Contact the Pro Board newsletter at editor@theproboard.org with information about your agency activities that we can highlight in a future issue of the newsletter.

Message from Chairman Estepp

2008 was another year of steady growth for the Pro Board System. We culminated a great year with a double milestone by accrediting the Seoul Korea Municipal Fire Academy, which is not only the 50th Pro Board entity but the first Pro Board accreditation in Asia. The Pro Board is truly an International Accrediting body ! We were also pleased to welcome Louisiana State University as the 49th Pro Board accredited entity. In 2008, we processed over 64,000 Pro Board certificates into the Certification Registry Database and we keep growing with another 9,700 added this January, a new monthly record. We are rapidly approaching 400,000 certificates in our Certification Registry database, all of which are accessible from the Pro Board website www.theproboard.org.

By all indications, January's Advisory Committee Meeting in Houston was a great success with over 80 attendees representing 38 of our Accredited Entities. Dr. Tom Sturtevant, your Advisory Committee Chairman and Fred Piechota, Accreditation Manager are to be commended for crafting an excellent program. The addition of workshops this year proved to be very popular as were the presentations from Hawaii, California and Florida. Summaries of several of these presentations are available on the Pro Board website. Following the Meeting on Sunday morning, the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) arranged for a tour of their world renowned fire training center, Brayton Firefield. We hope this tradition of visiting fire training facilities of our Accredited Agencies can become a tradition associated with future Pro Board meetings.

In another International arena, the Pro Board has been working with the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) to determine if reciprocity for advanced levels of Pro Board certification could be recognized by that body. The IFE currently has 11,000 members in 23 countries with the objective of improving fire fighting, fire prevention and fire engineering. I am pleased to report that this effort has paid off and the IFE will now recognize Pro Board Fire Officer III, IV and Fire Investigator/Fire Inspector for entry into the IFE qualifications process.

We recognize that these are difficult economic times and that our accredited entities are not immune to the challenges that lay ahead. Fortunately, the Pro Board system is fiscally strong and growing. The Pro Board is where it is today because of your dedication and support to our shared mission of increasing professionalism in our fire and emergency services. Let me assure you that our Board of Directors and Committee on Accreditation not only remain committed, but are more committed than ever to support you, our Accredited Entities. Let us know what we can do to assist you with the challenges of 2009.

Sincerely, Jim Estepp, Chairman, Board of Directors

Accreditation Manager's Report

By Fred Piechota

Calendar Year 2008 was very successful for the Pro Board as we finished the year with the Accreditation of our 49th and 50th Entities. We were very pleased to present Certificates of New Accreditation to Louisiana State University and the Seoul Korea Municipal Fire Academy during our 2009 Advisory Committee Meeting.

We anticipate 2009 to be as equally successful as we already have received serious inquiries and application materials from the Fargo North Dakota Fire Department, the States of Mississippi, Washington, and Iowa as well as a consortium of Training Academies from the state of New Jersey. We also fully expect to complete the accreditation process with the State of Illinois. We are providing additional information in support of inquiries from the countries of Mexico and Spain as well as the FBI, a state fire academy in India, and Saudi ARAMCO. Board of Director's Executive Secretary Tony O'Neill and I had the privilege of being invited to brief the State Fire Marshal's Office in California and their Statewide Training and Education Committee about the benefits of Pro Board Accreditation.

Board of Director's Vice Chairman Steve Austin opened the Advisory Committee Meeting in Houston by welcoming over 80 persons representing 38 of our accredited entities and invited guests.

Mr. Austin briefed the attendees on recent Board of Director's activities including the consideration of an appeal from the Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner and the continuation of a formal dialogue with the North American Fire Training Directors. He also discussed the Board's Stategic Plan that has established a goal to certify all eligible persons to the basic NFPA 1001 level by the year 2020.

The members of the Board of Directors present were pleased to present Certificates of Re-Accreditation to six entities that had completed their re-accreditation site visits. Receiving certificates were Massachusetts, the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Nebraska, Ontario, the International Association of Arson Investigators, and SABIC.

