TEXAS FIREFIGHTER

S F F M A U P D A T E S
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR’S
CORNER
The publishing of this magazine officially
puts us into the fall season and it finds us
getting ready to ramp up for the January
planning conference, the international
conference and 2016 dues invoicing.
Regardless of what we see coming in the
next few months, we at the SFFMA office
are still working on some important
projects that have taken up a majority
of our time and efforts that we need to
update you on.
SFFMA Online – This is an ongoing
project that was supposed to be rolled
out to you in January to replace some
old programming language used to
track department training objectives
and progress toward a certification in
firefighting. Our software developers
had told us that an upgrade was being
released in December of last year and we
would be on the new system in January
2015. As you can see, that didn’t happen
so here we are, and they (the software
company) haven’t made much progress.
Unfortunately, we are at their mercy,
and even with communications with the
CEO of the company, we still don’t have
a finished product. We keep getting told
that “it’s coming”. We are working with
the company to get parts of the new online
certification module released. One of the
two biggest hangups at this point is the
ability to have a class entry page in which
a department coordinator can enter one
class and then apply those objectives
taught to multiple people in the class.
The other big project associated with the
upgrade is the conversion of our existing
data into the new database. We think we
have a plan to release some features of the
new online program in the near future.
We apologize for the inconvenience and
will work with you to make sure more
than adequate time is given for entering
your training objectives, reports, etc..
This situation is beyond our control and
we are stuck trying to make it work for
our association members.
Texas Firefighter Memorial on capitol
grounds – With the legislative session
coming to a close earlier this year, we were
quite lucky when Representative Drew
Springer (a fellow volunteer firefighter)
put an amendment on the budget to allow
for the state to help fund the expansion
of the firefighter memorial on capitol
grounds. To our surprise, it passed and
the state contributed $95,000 toward
the expansion to the memorial. We were
able to completely pay for the monument
expansion and the end result is a beautiful
expansion to the monument that will last
far beyond our lifetimes.
With the firefighter memorial expansion
project and building projects behind us we
have committed our focus over the next
year to our existing programs, updating
our online certification program,
implementing a new server, assisting
our industrial, international and EMS
divisions with some updated marketing
materials and examining the use and
effectiveness of some of the benefit
programs we offer to our members.
Our new office building continues to
serve us quite well and although we
had some issues with the closeout of
the project, the staff is quite happy
working in an environment that yields
great productivity, room for growth and
the ability to host classes and meetings
and parking spaces without having to
rent out a facility. THANK YOU to our
membership for allowing the by-law
change to pass that allows us to afford
such a wonderful building!
As always, we welcome and invite your
comments or praises on how we are doing!
Have a safe and happy holiday season!
Chris Barron
Executive Director
SFFMA STAFF
CHRIS BARRON, MBA
Executive Director
W: 512.454.3473 ext. 101
Email: cbarron@sffma.org
GABI GLASS, CMP
Event Coordinator
W: 512.454.3473 ext. 102
Email: gglass@sffma.org
KEVIN CREAMER
Certification Administrator/
Industrial Coordinator
W: 512.454.3473 ext. 103
Email: kcreamer@sffma.org
ASHLEY FINCH
Certification Assistant
W: 512.454.3473 ext. 104
Email: afinch@sffma.org
JULIE BEAUCHAMP
Sales Department Manager
W: 512.454.3473 ext. 105
Email: jbeauchamp@sffma.org
MARI GARZA
Membership Coordinator
W: 512.454.3473 ext. 106
Email: mgarza@sffma.org
JON BARRON
Facilitator / Special Projects
W: 512.454.3473 ext. 109
Email: jbarron@sffma.org
T E X A S F I R E F I G H T E R / O C T O B E R 2015 3