the causes of the financial crisis, as prepared by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) is out. Their website is…

My good friend, Shawn Longerich, Executive Director for the Cyanide Poisoning Treatment Coalition (CPTC) at www.FireSmoke.org sent me the video “Out of Air”; currently in Beta testing.

The video is just under an hour long and it is, as Captain Mike Gagliano of the Seattle Fire Department and a board member at CPTC pronounces; an homage to those firefighters who have succumbed to the effects of smoke inhalation.

“Out of Air” opens with a…

There should be no question as to the core mission of any fire department and that should be to help people in their time of need-any people; regardless of their circumstances that includes socio-economic.

Our passion for the job and the compassion for our fellow humans demands that we put everything else ahead of ourselves/our well-being, if need be.

But once again, the bloggers are busy churning up sentiment, punctuated by their eloquent and often emotional perceptions of the…

Have you ever been to the zoo and watched the monkeys fling their own poop at each other?

Yeah; some of you already know where this is headed.…

Note: The opinions stated in this article are based upon the information contained in the relevant links at the end of this article.

Who is Jeffery Wilkes Bassett?

Author? Actor? Jet-setter? Innocent victim?…

Over the years, fire service websites have marketed their sites with the idea that they are bringing the fire station to the firefighters; that they are creating a virtual place where firefighters from all over the world can bring their firehouse

kitchen to your firehouse kitchen; a fantastic concept.

Why do I mention the kitchen? Well;…

Apparently, it has become our mission as grandparents to provide our grandson with the Christmas season’s hottest toy.

Many of you will remember the great Zhu-Zhu shortage of…

Dedicated with utmost respect to Chicago FD, Firefighters Edward Stringer and Corey Ankum, their families and friends.

It’s Christmas Day and there is an empty chair.

It might be a favorite chair in the family room. It might be the chair at one end of…