The meeting was presided over by Advisory Committee Chair Tom Sturtevant and we were given a warm Texas Welcome by Texas A&M Direcotr of Training, Les Bunte. The Agenda for the Meeting as well as the Minutes will soon be available at:
http://www.theproboard.org/PresentationsHouston2009.html

For the first time, the Pro Board presented a series of three hour certification workshops on the afternoon preceding the Meeting. Feedback we have received showed them to be beneficial to those who attended and we will consider offering similar programs in the future. Copies of some of the presentation given during the workshops can be found at: http://www.theproboard.org/PresentationsHouston2009.html

I presented an update to the attendees of recent activities and decisions of the Committee on Acceditaiton. A listing of those decisions can be found at:
http://www.theproboard.org/documents.htm and by clicking on the COA Policy Decision link.

Mr. Bill Kehoe from the Institute of Fire Engineers updated the attendees on the recent decision of IFE to recognize certain levels of Pro Board issued certifications for entry into the IFE process.

Dave Trebisacci provided an update of the adminstrative aspects of the Pro Board as well as an update of the NFPA Professional Qualifications Standards. Dave's presentation can be found at: http://www.theproboard.org/PresentationsHouston2009.html

Tony O'Neill gave the financial report of the System and discussed the Board's Strategic Plan as well as a briefing of the recent activities of the Board of Directors.

Representatives of the Hawaii Department of Transportation, Florida, and the California Fire Marshal's Office presented programs that outlined some of the exemplary aspects of their systems. Copies of the presentations from Florida and California can be found at:
http://www.theproboard.org/PresentationsHouston2009.html

An election was held to fill two expired terms on the Committee on Accreditation. Alan Joos from Louisiana and Craig Richardson from Vancouver Island were elected to three-year terms. Larry Preston from Maryland and Chad Cobb from Georgia were elected to three-year terms on the Johnny Wilson Award Committee.

It was announced that the 2010 Pro Board Certification Training Conference will be held in Orlando, Florida on January 29 and 30, 2010.

Louisiana State University and Seoul, Korea receive Accreditation Certificates

LSU

Louisiana State University Assistant Director Alan Joos receives an Accreditation Certificate from (l to r) BOD members Sturtevant, O'Neill, Burns, Austin, and Accreditation Manager Piechota.

Korea

Seoul Korea Municipal Fire Academy Superintendant Moon and Fire Researcher Kim receive their Accreditation Certificate.

Advisory Committee Report

by Dr. Tom Sturtevant, Chairman

It was great seeing everyone at the Advisory Committee meeting in Houston. Despite the economy and its impact many state budgets, we had an excellent turn out. A total of 38 entities were able to make the trip with a total of 78 individuals attending the meeting. For those of you who could not attend, your absence was missed. Following is a brief overview of the meeting. The meeting minutes were taken by Julie (Thank-You Julie!!!) and can be found on the ProBoard web site.

By all indications, the pre-conference training sessions were a hit. The training sessions were longer to allow greater detail, depth, and discussion. Fred scheduled the sessions the evening before the advisory committee meeting to keep additional costs negligible. A copy of the PowerPoint presentations can be found on the ProBoard web site.

Steve Austin gave the opening remarks and announced that the ProBoard now has 50 accredited entities! The two newest accredited entities are LSU Fire and Emergency Training Institute and the Seoul, South Korea, Fire Service Academy. Steve and Tony provided an update on Board activities followed by Fred providing an update on COA activities. Fred discussed several important changes to extension of accreditation procedures as well as critical issues related to NFPA 1006 and 472. Dave also provided a report on certifications issues, updated of NFPA Standards status, and overview of payment plans. Finally, Tony provided the Treasurer's report and indicated that the ProBoard was in excellent financial health.

This year, we had two expired Committee on Accreditation (COA) positions to fill. With a number of excellent nominations, the elections were very close to say the least. In the end, Alan Joos and Craig Richardson were elected to the COA. Congratulations Alan and Craig! Larry Preston and Chad Cobb were elected to serve on the Johnny Wilson Award Committee. Congratulations Larry and Chad.

The discussion at the advisory committee was lively yet cordial. Several important topics/outcomes are as follows:

Motion approved to send a recommendation to the Board of Directors to include "International" in our name and to form a committee to help research international marketing.

Motion approved on a gentleman's agreement to notify another states accredited entity to make them aware of certification activities conducted in their state by another accredited entity, expect in cases involving the DOD and Industrial companies."

