2025 THAT DAM FIre Conference
DETAILS COMING SOON!
Hotel Information
Holiday Inn Express & Suites: $139 per night
2502 SE Hulsizer Dr Ankeny, IA
515-965-2400
**Make sure to tell the hotel that you are part of the FOOLS fire Conference
friday’s Lecture Series
Leadership at Every Level
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
www.fireserviceleadership.com
Nerds - Cultivating Passion In the Fire Service
Welcome to "Nerds," a transformative course designed to ignite your passion for the fire service and foster a culture of compassion, humility, and true leadership. This class is more than just lectures; it’s a journey into the heart of what it means to serve and lead within our communities.
In "Nerds," we delve into the often-overlooked aspects of leadership—qualities that cannot be quantified or neatly defined. Here, we embrace the complexities of compassion, empathy, and the essence of servitude. Through shared experiences and discussions, you will learn how to connect with your team on a deeper level, showing them that you genuinely care about their well-being and aspirations.
We’ll explore the significance of mission, vision, and values, emphasizing the importance of integrating these principles into your organizational culture. Together, we will cultivate an environment where creativity and collaboration flourish—where everyone feels safe to express themselves, make mistakes, and grow.
Imagine a department where fear is replaced by trust, where leaders inspire rather than reprimand, and where every member feels valued and understood. In this space, your collective passion for the job will blossom into a powerful force, transforming your department into the vibrant, unified community you’ve always envisioned.
Join us in "Nerds" to rediscover the fire service and harness the energy of shared purpose. Let’s build an army of dedicated individuals who are not only obsessed with their mission but are also committed to uplifting one another. Together, we’ll create a culture that thrives on love for the service and the people we serve—one that you can only dream about.
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?!
www.citizensfirstfiretraining.com
Get Your Mind Right'
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.
Saturday’s Hands-on-training
Mayday Mindset- Rob Ramirez
The Mayday Mindset HOT program is backed entirely by decades of real-world experience and the most up-to-date firefighter survival and proactive RIT training models available. This one-of-a-kind training program focuses entirely on providing today's firefighters with the necessary tools to teach, learn, develop and excel at any fire ground skill. In addition to this, Rob and his cadre will highlight the unquestionable benefits of understanding physiology, human behavior patterns, and the effective introduction of artificial stress during firefighter training. This physically challenging class will also ensure that attendees of any rank or tenure are equipped with the most relevant, data-driven solutions available to become better instructors and firefighters. This program will be delivered in the rawest and most emotive manner and focuses on the premise that "If you can't truck, you can't RIT"
PPE Required: Full PPE with SCBA and Spare Bottle.
The Can Man- Jess Rodzinka
The water can is the most under utilized tool on the fire apparatus. We carry them on eveything: engine, truck companies, medic ambulances. However we were never shown the true capability of the 2.5 gallon water can. This class will go through a brief lecture to discuss the water can and search techniques with the can. Then head to the hands on portion where we will demonstrate the effectiveness of the water can. The students will then proceed to go through several rotations of scenarios to obtain the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the "Can position"