Guest Speaker Training
Last week Captain John Chevalier came up with an idea during his guest training bulletin that sort of struck me after I read it.
His idea was to mention about getting some local electrician or technical person to assist you with your portable electrical equipment and the like. That idea and one line led me to something else.
We always believe that we in the fire service have the only methods and ideas to train our personnel. Why don't we reach out once in a while to professionals who might not necessarily give us money or donate a product but can actually donate their expertise to us in the form of a training.
The first thing we need to do to arrange some of these training's is to determine a couple of things. First and foremost that we are open-minded enough to listen to some "civilian". The second very important thing we need to do is to determine if the resource or person we bring in is valid. Do some checking and ask some questions about their background and make sure they are not just some "self proclaimed" expert or authority. Determine if they are respected by their peers in their own field and if they capable of delivering the material you want.
Here are some thoughts for training possibilities:
Captain Chevalier's first thought of a licensed electrician if you don't have one at your department. This person could talk about generators, cords and GFI circuits. They could talk about electrical fire causes and their discovery. They could speak about downed wires. They could talk about electrical sources of heat that can cause fires. They could work with fire prevention folks and help prepare information and a talk about electrical fire causes in the homes. A really great resource if you can find one to share their knowledge on an evening drill or to come back several times to present to the on duty groups or shifts.
Contact the local oil burner or gas company for a person to come in and speak about heating appliance emergencies. They could speak about how the oil burner system works, causes of problems and how problems can be handled by the department when they respond.
Contact someone in your response area or town that works for the electrical utility company. Either they can come and speak to you about electrical transmission lines and problems there or they can get you in contact with the right person.
Ditto for the local natural gas, LNG, or propane supplier.
How about getting a school teacher in to help company officers prepare to give a training. How about an elementary school teacher to come in and teach your prevention folks how to get your message to small children.
How about a local police officer to speak about police fire operations at automobile accidents, fires, investigations, domestic cases and crime scenes.
How about a computer technology person to help the department understand computer issues better.
Obviously a doctor or nurse for any EMS related issues in their particular fields.
A clinical physchologist for dealing with people in times of emergencies and other emotionally critical emergencies that we could respond to.
Bring in the local ham Radio operator to determine what amateur radio can do for you in an emergency and how they can explain how to better utilize your existing radio equipment.
A local meteorologist for any weather related issues that could relate to firefighting and EMS issues.
A local newspaper or news station person to discuss how to interface with the press.
A local commercial photographer to discuss how to use photography of all sorts to enhance your training programs.
A sport mountain climbing person to talk about ropes knots and rescue devices.
A local physical fitness instructor.
A local nutritionist.
Without much effort you now realize that our profession of emergency services, touches and encompasses lots of others.
In these days of budget restrictions and limitations of our personnel using outside resources as above has just allowed you to deliver a multitude of very interesting and helpful topics to your troops.
They key points are the preparation of this training from the outside.
Make sure the resources and folks are valid.
Make sure they understand what you need them to focus on.
Make sure your review and provide them with any applicable laws, standards regulations and Sops that apply to their topic.
Broaden your training horizons and explore what the community can do for you.