| 1. How long have you
been an OFMA member? |
|
| Under 2 yrs. |
8.8% |
| 2-5 yrs. |
27.9% |
| 5-10 yrs. |
32.4% |
| 10+ yrs. |
30.9% |
 |
|
| 2. Are you a member
of a (check one): |
|
| Fire District |
37.3% |
| City Fire Department |
34.3% |
| Private |
0.0% |
| Public |
17.9% |
| Other |
10.4% |
|
|
| 3. Are you currently
a: |
|
| Fire Marshal |
50.0% |
| Fire Inspector |
15.2% |
| Other |
34.8% |
|
|
| 4. What is the
population served by your fire department: |
|
| Under 5,000 |
1.6% |
| 5,000 to 10,000 |
6.3% |
| 10,000 to 25,000 |
23.4% |
| 25,000 to 50,000 |
14.1% |
| 50,000 to 300,000 |
31.3% |
| Over 300,000 |
23.4% |
|
|
| 5. Are you aware of
the following services provided by the OFMA? (Check before the
services of which you are aware.) |
|
| Annual Fire Marshal Roundtable |
100.0% |
| Annual Business Meeting & training
Annual Training Calendar |
94.0% |
| Executive Board Meetings |
82.1% |
| Legislative Lobbying |
67.2% |
| Web Site |
95.5% |
| Roster of All Members |
73.1% |
| Discounted training for members |
80.6% |
| Membership included in any training
attended |
61.2% |
| Ability to participate in OFMA
committees |
68.7% |
| Book Store |
58.2% |
| Promotions (saleables) |
56.7% |
| $1500.00 Scholarship (available at
www.ofma.net) |
58.2% |
| Recognition of Members through
awards and Life Membership |
74.6% |
|
|
| 6. Have you ever
used any of the services from question #5? |
|
|
|
|
| 7. Are you aware of
any problems in the services listed in question #5? |
|
 | Not anything
major. What will always be a problem is reaching a
majority of the membership with all training
opportunities. Such as Eastern Oregon members.
Offerings have occurred in their region, but
attendance is lacking. Not sure how to fix it, or if
there even is a fix. |
|
| Membership part
of class cost |
|
| Web site not very
attractive |
|
| The level of
service related to most of the above areas is
satisfactory. Improvement can be made in
facilitating information to the membership by
supporting a more user friendly web site and
updating its information more often. |
|
| Sometimes the
cost for the training seems to be a little high. |
|
| Last year's
Business Meeting in Hood River was poorly attended
and classes seemed limited in nature. |
|
| Lobbying; this
does not seem to get much time and the membership
could invest here with the potential for long term
benefits. |
|
| None, the E-Mails
that I receive has good information, I feel that the
communication is good. |
|
| I think the focus
on training should be on meeting everyone's CEU's. |
|
| Need more
classes, variety (sprinklers/alarms), and
specifically expert witness testimony classes to
satisfy DPSST requirements which are needed for OSFM
Specialist/FM |
|
|
|
| 8. How would you
rate OFMA services overall? |
|
| Extremely satisfied |
8.8% |
| Well satisfied |
41.2% |
| Satisfied |
33.8% |
| Somewhat satisfied |
16.2% |
| Not very satisfied |
0.0% |
| Not satisfied at all |
0.0% |
|
|
| 9. Have you ever
participated with a OFMA committee in past, if so what
committee? |
|
|
|
|
| 10. Have you heard
any complaints or specific praises concerning the OFMA in the
last two years? If yes, please explain. |
|
| Yes, the classes
being provided to help with the plans examiner test
for ICC. |
|
| YES, CLIQUES, A
LITTLE MISDIRECTED. MAYBE LOSS OF GOALS AND FOLLOW
THROUGH. |
|
| Sometimes
information is not available in a timely fashion for
upcoming events. |
|
| See problem
mentioned above. That is the only complaint, and it
is from a small minority of people. Some years the
annual banquet tends to run a little long. |
|
| Training
Calendar, Roundtable, increase in membership, use of
resolutions to focus attention and put forth an
official position on key subjects --- All good |
|
| OFMA is becoming
a training organization like Oregon Mechanical
Officials Assoc where a few people benefit at the
expense of others. |
|
| The trainings
offered are excellent. |
|
| There was more
membership involved in annual business meeting in
the past |
|
| Yes, Teachers
guide to fire safety. Scheduling training around
other large training events that draw from the same
crowd. |
|
| Good classes,
nice people |
|
| The recognition
process being some peoples personal agenda. NFPA
already has standards and task books. OFMA created
additional steps and for what? |
|
| Praises about the
level of activity and representation provided on
behalf of the membership on all important matters
related to the fire and life safety arena.
