Newsletter

MESS
“2009”
15 years of Service to Northeastern Illinois.

Chief of Operations – Terry B. Cox- 01/09

The Board of Directors has suggested that the Chief of Operations review and take the steps necessary to restructure the methods and approaches used in our day to day operations. This is to include recruiting activities for MESS. To accomplish this request, I have begun developing several new systems. As a result I have recruited some new members and asked some old members to become more active, and we are asking inactive members to reconsider if MESS is the organization for them.

To this end we will continue developing and restructuring programs that will increase community involvement. After all, we are a support service, we must reach beyond the fire and police emergency’s that we have been doing so well for 15 years. We must blend into the activities within each community. We will reach out to work directly with the fire and police departments themselves. When it comes to community involvement, we will encourage professional community resources in the form of a teaching staff ready to assist the fire departments and police departments with the public education classes and programs within their communities.

The fire chiefs seem are increasingly excited to help with the training of some select members of our staff so they can be prepared to reach out to the communities and assist the public education departments when needed.

This will effect the response crews as well; Recently, I was invited to attend a meeting with MABAS division 4, Quad 1, Fire Chiefs in Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin.. The reason for the invitation was to overview MESS’s capabilities and to gain a better understanding of our day to day operations. The chiefs were interested in inviting MESS members to attend formal training classes sponsored by the chiefs and designed to help us integrate in to their operations more efficiently. I explained that members of MESS are encouraged to be NIMS compliant and some members have completed over 20 certifications. In addition I explained that we adhere as much as possible to NFPA standards and the wild fire standards. I reviewed with them our involvement in the Lake County Sheriffs, Major Crimes Task Force and how we are charged with the logistics on their CART (amber alert response team). I also explained, that we are included, (when needed), and respond with the Field Force as well as the NIPAS tactical response teams. We responded to and were actively involved in over 20 call outs with the police in 2008.

MESS, routinely responds with 71 Fire stations (over 2000) professional firefighters and 99 Police agencies and we cover approximately 1000 sq. Miles. Our involvement with the Illinois State Fire Marshals office and the Illinois State Fire Institute affords some training when needed. We are represented with memberships in Citizens Corp., the National Fire Corp., the Lake County Regional response group, the Collaborative Healthcare Urgency Group, (CHUG), and MESS is long time members of IFBA, and MESS works in concert with surrounding canteen response groups as well.

MESS members have developed a resource book that offers the involvement of many businesses within our, 1000 sq. mile response area. As an example, when Des Plaines Fire head quarters flooded last spring (2008) we were able to obtain five sump pumps for their use in pumping the water from their station. Thanks to Burris Equipment rentals and Capital Board Up service, with two phone calls we were able to find and have delivered the pumps needed to keep their station basement from flooding.

How many new members needing to be recruited will determine the number and involvement of new activities we can assist with? We all know we have members that can not make emergency calls. These members can be of help with community programs. That is to say we can help the fire and police with other activities. They have proven to be invaluable in flood operations and long lasting incidents. When regular members get overwhelmed with open houses and other scheduled operations these members have been there to back us up when needed.

In a meeting on December 13 2008 in Gurnee, I revealed a program named “Remembering When”. The Lake Forest Fire Department and Public Education Department, asked if we would join a collation of organizations within Lake Forest. The mission of this group would be to educate the elderly residents of Lake Forest on how to protect themselves and be better prepared in case of an emergency. They will hold classes and hand out fire safety materials, install smoke detectors and CO detectors when these folks can not afford to do so themselves.

Some new services being developed to help increase membership and services:

In this fast moving world we must rely on faster and less expensive communication methods. To this end we have been developing and adding some new services for our members.

Our updating of Identification Cards is one of the top priorities. We are looking at other ways to maintain these important documents faster and still get all the needed information on the card. This is not an easy task when you are dealing with 100 changing corps of members. We are currently looking at more then one type of membership.
Examples could be:
1. Team leader
2. Response team
3. Reserve member
4. Education Corp
5. Associate member
6. Probationary member
7. Retired Member
Any and all of these are being considered.

1. MESS, will purchase some “Give a-ways” developed to identify our “15 years” of service to Northeastern Illinois. These can be used as hand outs at conferences and open houses to raise the awareness of the services our members provide.

2. I have developed a display board. That illustrates some of our past history as well as the present and future. They are being put together as a recruiting tool at these meetings.

3. Hand outs are being designed to promote the use of the New Web Site as a source of quickly changing information. The NEW web site is scheduled to be active in January, 2009. A lot more information will be passing thru the web site to give the membership a fast reference to fast changing information.

4. A new Blast is being developed. mail system

To drive this system there has been a request for members to supply current e-mail address so we can give out blast mail. In the past have been asking for and receiving e-mail addresses from all our members. We have just added over 100 of these e-mail addresses to an Instant Messaging System that we have developed within our office. A test of this system will be conducted as soon as feasible and then will be lunched shortly after.

5. The dispatch system is under reconstruction. Lynessa Rissell has accepted the responsibility to bring this system on line. We need the help of any one that might be interested in serving some time as a dispatcher to step forward and volunteer. This is a way some people that do not want to respond to emergency calls to help maintain the system.

How the system works today.

A Box alarm is dispatched via MABAS divisions 1, 3, 4, 5, 20. When that radio tone is sent out to dispatch a box alarm to the fire departments, it also transmits a call to E-dispatch. E-dispatch sends a text message to all of our dispatchers and group leaders. The dispatchers in turn, call the service and get all the pertinent call information. When they have the needed information they determine the appropriate response group and start calling members. The main mission for the dispatcher is to first: get the truck out the door and respond to the call. Additional members may be needed depending how long it takes to get the truck on the road. They will be requested to stage at the responding station as often as possible but time is of the essence and it is difficult to hold the truck to wait for members to respond to the station. As a result they may be asked to report directly to the scene. The dispatchers will record and maintain the call log information. The dispatchers also need to be advised whenever you change addresses, e-mail accounts and new phone numbers.

6. The costs to develop and maintain these systems, with outside vendors would be unbelievable. With the use of some of our MESS members, Mr. Jeff Parrish, Mr. Wm. Zickovich and Mr. Mark Levy, We have been able to minimize the cost to the association. However to increase our need to our members we need to keep pace with other organizations that have spent increasing amounts of money developing these types of programs.

These are some of the changes and additions we will be trying to work with in 2009. As always, your input is important as well as appreciated. Please feel free to submit any suggestions you may have. I will be happy to review any and all input. With the changing economy and SOP’s we will need to change with the needs of the groups we are trying to assist. I do not always see all the changes that may affect us. The more eyes we have the better we can offer good and safe services.

Under Construction

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