I hope everyone had a good Christmas and wish all of you a great 2021. The winter weather has been pleasant. But COVID-19 is another story.
1st Vice President Larry Jennings and Secretary/Treasurer Jaime Miller completed and presented the FFAM 2021 budget to the Board of Directors at the December meeting, and it was approved. They both worked very hard to present a balanced budget. Thanks for your hard work. This is one of the best-presented budgets that we have had for several years. Thank you to all the committees that worked hard to achieve this.
Another fine gentleman I would like to thank is Dr. Ron Baker, treasurer of the Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Kingdom City. Dr. Baker is retiring from his duties at the Memorial. Dr. Baker has done so much for the memorial during his time as a board member. The one that meant the most to me is the Field of Flags that he worked tirelessly on every year. He would work the Winter Fire School Expo and promoted the fund-raising effort in conjunction with Texas Roadhouse. Thank you, Dr. Baker, you will be missed.
Here we are in the first couple weeks of the New Year and have many activities already being planned for 2021. Some of those include the FFAM board meeting in Sedalia on January 31, 2021, Winter Fire School in Columbia on February 5-7, and the FFAM convention in Kearney on April 30-May 2, 2021. Our Annual Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial Services are on May 15-16, 2021 in Kingdom City. Many long hours are being expended to ensure all of these events will be worthy of your participation. We hope to see many of you at these events. Please forward any non-LODD to me so they can be honored in our memorial services.
I would like to encourage everyone to nominate individuals and departments for the many awards that FFAM has to offer during its annual convention. Remember, the deadline for nominations is February 28, 2021. I know many are worthy of these awards, they just need to have someone nominate them. We have scholarships, Fire Department of the Year, Chief of the Year, Firefighter of the Year, life saving, and many more. Please take the time today and go to the website and download and complete a nomination form and return it to Joe Jennings at Johnson County Fire Protection District. Joe chairs the Awards Committee for FFAM.
Many of you are serving behind the scenes to improve our organization and I appreciate every one of you. Thank you.
All our FFAM committees have been meeting and making plans for 2021. If you have any items you would like for us to consider, please let one of the committee chairpersons know. We are here to serve our membership and to make FFAM an organization you desire to belong to. As I have appointed the committees, I have tried to make sure that every area of the state is equally represented. If you have a desire to serve and want to be considered for a certain FFAM committee, please let me know. Thanks to all that presently serve and spend many hours to better our organization.
I am looking for several items for our Annual Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial Service. I will need two (2) ladder trucks, honor guards, pipers, and drummers. If you are interested in any of these, please contact me at 573-473-4001 or chiefhoover@sbcglobal.net.
Tracy Gray will be the Honor Guard Commander for the 2021 Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial Services. Please contact him if you are interested in helping in that area of service. We invite all honor/color guards to join the memorial services remembering our fallen brothers and sisters.
As always, I am available at the above phone number and e-mail address. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need anything.
Stay safe my friends and I am wishing each of you a great 2021. May God bless each and every one of you.
Kenneth Hoover
President
Fire Fighters Association of Missouri
FFAM
