
Good conferences: Good planning
features
JIM CASEY
The Editor’s Opinion Page
Spring, as our cover for this issue indicates, is a time for sprucing up the old fire station, in addition to taking the apparatus outdoors for a close checkup on the ravages of winter. But spring is also the time for meetings and conferences of the many state and regional associations that are scattered around the country.
We have always thought that there were just too many of these conferences—in fact too many associations. Most small groups lack clout and a concentration of the many into several would provide the power and numbers that a lobbying effort needs. We guess however, that local pride militates against this concentration and like the customized apparatus, the many associations and conferences are here to stay.
In the past 18 years we have attended (participated in many) some 250 of these conferences. Some were good, some were mediocre, but the good ones were few and far between. The purpose of any fire service conference should be to provide information to the attendees. Information that should be absorbed, stored and taken home to be shared with department members who were unable to attend. It is up to the association’s officers, and in particular the program planning committee, to see that this information is available.
Too many times have we listened to a speaker that wowed the audience—had them rolling in the aisles. Later we would buttonhole some of the attendees and ask them what they thought of the speaker’s presentation. “Great” one would reply. “Fantastic” from another.
Our next question asked “what did he say,” and the answer was usually “Well—er . . . er . .followed by silence. Silence because the speaker had said nothing. He had merely entertained and not informed.
When this happens often enough, attendance at the meetings goes down, with the brothers off to the golf course on the lake or whatever other social attractions the meeting place provides. The conference then becomes a failure is so far as its serious side is concerned.
The failure, of course, is usually blamed on the indifference or lack of interest of the attendees. But it should be blamed on the program planning committee. They are the ones who make or break a conference depending on whether or not they do their homework which should start months before the conference.
If possible, the committee should start with a theme for the conference. A theme makes it easier to arrive at an agenda. And an agenda points the way to the speaker, or at least the type of speakers to be sought.
Entertainers should be avoided except perhaps for the annual banquet where their talents will be most appreciated.