Flashpointz -First Fire Buff Battalion Meeting

Hi everyone!

Today was the long anticipated Fire Buff Battalion Meeting. Some of you know I was first planning to attend one of these meetings in August but was unable to attend when a family situation occurred. I was saddened by the situation, but I was also very disappointed about missing this meeting.

"I could read your disappointment in your e-mail," said Cat Urbon, the current president of the Fire Buff Battalion as she gave me a big hug. She shared this with me after our meeting tonight. It wasn't what I wrote that she read. It was the tone that came across. I never wear my heart on my sleeves. Never! Just ask anyone who really knows me.

Speaking of the meeting:

When I arrived there were about 8 people there. Ralph Decker, long time member (I think even charter member) arrived right behind me. Ralph is the club secretary and Tacoma Fire Department Historian. He has written a few books. One of which is titled, "100 Years of Firefighting In the City of Destiny Tacoma Washington" (Co-written with Clyde Talbot, who apparently received first billing for it). Ralph is the one who researched my brother's fire engine and determined that it started out its firefighting career in Tacoma as Engine 17, transfering to 9's in the mid seventies and finishing out its career with 10's.) After that it was a reserve rig and later sold to another fire district, and then another, before heading off to a short series of private ownerships. (That info should be lined out in my brother's blog the Engine 17 Project.)

Watch it, I follow rabbit trails! Getting back to the meeting, after I arrived a few more came in for a total of 14 or 15 in attendance. (I cannot remember which).

The meeting was interesting. THe usual treasurer's report, aceeptance of last meetings minutes, etc. Lots of silly barbing of one another and bantering back and forth. (Really fun!) They discussed proposed changes to the bylaws regarding adding corporate memberships or sponsorships. They were not able to vote on this due to lack of timely notice to members, but they will vote on it next meeting. I was a little disappointed because I have a strong contact with someone with Snapple and I really am excited about possible procuring a donation for the club. The Snapple Rep sounded excited about it too. Oh well, unless the rep gets hit by a bus (which I SINCERELY hope does NOT happen) this can wait.

There was discussion about when and where to hold the Fire Buff Battalion Christmas party. Apparently the last two years they have held it at one of my very favorite restaraunts (which shall remain nameless here) but last time were not very satisfied so they will not be holding it there this year. :( It is looking like they will be choosing either Joseppi's (Not a bad choice) or The Hub (who's menu looked great, but it is downtown and parking is, well, you know.)

Tonight was also the night that officers are nominated, but not being a member yet I could neither nominate or be nominated! :( But there is always next year!! :D

Another item discussed was a firehouse cookbook. The club had created a contest for the firefighters to encourage submission of recipes for the cook book. Some categories only recieved one entry, but they received something like 85 recipes in all. The cookbook committee is currently going over them to determine winners in each category from A shift, B shift, C shift and D shift. The biggest part of the discussion was about what the prizes would be and I won't mention any of the plans or ideas here because you never know who might see it. There were a few other mundane items discussed as well that I won't bore anyone with.

Bob and Cat (husband of president and president of club) attended the Northwest Expo at the fire training academy as victims for emergency response trainees. (not official description but you get the point). The moulage (make-up to make the victims look truly injured) was excellent and very realistic. They brought back pictures that were very impressive.

Bob and Cat also passed around pictures of the new Engine 10 that Tacoma is about to put in service. They e-mailed pictures this last week but technology is running faster than my computer and my internet service. It would have taken 45 minutes to download ONE picture so I was not able to. I was happy to see hard copies! This new Engine has more bells and whistles than I've ever seen on a piece of emergency apparatus. ANd talk about shiny!!!! IT is so shiny that you can see images in the paint like it was a mirror, in the pictures. In one picture you see the photographers feet reflected in the chrome! HA HA I wish I could share the pictures with you, the readers of this blog. She is one sweet rig! Tacoma also has a new ladder company arriving any day to replace Ladder 2, but the hard copies of the pictures were not available tonight. Again, I could download them, but 45 minutes is a long time!

All in all I had a great time at the meeting. Bob Urbon especially made me feel welcome and I am grateful for that. I know none of you believe it, but I AM shy and felt a little nervous. He puts one at ease though. THANKS BOB! Cat forgot to bring the application for me to join and the background check so that will be put off another month. Even if she hadn't forgotten it I couldn't officially join yet so no big deal. (that's what I keep telling myself anyway, but I am disappointed!) Ralph thought he might have one in his car but he didn't. All he had was a copy of the bylaws. He actually handed me two copies by mistake. I told him I only needed one and he read my mind. Before I could add something about "even though I DO have TWO eyes", he said to me, "well, one for each eye!" He said it as fast as I thought it. I think I will fit in just fine here! He told me he would make sure an application was available at the next meeting. I offered to e-mail him a reminder and he said that would be a great help, so I WILL.

Ifyou've ever watched firefighting shows (such as Emergency!) on television when the firemen are hanging out in the day room, bantering back and forth and drinking coffee, you have a pretty good idea of what this meeting was like only, we were all adults with out ratings or the FCC involved so the subject matter was often more adult oriented. It really was a lot of fun! I had a great time and the two and a half hours passed by all too quickly. I'm really looking forward to next month's meeting.

Take care all, and Stay SAFE!

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