Comments From Officers Who Have Attended The VCOS Course

"Super job! Thank you for helping us help ourselves! We'll keep you informed of our progress. As a new manager at my county job, your knowledge and skills will have been helpful to me in daily operations of my staff and program - Thanks!"

"The entire program was very helpful. It brought to light a number of problems and more importantly, steps to deal with these problems."

"I am very glad that I took advantage of being involved in this program. What an eye opener. Now is the time to take this back and make some changes. The only suggestion I have is bring Mike back."

"This was very helpful, Mike has a wealth of knowledge and experience. He is also an excellent presenter. The frustration level felt by many of us was also helped very much by Mikes sincere interest in this subject area, and in helping us with our problems here."

"Excellent program that every member of every department should be able to see."

"The way Mike made the problems we are all facing easy to understand, and put it in a scope that is fixable."

"This was extraordinary informational. Need to get more officers and administrators here. Courses like this are very beneficial - very open minded."

"I wish more political figures and chiefs were in attendance. They missed a great course!"

"The manner in which the instructor integrated his experience nd real life situations with the course material was absolutely excellent."

"Introduced a lot of topics that need to be addressed with our department. Also explained where a lot of our problems started and have continued."

"I thoroughly enjoyed the class and definitely would take another it is impossible to learn it all in 2 days."

"Rich and John are extremely good instructors. They kept us interested and focused on the course. Their knowledge and expertise showed."

"John and Rich did a superb job. Both are very informative and extremely knowledgeable of the subjects. They presented all the information in an organized manor that kept our attention and made it easy to understand."

"It gave me plenty of ideas on my departments procedures and possible avenues we can head towards."

"Most definitely, wish more would have attended. I wish my whole department could have the chance to be here."

"I like that besides talking about problems of the fire service, they also talked about solving the problems."

"Was very impressed with the alternative funding section, a lot of good ideas. Also, felt the section on taking care of Fire Fighters problems will be helpful.

"Kept class very interesting. The energy level was good. The stories and analogies helped more than the visual."

"Learned a lot. Thank you very much!"

"Very good class. Well worth the time spent."

"John and Rich were very knowledgeable about the whole course. They did a very good job and presented the information so we could understand it and also relate to the info presented."

"I especially liked the time that the class interacted with each other. I think we solved several problems and my eyes were opened to several other problems I did not realize I had in my Fire Department."

"I have intended to communicate sooner but have been extremely busy. I want to take a few minutes to update you on our department's progress and relate the success story directly to the Leadership and Management seminar you taught in Mariposa.

I must say the Department and the Board of Fire Commissioners have turned 180 degrees in a very short period of time. We have been successful in gaining authorization to hire our first career firefighters, we asked for eight and got all eight. We went into the public hearing down 2 votes to 1 and, following much public support and volunteer member support emerged victorious; 3-0. Since then an antagonistic Board with nothing but acerbic and sarcastic comments has turned into pussycats. They are now cooperating with administration as a team and moving forward for the benefit of our customers. Languishing morale among the members has turned and now is soaring. Participation is at an all time high in both training and emergency response.

We have begun the recruitment and selection process for both volunteer and career firefighters. We mailed 482 application packets the first day they were available. For the first time in 10 years we have more volunteer recruits enrolled in our academy than we lost from the roster last year. We will actually show a net increase in volunteer staffing for 2000. It is a wonderful and exciting time for Vashon Island Fire and Rescue. I must credit much of the turn around to the information and experiences received from the VCOS Leadership and Management course. Numerous arguments and justification to the Board for advancing our proposals came directly from the seminar as well as concepts and ideas to enhance our volunteer experience.

In a few short months this Department has literally turned around, all for the positive. We now have enthusiastic teamwork where chaos once reigned. We now have everyone moving forward in unison instead of a constant tug-of-war. Well, OK, it is not yet Camelot but the situation has definitely improved. I seem to be in a perpetual state of euphoria. When I undertook this assignment I was outwardly optimistic but secretly apprehensive about my decision. With the program's assistance we have progressed further and faster than even I had hoped for. I look forward to sharing this experience with the many volunteer chief officers in our area this November. Many thanks to VCOS staff for their dedication in developing and delivering the seminar and deep appreciation to Pierce Manufacturing for their generous sponsorship. We will probably be purchasing our next piece of fire apparatus from them this year."