Fire Service Day 2002: Was the effort worth it?
The 2002 Minnesota Legislative Session is history. I call it a "mixed bag" when it comes to results. Yes, the fireworks legislation became law, but we did regain funding for our Haz Mat teams. So, we lost and we won. Now, we can start planning for next year's session and gearing up our efforts. Part of that planning involves our Fire Service Day, when we travel to St. Paul and tell lawmakers how we feel about the issues, which impact our profession.
The Arrowhead Regional Firefighters' Association is evaluating Fire Service Day and for good reason. It costs the organization about $3,000 to buy the shirts, send in the registrations and rent the bus. I'll be honest with you; I have raised the question about the effectiveness of this effort. No, I don't want to see this activity eliminated or the region's participation diminished. I do believe we have to look at the results achieved and not achieved and also, the huge cost of this effort. Can we reduce expenses and still send just as many people? I believe we can do this, but it will mean that either the individual firefighters or their departments will pick up some of the costs. Perhaps the Arrowhead organization should pay for two registrations for participating fire departments and also charge a small fee to offset the bus rental expenses. Those departments sending more than two people would have to pay for the registrations, the shirts and part of the bus rental. These are ideas that should at least be explored before we head back to St. Paul.
As far as effectiveness is concerned, we should start a "scorecard" system with our lawmakers. It would simply be a rating system to see if our elected officials are aligning themselves with our issues. At the end of the session, the Arrowhead Region would issue this report and send it out to all of the members. Right now, we go to St. Paul, talk to the lawmakers and then head home. With the scorecard, we are holding legislators accountable. When election time comes, we can bring out the scorecard and remind the lawmakers how they voted.
Finally, we need the Arrowhead organization and its members to be more politically active. We should consider a "response team" of 6 to 12 people who can leave their jobs at a moment's notice and head to St. Paul to testify or lobby our lawmakers on issues. From time to time, we need to get people to the capitol in a hurry when a major fire service issue needs support or defeat. This idea of a response team, which isn't mine by the way, should definitely be considered. I give credit to Steve Skogman of the Mountain Iron Fire Department for coming up with it. And, if the Arrowhead has to put out some expense money for this team, I feel it would be money well spent.
I really hope that the members of the Arrowhead Regional Firefighters' Association will consider these ideas and act on them soon. Let's not wait until the next session is already underway!