How Full Is Your Calendar?

In the September, 1995 issue of Fire Engineering then Editor Bill Manning wrote an Editor’s Opinion piece entitled, “How White is your Helmet.” If you have never read the piece please take a few minutes and do so now. Even though it was written almost 17 years ago you will be struck by how apropos it is to the state of the fire service today. Scary, actually.

So, in Bill’s piece he asks Chief officer’s if they still remember where they came from. Do they still remember that they were first, and still should be, firefighters? Or has the role of Chief changed so much that the position no longer requires experience, training and professional panache? Is all that’s needed today an MBA and political savvy? Is actually being present at your department, physically in your office, even a necessity these days? That’s what I’m asking.

How full is your calendar, Chief? How often are you in your office? Are more and more of your e-mails ending with the tag-line, “Sent from my iPhone”, or, “Sent from my iPad?” Are you visiting the station for an hour, or less, in between meetings, luncheons or retirement parties? All in the name of department business. When does the actual business of administering the department get done? No, that wasn’t a typo. I chose the word “administering” very carefully as opposed to another that might be defined as, “the action of leading a group of people or an organization.” Everything must be ok, though. The tones go off and something responds. Sick people go to the hospital. CO alarms get answered. AFA’s get re-set and every once and a while those things, those ummm, uh, those um, those, ‘ya know, those rapid oxidation of a fuel resulting in the release of heat and light things gets put out. And we can’t forget about the discipline. The troops are being disciplined so everything’s ok. We’re doing our jobs. Then, there’s the tell-tale sign that everything in our organization is really A-o.k. We’re all getting set-up for our next careers. Truth is, we really don’t care about what’s going on here, this department we’re administering now. The meetings, the luncheons, the golf outings, the parties, it’s all networking. It’s all connections being made for when working for pennies on the dollar just doesn’t make sense any more and it’s time to move on and go get another pension because it’s not about my department. It’s not about loyalty. It’s about me.

How full is your calendar Chief? What is it full of? Workshops, training, leading your department, evaluating your department in a constructive way, looking for what can be improved upon and acting on it. Or is it full of meetings full of agendas that get tabled month after month, golf outings, more meetings that no one really knows why you have to be there or what it really has to do with the fire department but it seems like a good idea or opportunity to “show your face”, luncheons to tell each other how great you are and meetings with politicians to tell them how great they are?

If you skipped over the link to Bill Manning’s Editor’s Opinion, please, go back and read it. You will be absolutely amazed how something written 17 years ago is so scarily accurate today. The fire service needs leaders Brothers and Sisters.

Stay safe,


5 comments on “How Full Is Your Calendar?

  1. Chief Don Adams says:

    I remember that editorial. I agreed with it then and it seems more accurate today than before. Thanks for bringing it back. Hope it wakes a few chiefs up. Uuhhh….well…..probably not. Sadly.


    • Thanks for reading and taking the time to reply Chief. It always makes me feel a little better to see someone with rank agree with me. Makes me feel like I’m not so crazy. Or maybe that you are, lol.


  2. Jason says:

    Brah! Freaking! Vo! Nice post brother!


  3. Chief Don Adams says:

    If I wasn’t crazy I wouldn’t be here!


Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s