From the Desk of
Hello again from Southern California. Our November seminar is just around the corner.
We have a great seminar lined up for your continued education and social gathering with fellow investigators.
This year has been a tough year for all aspects of fire investigations. I said in my March message that budgets were tight, and training was not a high or affordable option. I heard from one of our Directors, who had just been advised by his new chief, that he was cutting his authorization of four a year down to two. I am constantly being advised by local (San Diego County) members that they are on a shoe string budget. I hope that the administrators of these agencies are aware of the NFPA 921 and NFPA 1033 requirements for continued education.
The Roundtables are turning out excellent training of four hours to one or two day sessions. Still, the local budgets are balking at letting their investigators go. I strongly support a close relationship between Arson Task Forces and the Roundtable members.
Recently, a couple of Roundtables and ATF’s have parted ways. Public and Private issues appear to be the reason. Years ago, Roundtable 12 – San Diego had this problem. Our solution was that you have a general meeting first, with general information being shared. Then the public sector can have their meeting to talk about case sensitive matters. We just advised the attendees at the beginning that after the general meeting, the public sector would have a law enforcement session, and everyone was happy with that.
Our membership is steady, and I believe we are at around 980 members. Our CFI program has 97 CFI’s. If you don’t have your certification yet, check the web site under Certified Fire Investigator, and check out the requirements.
Our office staff, April and Pam, continue to keep the office on a straight course and our Business Manager, Tom Fee, makes sure that everything is shipshape.
As I close out this message, I once again challenge everyone to recruit a new member, attend a Roundtable and hopefully we will see each other in November.
REMEMBER: You can’t leave your carbon footprint on CCAI by sitting down.
Sincerely,
William Kilpatrick
CCAI President
