NEAFC 31st Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW EN’GLAND ASSOCIATION 0F FIRE CHIEFS
what to. do until the adjuster gets there. It is important that the people know as soon
as possible what the insurance business wants them to do. Newspapers, radio, word
of mouth--those are the three ways we tell the public what to do.
.CHAIRMAN ERSKINE: I have a question here that was left over from last year.
It is from Chief C. E. Jacobs of Wakefield, Mass. "Do yo.u feel a local public relations
program on the part of a fire department would, be of any advantage?" I am
going to ask Westervelt if he wants to tackle that one.
MI~. WESTERVELT: I think that a program of building goodwill with the public
is going to pay c.ff with any fire department. It doesn’t have to be a professional program
because each one of us is a public relations council. Each one is engaged in public
relations in daily work, and a local public relations program is going to acquaint
the citizens with what the Chief wants to do--what he is trying to do to solicit and
elicit aid fro.m the public in building a more highly regarded fire department.
I don’t believe any single Chief in this room can sit back and~ say that we don’t
needl g.ood public relations. You need to court the goodwill of the public for ttie advantage
of your own fire department.
CHAIRMAN ERSI(INE: I think it couldn;t have been more than six weeks to two
months~ ago that I saw in the paper that either a regional or national meeting of Police
Chiefs had adopted a resolution on that very point. They were recommending that
their variou’s chiefs engage in a well-conceived public relations program which would
make the people of their particular communities more conscious of what they do, and
in that line I think it might be a swell thing for you fellows to give some thought for
yourselves.
CHIEF DOUOLAS, Lakewood, Rhode Island: Will Mr. Westervelt explain more in
full how outside adjusters adapt themselves to local conditions?
MR. WESTERVELT: First of all, let-me say this--that the adjusters from our own
organization are in the same category, and are brought in only when they have had
sufficient experience to be able to handle these properly. In a catastrophe operation,
such as Worcester, you can’t afford to have a man there who doesn’t know his ,business.
It would slow down the operation because you would have to watch him tco carefully.
No. 1, we bring in men who have been trained, are experienced and have been
operating under strenuous trials of emergency.
No. 2, that man--whether he be from the South, West or East has been
trained by our organization to a pattern. Our plan of operation is the same in California
as in Massachusetts, and so a man from California can move in. here, if necessary,
and be ful~ at home, but he doesn’t know local conditions. Now I mentioned before
that Worcester conditions and prices, for example, are nct the same as those for
Boston, Portland or anywhere else.
First we must establish a uniform price basis. I don’t say uniform cost for each
brick; in other words, how m~ach it would cost to put a square of rcofing on, or 100
feet of siding on. These are basic reconstruction costs, so first of all those costs are
established, and then the adjusters who come in here are briefed on those costs. They
are briefed on local conditions, deviations from normal practice, and when a man goes
out in the field, even though they are from Texas, they would do as good a job as the
man frcm the State of Maine office or the Worcester office.