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

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
"Yes," I will say, "but there has been a little division, under certain conditions,
in certain parts of ~he country."
And of course, they know that, because they are serving you people through the
Signal Men’s Association and Chief O’Banion in Boston,; yes, they know that the New
England Association of Fire ’Chiefs is not a divisior~ of the International. ,Therefore,
they wil! say to me as Chairman:
"Then, you do not represent the entire Fire Chiefs of the country?"
And of course that is quite true. And therefore, we do not come before the Federal
Communications ,Co~mmission with a complete, full slate and a united front.
Now, in order to be sure that this Manual gets the widest use and that it gets the
approval of the Federal .Communications Commission--which it must have or el’so we
are out of luck it should bear the name of this Association.
I have no part whatever in this. I haven’t even discussed this with the Executive
Board of the International Ass.ociation of Fire Chiefs.
It came to me last night when I was working dn the Manual that, well, I am going
down there and there is going to be a seriously loose end--and I may be caught short.
So then I talked with one or two of your officers. I talked with President Molle.y
and I explained the situation, and he asked me to present it to you. I talked with Chief
McAlpine--who has left, just now, by cab, and he said to me:
"Roi, I am sure that I could speak for our Executive Ccmmittee in saying that
anything you do for the New En.gland Ass.ociation of Fire Chiefs will have our endorsement,
because we are with you one hundred per cent in what you are doing."
So that as your Technical Consultant it is nay hope that we can. put the name of
the New England Ass’.cciation of Fire Chiefs on that Manual.
The only question, that might come up is:
"Why is the New England name separate, and. as a separate entity?"
Well, it so happens that this Association is not fully established by law as a regional,
or what.have.you, of the International. That has no bearing on your division
of the International; it has no bearing on any status that may exist between this association,
the International Association or the Signal Men’s Association--or any other group
whatever. But it merely strengthens the Ccmmittee’s hand when we go to Washington
to .present this for approval, which will affect the whole nation’s fire service.
I did not know what action you would care to take, but I would ~ather inv.ite the
hop~ tl~at you would approve the Committee including you in its representation, regardless
cf any condition which may exist between yourselves or the Internationa! Association
of Fire Chiefs, New England Division.
I hope that I have made myself clear. I can see International Vice-President
Thomas !ooking at me and wondering what I am talking about. But I hope that I have
made this clear, both to him and to the members of the New England Division of the
International, and to yo.u boys of the New England Association--what we hope to do,
and by "we". I mean my committee on communications, which happens to include all
of these other groups and does not at the present time include the very important group
of the New England Association of Fire Chiefs, as represer~ted in this rocm.
If there are any questions, I shall be glad to try to answer them.
CHIEF WELl:S: What is it that you are trying to do? What is it-that you are going
to offer, briefly? You said something about a glossary of terms, but really, you went
so fast, Roi, that I couldn’t get what you were driving at.
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