Complaints about classes offered to prepare the
attendees to obtain certification at different
levels, but no following through by scheduling
and/or proctoring the corresponding ICC
certification test the last day of training, much
like I.A.A.I does, and our organization used to do
in the past. |
|
| Poor annual
business meeting attendance. |
|
| Training not
coordinated instructors not knowing how many
students to prepare for members need to give input
as to what training is needed |
|
| Cost of Seminars |
|
| Praise;
communications improving in recent months. Praise;
OFMA is become more "visible" in recent months
Concern; Is OFMA heading in a direction that is
consistent with the majority of the members? Some
emphasis in the past has seemed to be in areas and
directions that I would associate with certain
individuals and their own "agendas". Need to get
back to what were are all about; Fire Marshaling. |
|
| That the
trainings are great and locations are planned well. |
|
| Conflict among
members. |
|
| Praises on the
quality of training, never disappointed |
|
| Not enough
training in the metropolitan area. |
|
| Good training
committee and effort! Legislative actions seem weak
and we don't have much clout to push our issue
because of OFCA |
|
| They don't let me
out of the office much anymore, but I have only
heard good things. OFMA has really helped our
prevention group grow. |
|
|
|
| 11. Dues are
currently $30.00 would you be willing to support an increase
with additional provisions for large organizations to purchase
bulk memberships? |
|
|
|
|
| 12. Are there
services which you wish to see provided by the OFMA that you
believe are not currently provided? If yes, please explain: |
|
| More support for
the smaller departments. i.e. low cost and/or free
training |
|
| SYSTEMATIC
APPROACH TO WHAT TRAININGS ARE OFFERED. IT SEEMS A
BIT RANDOM. |
|
| More basic
inspection training |
|
| County training
instead of regional. Many of our counties are more
rural than others and most code enforcement or
interpretation is the same but more focused in
specific areas. Less broad based / travel required
types of training. |
|
| As fire and life
safety professionals we are required to have a
series of certifications that proof our competency
in the different performance areas of our
profession. I see certification on a positive way
because it provides us with professional
credibility. It would be of great service to the
membership if the Board along with supporting the
necessary training, created a matrix showing the
different levels of recognition required by the
Office of State Fire Marshal and their equivalency
as it relates to formal degrees like Associates
Degrees in Fire Science, Bachelor Degrees in Fire
Service Administration, successful completion of the
EFO program and other fire prevention, investigation
and public education at the National Fire Academy.
It was extremely frustrating to me to contact the
Office of State Fire Marshal and relate to them that
besides my ICC certification, I have dual Associate
Degrees in Fire Science and General Studies; a
Bachelor Degree in Fire Service Administration; a
certificate of successful completion of the EFO
program at the National Fire Academy along with
other several fire prevention related courses
offered at said institution as well as, most of the
Fire Service Administrators institutes offered at
Western Oregon University, and learn that all my
education is not recognized under the new
recognition program. I believe that lobbying the
Office of State Fire Marshal to adopt a reciprocity
program to recognize formal education degrees and
prior fire and life safety related training and
certificates from recognized organizations like
mine, and developing a matrix sowing which
requirements of the new professional recognition
program they meet would provide an invaluable
service to the membership, encourage them to seek
certification, enable them to identify which
training they really need to focus on, and avoid the
frustration I am experiencing. |
|
| Additional
training opportunities both in the Portland Metro
area and around the state. |
|
| Need to draw the
vendors back together with our business meeting and
conference. At one time, they were huge supporters
in what we do and we have moved away from them which
is a major loss in my opinion. |
|
|
|
| 13. On a scale of 1
- 10, how supportive are you that the OFMA has chosen to
complete a strategic planning process? |
|
| Average of all responses |
8 |
|
|
| 14. Do you have any
specific projects, goals, and/or programs you wish to see
included in the goal setting activities that take place as part
of the annual strategic planning effort? If yes, please explain:
|
|
| Continue to work
to obtain residential sprinkler requirements within
our state. |
|
| Have calendar
prepared a couple months earlier. |
|
| Semi-annual
review with code officials from county fire agencies
and representatives from the state or ? |
|
| More on going
code inspector training - I would love to see hands
on training on inspections, codes, etc. Maybe in
conjunction with DPSST, a facility that has mock ups
of a lot of the different systems that could be
inspected, tested, and demonstrated for new
inspectors. |
|
| Specific no.