Skill sheets can be shared at Yahoo.com: group Fire Service Certification

All in all it was a great meeting. Your involvement is critical so please feel free to contact me, Fred, or Tony if you have any suggestions and/or comments.

A Collage of Photos from Houston Pro Board Conference

Committee on Accreditation (COA) Report
By Fred Piechota, Chairman, COA

Over the past eight months, the Committee on Accreditation has met in person in Rhode Island and in Houston in conjunction with the Advisory Committee Meeting and has conducted three telephone conference calls.

Members of the COA conducted five re-accreditation visits and three visits for the purpose of new accreditation. During these past months the COA approved New Accreditations for Louisiana State University Fire & Emergency Training Institute as the Pro Board's 49th Accredited Entity and the Seoul Metropolitan Fire Academy as our 50th Accredited Entity and Approved Re-Accreditation to the International Association of Arson Investigators, the Ontario Fire

Marshal's Office, SABIC, Massachusetts, the Justice Institute of British Columbia, and Nebraska. The COA also granted Extensions of Accreditation to many entities.

Committee members staffed the Pro Board information booth at the Fire Rescue International Conference and at the Canadian Training Director's annual meeting in Manitoba. The COA Chair represented the Pro Board at the Canadian Association of Fire Chief's Conference in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and at the annual meeting of the North American Fire Training Directors.

During our January Meeting, the COA approved a number of procedural changes that impact various aspects of the accreditation, re-accreditation and extension to accreditation process. A listing of these can be found by clicking here.

The COA welcomed two new members during this period. Crawford Wiestling was appointed by the Board of Directors in the spot previously filled by Tom Peal who retired and Craig Richardson who was elected to a three-year term by the Advisory Committee. Long time member Alan Joos was re-elected to a three-year term by the Advisory Committee. Best wishes and thanks to Tom who served the COA for many years and welcome to our new members and welcome back to Alan.

The Committee has a busy year coming up as we will be conducting a number of re-accreditation visits and we have the potential of four to five new accreditation visits.

I want to extend the Committee's thanks and appreciation to the staff of our accredited entities for their continued cooperation and support and for their hard work preparing the documents and materials needed to continue and advance in our system and without whom our efforts would be very difficult.

Photo credits:
1. COA members meeting in Rhode Island

2. Pro Board Information Booth at Fire Rescue International

Program Manager's Report
by Dave Trebisacci

The Pro Board continues to enjoy steady growth. From July through December, Certification Coordinator Amy Sturtevant has added 32,608 applicants to the Certification Registry. The total number of certified individuals in the database as of December 31 is 380,434.

Since the majority of Pro Board accredited entities are now submitting electronic applications on an Excel worksheet, I want to take this opportunity once again to remind you that the Pro Board does not request or require entire social security numbers, social insurance numbers or employee numbers. Please submit only the last four digits of such unique identifiers due to privacy and identity theft issues, and pass this information along to those individuals who work with your electronic files.

An issue that has been coming up lately has to do with NFPA 472. Since Pro Board entities will be required to comply with the 2008 by November 1, 2009, questions have arisen related to the number of possible combinations for the Operations level training and certification. At this January's Advisory Committee meeting, I discussed the issue and explained that the combinations for training and certification are up to the entity. The Pro Board will assign standard/level codes to those entities submitting applications electronically via an Excel worksheet depending upon the levels that appear on the entity certificates. If you have any questions about this procedure, do not hesitate to contact me.

Amy and I were happy to see you at the Advisory Committee meeting in Houston. We hope you enjoyed it. Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you.

Amy Sturtevant, Certification Coordinator
asturtevant@nfpa.org

(617) 984-7474

Dave Trebisacci, Program Manager
dtrebisacci@nfpa.org
(617) 984-7420

By The Numbers
By Dave Trebisacci

As of December 31, 2008, the Pro Board's web accessible Certification Registry held 380,434 certificate records dating back to 1983. 64,297 certificates were added in 2008. Breakdown of certificates in the Registry are:

Fire Firghter 36%
Haz Mat 23%
Fire Instructor 10%
Fire Officers 9%
Fire Inspector 7%
all others 15%

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