Accreditation

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Mc Loone on March 19, 2008 at 3:18pm

Thanks, Chief:

I agree only good can come from this. How did your strategic planning process go? Was that something your department had already engaged in during previous years, or did it come with accreditation?

In your experience are most departments doing this on the career side? Is it better to handle it internally or farm it out to a consultant? My feeling is keeping it in house with someone who can objectively view the department and separate himself/herself from the personal aspects of being a department member.

The fear on my department's end, at least from what I gather, is that we are going to move from a volunteer department to a career department. Operating as a township department on many levels has opened up numerous opportunities for standardization, which gives all five companies buying power. But, it has put a lot of administrative responsibilities to people at the township level, which I think is feeding fears. I think the fear that we are going to become career vs. volunteer with a "township chief" is one of the hardest obstacles we have yet to overcome.

Permalink Reply by Chuck Atchley on April 11, 2008 at 3:00pm

We are a small department, 97, and we are considering beginning the accreditation process. Is it absolutely necessary to have a "full time" accreditation manager or can this be handled by someone in a current staff position (40-hour)? Should our accreditation manager and/or myself serve as a peer assessor before we begin the process?

Permalink Reply by Skip Coleman on April 11, 2008 at 5:50pm

Yes

Permalink Reply by Skip Coleman on April 13, 2008 at 8:08am

You do noit need a full time accreditation manager. You do however, need one person to be the manager. This person will have to be registered with the Center.

Permalink Reply by James Day on February 8, 2009 at 10:20am

I served as the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department's (AFRD) Accreditation Manager for over five years. I have served as an instructor, Peer Assessor, and Team Leader for the Commission Fire Accreditation International (CFAI). We (AFRD) originally sold the accreditation process to our members with the wrong emphasis. The principle reason for engaging on the process is the Self-assessment. The CFAI Self-assessment phase gives your department the credible evaluation you need for improvement. Organization assessment is the reward of the process not the award of accredited status.