There are lots of areas we should consider like: We
need to exert more efforts and attain a higher
profile at the legislative level in strong
partnership with the OFCA to push fire safety
agendas statewide such as: mandatory home fire
sprinklers, statewide standards that are
consistently applied for access and water supply for
structures (eliminate skinny streets and excessive
grades unless appropriate tradeoffs are applied such
as sprinklers, funding for staffing of the State
Fire Marshal's Office for dedicated (and certified)
fire plans examiners to assist local jurisdictions
in Fire and Life Safety Plans review on new
construction, increased funding for State Fire
Marshal's Office to employ sufficient qualified
inspectors to be able to perform regular periodic
fire safety inspections in all schools, H
occupancies and (all) SR's |
|
| More emphasis on
legislation or concerns for fire officials |
|
| Offering along
with the necessary training, the opportunity to take
the certification test at the end of each training
session. I am aware that there are costs associated
to it, but the consideration should be not the
costs, but the benefit to the member (certification,
reduction of additional time away from the office
and associated travel and lodging expenses). Most
certainly, the argument should not be like I have
heard from some in house instructors during the
plans review class "we do not believe in teaching
only to prepare the students to take a test, we
believe in teaching the topic so the students can
learn how to do plans review". I believe that this
approach provides a poor service to the membership
by ignoring its certification needs to continue
working and making them subservient to the wishes of
the instructor. After all, true knowledge is only
acquired through years of education combined with
the every day experiences of our profession; while
certification opens the door for our members to
discharge their duties and acquire the knowledge
that comes with it. |
|
| A more aggressive
self inspection campaign may be nice since myself
and you guys do not have the time to inspect every
business out there. |
|
| More interaction
and cooperation with neighboring states. |
|
| Support the
residential sprinkler Appendix P process. Novelty
Lighter legislation |
|
| Training needs to
reflect what fire marshals need for recerts or
preparing for certifications |
|
| Residential fire
sprinklers |
|
| I'd like to see
OFMA have more interest in and provide more training
for public fire safety education. Current focus is
entirely engineering and enforcement. |
|
| First, goal
setting is great but in past years, it never seemed
to get down to the member level. Seemed like it was
done in a vacuum and members were just "let in on
what the higher ups chose to do" Not a good way of
doing business. We need to restore our annual
conference back to just that. I would be more
interested in having a single good get-together than
several "smaller" sessions. There are several ways
this could be done which might save everyone money
and still get good things done. |
|
| Just to continue
ongoing training in our area so we can meet all of
the State Fire Marshals goals to become Fire Marshal
certified |
|
| Meeting the CEU's
for everyone. |
|
| Provide better
communication to members of issues, political
positions being proposed, and other board/committee
level activities. Be more active soliciting input
prior to making decisions on important issues. |
|
|
|
| 15. Are you aware of
the representation from your board on the following: |
|
| Oregon Life Safety Team |
79.2% |
| Oregon Fire Code Committee |
88.7% |
| Joint Legislative Committee |
50.9% |
| Oregon Fire Chiefs Association |
79.2% |
| Oregon IAAI |
64.2% |
| Oregon Building Official’s
Association |
62.3% |
| DPSST Fire Policy Advisory |
60.4% |
| Juvenile Fire Setter Advisory |
66.0% |
| Governor’s Fire Service Policy
Committee |
64.2% |
|
|
