Presidents Newsletter – October 2018

According to the calendar, and my bones, fall has arrived on Saturday the 22nd of September.  We are now in a full time swing of climate change and life as a whole change.  We are into football season, soccer games, hunting, harvesting crops and much more including temperature along with shorter days of daylight.  The end result means we need to be more cognitive of our surroundings on calls and during our normal time of day.

Did you know that when you are driving down the road and come upon a farm vehicle on the road, by state law, you are not allowed to pass if you are prohibited by the solid yellow line for No Passing Zone?  This law was changed in 2016 after it had been changed to allow for passing in no-passing zones.  The change was made in the interest of safety for all and the size of the agriculture vehicles in 2016.

Unfortunately the training committee and board of officers had to make a difficult decision to cancel the Situation Awareness Matters on Saturday, September 29th.  The attendance was just not enough to make this a program that the three organizations sponsoring this could do fiscally possibly.  The associations, Dodge County Firefighters, Eastern Wisconsin Firefighters and Badger Firefighters Association are planning on a joint sponsored seminar on Saturday, April 29, 2018.  This program will be held at the West Bend Mutual Insurance Prairie Center.

Look forward to a few half-day/evening training sessions coming from Badger Firefighters Association after January 1.  Your training committee is working very diligently to provide programs that your people will benefit from as firefighters and fire officers.

Reminder to all of our member associations is that our Annual Meeting will be held at the Allenton Fire Station on Sunday, November 4th.  Your annual dues are to be paid by this date as well.  We have a very interesting speaker for the meeting.  This is the meeting that we consider to accept any new departments as members of the Badger Firefighters Association.  To be considered for membership the department must be adjoining to a present member department.

At the meeting we will consider awarding any Request for Monetary Support Funding of a member of one of our departments that has had to deal with a tragedy, serious illness or other challenging event.  Watch your emails for the form to be presented.

Stay safe and alert serving our customers,

Ron Naab

President