Letter from Chief Doug

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Re:  Welcome

Greetings Members:

First, I would like to thank everyone for “signing up”.  The intent here is to have an administrative “communications point” where folks can gather, find out what’s going on, ask questions, make suggestions and have access to the Sandy Island Fire Brigade Knowledge Base.

There will be a number of future “mailings” like this one.  Sandi Lemieux, at my request, will be the primary administrator of the FACEBOOK page, and in addition will assure that anything appearing on that site is also made available via e-mail for those who “don’t do” FACEBOOK.

The year 2009 goes down in the books as the Brigade’s most promising, as well as its most challenging year ever.  I’ll take a second here to thank everyone who worked so very hard last season.  If anyone ever needs a definition for the word “heart”, they need only watch you folks in action.  Impressive.  While the acquisition of our first “real” fire apparatus was an event to remember, I was more impressed with the way the people around that event responded.  This was a new beginning, fueled by people, not equipment.

Special thanks go to Tom, Artie and Kate for trusting that this was the right thing to do and simply stepping back and letting us do the deed.  Mary’s financial contributions made the Engine a reality quickly.  Other donors followed including Dr. Mark, Tuftonboro Fire, Shawn Flannagan, George Randall and Tim and Dave Gagne.  And let’s remember that without a solid history of dedicated members over the years, there would be no Brigade today.

Moving on, the “Command Structure” we instituted in 2009 will remain in place essentially unchanged.  Every year we will be looking for individuals who demonstrate an obvious willingness to take on a higher level of responsibility and training.  Officers are appointed on an annual basis.  There are openings at present for as many as three Lieutenants (depending upon returning officers from 2009) who will report to a new Captain position starting this season.  Additionally, I have asked Mary Driscoll to evaluate and harmonize our training procedures for a best fit with our members learning styles and individual capabilities.  If I’ve done this right, as Chief, I don’t have to do anything…

I will make the announcement here and now that I have appointed Sandi Lemieux as Captain.  Her willingness last year, and to a greater extent this winter, to take on many high effort/low reward activities makes her the obvious choice at present.  She will need everyone’s cooperation and wants everyone’s input on any and all subjects.  Please participate early and often. 

We’ll be back on the Island in about a week, believe it or not.  As the mud recedes and the temperatures start to climb out of the forties, thoughts will turn toward “Firehouse, one o’clock and I’m the only one who’s allowed to be late”.  Until then, help your Brigade by making comments and getting questions answered.  Read over the upcoming training materials as they become available.

See you all in June, if not sooner.

D.  A.  Chisholm, Chief of Brigade