Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2008 - (Page 7)

executive director’s report By Dr. Jim Gaston M ore than a decade ago, the leaders of the Texas Fire Chiefs Association (TFCA) decided to change the structure of the organization by adding regional subdivisions. The move was made to prevent any one area of the state from dominating the leadership of the association. These new leadership positions were called “regional directors,” and each one had full voting rights on the Executive Board. The regional directors are elected by the TFCA members in their regions and serve two-year terms. The regional lines were copied from a map then used by a state agency. Each region of the state was given a representative on the TFCA Executive Board. The number of regional directors maintained about equal voting strength with the statewide elected officers of TFCA as changes were adopted over the years. The Rio Grande Valley fire chiefs petitioned the Executive Board in 2003, and the Valley Region was formed. Since then, there have been seven regions and seven regional directors serving on the Executive Board. In August 2007, the TFCA Executive Board adopted a revised map of the seven TFCA regions. The purpose of the new map was to align the TFCA region boundaries with the boundaries of the state’s Councils of Governments (COGs). Each of the new TFCA regions contains a group of COGs. The reason for realigning with the COG boundaries is that the COGs are state planning regions for emergency-management purposes. The TFCA regional directors have been called on during the implementation of the Texas Intrastate Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS) to identify regional fire resources and to encourage fire departments to list their available mutual-aid assets in the state database. During the 2007 hurricane season, TFCA regional directors communicated with their constituent members as preparations were made for the potential landfall in the Lower Valley. The COGs have received state and federal funds to identify and improve fire-based resources for homeland security. The implementation of the TIFMAS makes it necessary for the TFCA regions and the COGs to be using the same boundaries. In 2007, TXDOT realigned DPS regions to match the COG boundaries. A listing of the COGs in each TFCA region follows: CENTRAL REGION Chief Chris Connealy • Heart of Texas Council of Governments 11 These busy fire chiefs have pledged their time and resources to participate in at least four Executive Board meetings and two regional meetings per year, plus the annual conference and governmental affairs when needed. They deserve our recognition, our support and our thanks. TEXAS FIRE CHIEF Spring/Summer 2008 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2008

Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2008 Contents Executive Director’s Report Region Realignment Map Above and Beyond 2007 Conference Highlights ‘Service Above Self’ Texas Commission Implements Southwest Fire Rescue Conference Program Membership Application Who Are Those Guys? Alarms for the Hearing Impaired Recent Calls Index to Advertisers

Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2008

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