FACILITY FIRE BRI FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES INS FIRE PROTECTION, DETECTION, AN
FIRE SERVICE HYDRAULICS AND WATER SUPPLY HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TECHNICIAN PRINCIPLES OF PASSENGER VEHICLE EXTRICATION GROUND COVER FIRE FIGHTING FOR STRUCTURAL FIREFIGHTERS
By 1980, the conference had outgrown the available facilities and resources and several important changes were made. The first was limiting attendees to an “invitation-only” basis. It was soon also determined that Heisler’s method of having all the attendees work on the same book together was not feasible with the growing scope of work facing the organization. That forced IFSTA to organize the participants into separate committees for each manual being written or revised. Although it has been refined considerably, the basic concept of an invitation-only conference and manual-specific committees remains in place today. Even on an invitation basis, the number of projects that were being developed continued to grow. Stillwater’s hotel and OSU’s campus resources were soon stretched to their limits of their ability to host the validation conference. The first crack in the tradition occurred in 1990, when the Oklahoma State 4-H Convention was scheduled in Stillwater for the same week as the IFSTA Conference was traditionally held. This meant there would be no hotel rooms available for IFSTA delegates, nor meeting space in the OSU Student Union. After a variety of options were explored, the decision was made to relocate the 1990 IFSTA Validation Conference to the Sheraton Kensington Hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the time, this was foreseen as a one-time adjustment. In 1991, the conference returned to Stillwater. However, staff and delegates determined that the one held the previous year in Tulsa had a number of advantages over the traditional OSU/Stillwater location. This included: • A more modern hotel facility with meeting spaces in the hotel • Nicer meeting rooms as compared to the Student Union • No transport was needed between the hotel and meeting site • Easier transportation from the airport to the meeting site • More options for restaurants and evening activities • FPP employees felt more a part of the conference since they were staying in the hotel with the delegates, as opposed to returning to their homes each evening. Thus, in 1992 the conference returned to Sheraton Kensington Hotel in Tulsa. Since then, it has been held in variety of hotels, in either Tulsa or Oklahoma City, every year. Shortly before his retirement, Mace altered the role of the Managing Editor to strictly management of the editorial functions. By now, the Editorial and Graphics Units of FPP had grown to more than a dozen people. Lynne Murnane was the first person to hold this modified position in 1991. In 1998, former Managing Editor Jerry Laughlin returned to assume his old position. In 2000, Laughlin returned to his native Alabama and long-time FPP employee Mike Wieder was promoted to replace him. Following Mace’s January 1992 retirement, Douglas Forsman assumed the role of Director of FPP, FST, and IFSAC in the summer of 1992. Control of the academic program was returned to CEAT at that time. Forsman was an OSU School of Fire Protection alumnus who had served as Chair of the IFSTA Executive Board and at the time of his hire was the Fire Chief in Champaign, Illinois. Forsman remained the Director of the three programs until his departure in 2000. Following his departure, CEAT administration decided to eliminate the overarching position of Director of all of the fire programs and placed a Director or Manager in each of the three (3) units who reported directly to the CEAT Dean of Extension Programs. In July of 2001, Chris Neal was hired as the director of FPP. Neal, also an OSU fire protection alumnus and former IFSTA Executive Board member, was working in OSU’s Fire and Emergency Management Master’s Degree (FEMP) program when he was hired by FPP. He had previously served as the fire chief in Stillwater and Claremore, Oklahoma. Following Neal’s departure in 2009, Craig Hannan was promoted to Director of FPP. Hannan previously served the fire department in his hometown of Colbert, OK. He was also a nationally registered paramedic and worked in EMS operations in southern Oklahoma and northcentral Texas. Craig held an undergraduate
IFSTA/FPP: THE FIRST 90 YEARS 13
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