September 17, 2009 Regular Meeting: The regular monthly meeting of the Mississippi Valley Firefighters Association was held at the Coyne Center Fire Station on September 17, 2009. At 6:35 PM, the meeting was called to order by Vice President Mark Carton because Dave Liebovitz was unable to attend. The pledge of Allegiance was recited, then a moment of silence for fallen firefighters was observed. Roll call was next with 13 members from 12 departments attending. Since there was no meal available, the meeting continued on. The reading of the minutes for the August meeting followed. A motion was made to accept the minutes as read and vote was taken on the motion. Motion passed. The treasure's report was given with a checking account balance of $456.28. Savings account has $4413.59. Motion to accept the treasure's report was made and seconded. Vote taken and motion passed . In old business, the fire school was discussed. Low attendance on Saturday, but picked up on Sunday with the house burn. No major problems were run into, and the house went up pretty quick. Everything was picked up and everyone was back to the Colona station by noontime. Colona Fire Department picked up the bill for meal during the Saturday and Sunday training. A big thank you was given to Colona for their generosity. The Illinois Firefighters Association annual conference will be held October 23-25, 2009 in Champaign. MVFA will pay the motel bill for any board member or officer that wants to go down Friday night and be there for the round table panel discussion on Saturday. In new business, Dale Mueller gave a report on how the MABAS 39 TRT team validation went in Champaign. Mr. Mueller gave a status or the Smart Cards. There was discussion on the attendance at the MVFA meetings and how it seems to be dwindling. The MVFA is more for the rank and fill members of the Association where the chiefs Association meetings are more for officers. The time crunch with department trainings was noted and could be one reason for low attendance. The Honor Guard is done with parades for the summer. We received several thank you from the Honor Guards services. Illinois City sent a thank you for participating in their parade. A$100.00 donation from Glenda Burnett from Colona, funeral, and a $150.00 check from the funeral of Nichole Stoudt from Orion EMS. It was brought up that the Honor Guard was going to buy new shoulder cords for funerals with the monies donated. Mike Swanson made a motion for the honor guard to go ahead and purchase the cords. Dennis Litwiler seconded the motion, motion voted on and passed. Nominations for the board were started with the first nomination being for President. John Swan was nominated, but was not in attendance to accept or denied the nomination. Being no other nominations for president, the nominations for that office were closed. Nominations for Vice President were next with the only nomination being Mark Carton. Nominations for that office were closed and the office of Secretary/Treasure was opened. Dale Mueller was nominated for that office, but no other nominations were made so that nominations were closed. Nominations will continue for the next two months with the election being in November. Communications: October 3 Light and Fight Arsenal October 10 Golf Tournament Aledo Oct.20 Pancake Breakfast Osco Oct. 24 Spaghetti Supper Silvis October 31 Fireman’s Ball Cambridge November 8 Pancake Breakfast Orion Mark Carton said thank you to everyone that attended the meeting and the person from the Coyne Center Fire Department for hosting the meeting. Next meeting will be at the Carbon Cliff Fire Station on October 15, 2009. General membership meeting starting at 6:30 PM. Meeting adjourned at 7:30 PM. Dale Mueller Sec/Treasure |