Meeting Report - Feb, 2009

The regular meeting of the LONG ISLAND EMERGENCY VEHICLE TECHNICIANS was held on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at the Elmont Fire District. An excellent dinner was served to the fifty some attendees and the volunteers at Elmont certainly deserved the LIEVT chefs’ hats they were presented with.

At 8 PM the meeting was opened by the President, Steve Velazquez, who led the pledge to the flag. He asked Kit to read the minutes of the meeting at Commack on November 29, 2009– the minutes were read and approved.

Steve reported that Chris Lo Preto is no longer employed as a mechanic in the Sayville FD. He is now a firefighter/EMT at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was happy to report that Chris (our member who moonlights as a college instructor) will be able to prepare our members for the EVT tests as soon as he is off probation. Kit has contacted Mike Squitteri and Dan Krupski for their help in securing the location for the review, the test site and the proctor – hopefully this will happen in May.

Frank from Bay Shore had called and offered to host the March meeting in Bay Shore. The meeting has been confirmed for Wednesday, March 18 at Bay Shore. There was a discussion about a possible meeting in Westchester County – we have some members who travel regularly from Westchester to come to our meetings. Steve asked for a Nassau location for the May meeting. A motion had been approved at the last meeting to form a meeting planning committee. Vinnie and Mike Buglione stepped up to the plate – Vinnie submitted a list of suggestions for possible future training seminars. Our members would like us to set up training seminars for them. Steve talked about the FDSOA which is held in Orlando every January. Paul Sailon, our treasurer, talked about a few of the topics that would be of interest to our members. Steve reminded the members to look at the EVTA feeds and the Fire Apparatus feeds on www. lievt.org - there might be someone else working on the same problem.

Steve introduced Ed Melia of Odyssey Battery. He did a very interesting power point presentation on the heavy duty pure virgin lead battery which has been proven in the most extreme conditions. A lively Q & A followed.

Steve thanked Jo-Anne of Sailon for her help to our treasurer and Fire Research for mailers, paper, printing and the webmaster, their IT director Nate Berry

Plaques were presented to Ed Melia of Odyssey/EnerSys. Drew Conrad and Commissioner Joe Baletta who represented the Elmont Fire Commissioners.

A raffle was held with Harlem Globetrotter tickets from Fire News and a fire extinguisher donated by South Shore Fire Equipment. The group was reminded to bring more raffle donations to the next meeting.

The group was reminded to check http://www.lievt.org for the latest association information. Information can be on the website instantly – we do not do a mailing until every last bit of information is correct (postage was raised to .42 in May and is going up .02 more in May – PLEASE SUPPLY US WITH AN EMAIL ADDRESS IF WE DON’T HAVE ONE FOR YOU. See photos of the meeting on the website and click on any picture to see photos from previous meetings.

The meeting was adjourned @ 9:30PM.