OFFT is the Office of Fire Fighter Training (OFFT) which serves the training and certification needs of the state’s 1,071 fire departments and 31,825 fire fighters and officers. The office prepares and publishes training standards, establishing courses of study, certifying instructors, establishing regional training centers, cooperating with state, federal, and local fire agencies to facilitate training of fire fighters, and developing and administering mandatory certification examinations for new fire fighters.

Hammerberg supervises Region 1, an area that includes all of the Upper Peninsula and more than 50% of the upper portion of the Lower Peninsula. Dan is also the Fire Chief of Spaulding Township Fire Department.

Dan discussed the updating and procedures of the IMS systems, a topic he began in July at the Association’s Annual Meeting. Saturday, Hammerberg discussed the need for the Chiefs to assure that the information in the system is up-to-date, including the names of the current Fire Chiefs.

The current training programs are kept track of by computer and scanning bars on the tests. It is therefore necessary that a firefighter must be properly entered into the IMS records correctly.

The topic of expense reimbursement by the U.S. Forest Service was also discussed. Evidently some fire departments are not being reimbursed for expenses incurred when responding to fire calls on or in the State Forests. To no one’s surprise, a request for reimbursement must pass through a dozen federal agencies before the “Check is in the mail”.

A major part of the meeting focused on training. Firefighters are constantly training and re-training. There is some difficulty in scheduling training sessions. Time is a major concern, many of the training programs require many hours. There is also the problem of getting instructors when you would like to have them; some instructors are booked a year in advance. Alternate programming was discussed giving consideration to shorter classes and other sources of instructors.

At Saturday’s meeting elections were held for three of the Association’s officers.

Elected President was Chief Richard Caudill, Watersmeet Township Fire Department
Elected V. President was Chief Al Polongo, West Iron County Fire Department
Elected Sec/Treasurer was Chief Jeff Seppala, Alfa- Mastodon Fire Department

The Trustees positions were not up for election. Ken Jacobson and Mike Yon are current Trustees of The UPFCA.

The U.P. Fire Chiefs' Association is affiliated with the Michigan Fire Chiefs' Association and meets quarterly at different locations around the U.P., with its annual meeting held at the site of that year's U.P. Volunteer Firefighters' Association tournament to make it easier for the greatest number of Chiefs' to attend. Membership in the UPFCA is open to both volunteer and full time chiefs.