Leadership at Every Level, presented by Chief Scott Thompson

Delve into the nuances of leadership and followership during this comprehensive two-hour class. This class aims to talk discuss:

- Leadership roles and responsibilities

- Leadership inovlment and sacrifices

- Influence of leadership on culture

Instructor Bio -

Scott Thompson entered the fire service in 1982 as a volunteer and began his paid career with the

Plano, Texas Fire Department in 1986. Over the course of his career, he has worked in operations,

training, and administration in multiple progressive fire department organizations. Thompson is

passionate about suburban fire department operations and positioning the fire company team for

success and survival.

Second only to his love of leading operations aimed at solving problems, Thompson is passionate about

company level training and developing high performance learning cultures. Since 2009, he has led a

chosen culture that has maintained a 96% retention rate with quality recruiting, a formal mentoring

process, performance standards, and a risk management approach to problem solving.

His operational philosophy supports functional aggressive suburban tactics, and he has spent the last 15

years developing and implementing operational processes, systems, and standards that maximize the

capabilities of the suburban fire company.

Chief Thompson has been the fire chief in The Colony, Texas since 2009. At any given time, Thompson is

mentoring up to ten fire officers from across North America, free of charge as part of his commitment to

giving back. He has a bachelors degree in emergency administration and planning, is a Texas Certified

Public Manager, and has been a hands-on, workshop, and classroom presenter at FDIC since 2002.

Thompson has had numerous articles published on the subjects of leadership, training, command and

control, suburban fire operations, and firefighter rescue and survival. He is the author of The Functional

Fire Company: Positioning Small Groups for Success and Survival (PennWell 2018). He owns and

operates Functional Fire Company LLC and fireserviceleadership.com. His two sons are on the job,

Garrett works in Arlington, Texas, and Braden in Dallas, Texas.

The Aggressive Mindset, what does that mean to you and the members of your department? Our mission has always been to serve the citizens in which we swore to protect. Placing their wellbeing above our own is the expectation that they have and the OATH that we took. Statistically fires are down across the country, but civilian fire fatalities continue to climb. We must change our mindset, training and culture to ensure we are ready to make the grab when the call comes. You don’t think we are making grabs daily? Head on over to Firefighter Rescue Survey and read the numbers. Aggressive search wins…change my mind. Our mindset drives our preparedness, our culture, and our performance. In this class we will discuss taking back time in our readiness, search statistics, creating a culture of excellence and empowering the aggressive mindset to your entire crew. The decisions we make on a daily basis can be the difference in whether someone lives or dies, we must ensure that we are performing as professionals and aggressively. We are here for THEM! Aggressive firemanship saves lives! Do you have the mindset?!

Instructor Bio -

Chris Kessinger has been a student of the craft for 20 years. Chris serves as the lead instructor and owner of Citizens First Fire Training in addition to the role of training officer/instructor for numerous schools, training facilities, advisory panels and departments. Chris has a deep passion for this job and making sure that the blue-collar traditions of our foundation stay alive and well. As an active member for the Central Ohio FOOLS chapter, Chris is able to continually spread those traditions and keep our service headed in the right direction. His passion, that one thing on the job that drives his soul will always be with truck company operations. Be aggressive in the search, aggressive in throwing ladders, aggressive in ventilation but most of all be aggressive in LOVING the job! Those core values are what Chris lives by. Chris is a nobody from nowhere that just loves the job and spreading the passion everywhere he goes. Our citizens are our absolute number 1 priority, anything other than that is simply unacceptable.

In this high intensity class we will reinforce or lay the ground work for aggressive, but intelligent Truck Company operations that is effective and efficient. This class is designed for anyone that is aspiring to be a driver, officer, or if you’re already one. This is for all those that love Truck work with or without a Truck!

Instructor Bio -

OJ Kolodziej is a Lieutenant with Birmingham Fire and Rescue with 17 years of service. OJ is a Technical Rescue officer on one of the cities Heavy Rescue teams, and is an officer on Truck 1 downtown.

Most members of the fire service put a tremendous amount of effort into preparing for the job. This can include academic preparation, physical fitness, and tons of training on a wide variety of topics and skills. However, very few mentally prepare for the stress and strain of the job and the negative effects it can have and if ignored, you will find yourself in a place where you’ve lost the joy of a job you love so much. This class focuses on my personal experiences dealing with this and things that I have found to be helpful in trying to keep my love for the job alive.

Instructor Bio -

Mark Misek is a Captain with the Wichita Fire Department where he has spent the last 19 of his 26 years in the fire service. Most of his career was spent working in or around downtown Wichita with 8 years as a Firefighter on Truck 1, 4 years as a Lieutenant on Truck 2, and the last 3+ years as the Captain of Truck 5, serving the northeast part of the city. He also spent over 3 years in the Wichita Fire Department Training Division working on training program development and instruction. Mark is a charter member of the FOOLS of Oz and Wichita HOT Executive Board.

Many of us live in a sunny world of what we believe to be ground ladders. In this reality we just carry, throw, and extend ladders.

But...there is another world. A world that’s not as sunny not as brightly lit. In this world Ladders are spliced, walls are scaled, and buckets are extended. This is the Dark Side!

The Dark Side of Ladders are you ready?

This course is designed to maximize the capabilities with the limited staffing operations we are facing across the country. With tool selection, tactics and placement we teach the rescuer to be able to accomplish rapid extrication of any victim they will face. The training and scenarios are based on twenty years of rescue experience and real world application. Students from all levels of experience will be able to take the knowledge learned back to their departments and help save lives.