Meeting called to order 1805, President Graves welcomed everyone to this meeting.
Attendance – President Graves, Secretary Sims and 37 members. The meeting ended with 24 members attending.
First item on the agenda is to read the minutes from the previous meeting. Secretary Sims read the minutes from the last meeting, December 2, 2025. Motion to approve minutes as read by Dan Shaw, seconded Alissa Munos (Action Resources), minutes approved.
Next item is the Treasurer’s report. Danielle reviewed the account balances and profit and loss. Checking balance is $ 64,732, Savings balance is $97.836, PayPal balance is $5,810, QuickBooks Checking balance is $11,587. Total account balances are $179,966. No questions.
Secretary Sims shared that the 990 filing was complete and the profit margins annually is $3-4k. No questions.
P&L Income as of May 20, 2026 is $107,282, Expenses are $40,922, Net profit is $66,360. Any questions, no. Motion to pass Treasurer’s report by Charlie Curtis, seconded by Susan Hanson, motioned passed.
Next item is the Training Committee report…S-230 and S-290 classes were restructured so new curriculum was prepared and sent to the instructors. Danielle used 48 hr books to produce the workbooks needed. More math needs to be done to figure out where we would be price wise. The class fee was set before we knew the actual cost of all the training materials needed for the class. TC Sims will get all the numbers together in the fall so we’ll know next year how much we really need to charge for these classes.
Next year there’s going to be a requirement for engine
bosses to take the S-231 class S-211 pump class. The S-131 class for the coming
year has been updated and they’re getting rid of the sand table. There will be new curriculum and materials that
will need to be put together. Danielle explained the process for creating the
curriculum from the files that are provided by the NWCG training catalog. We
hope to stay close to our current class fees but there is a possibility that
some of them may cost more with the new training materials that are going to be
required.
Read Gracie had a question about where it says that the pump classes is going
to be required. Danielle explained that there was a memo that was written
explaining that these new changes that would take effect in January of 2027. Danielle
explained that the qualification system guide has gone away and they are now
going by position standards and all of these required classes are listed for
each of the positions.
Danielle also shared that the training policy on the website is not presented the same way that the original document that we used in 2023, so she needs to talk to Dan and find out why there is a difference and get it updated. This will be done so we can vote on it in the fall and get it posted on the website.
Old business:
Danielle explained about the changes to the database there are several things that aren’t working the way that Dan expected them to be working and there are a lot of things that need to be addressed. In order to address the security of the cards that are made by our database the board had approved earlier to have the person’s name that’s on the front of the card also appear on the back of the card and that’s something that we need to get done sooner than later so Danielle will be working on that as well. President Graves shared with the members that Danielle did a great job working through the issues that came up with the database.
President Graves shared that he was not able to attend the FDC meetings because they resumed in-person meetings. Todd said he would be sure to attend as many meetings as he could for the remainder of the year. As a reminder the FDC is a committed formed by the Governor of Fire Chiefs. DNR and State Mob attend and make recommendations to the Governor. He also shared that he has a listening part more than a speaking part.
DNR and State Fire Marshall’s office, these are two separate entities. We converse with DNR, Russ Lane and had good conversations with him in Reno. I spoke with Russ about creating an MOU with DRN to work together on training and communication. Danielle reminded me that DNR certificates are not accepted by R6. You can hire someone with previous training, but you cannot send them to ongoing training with DNR. My goal was to create a relationship where we can cooperate and get called out on fires.
The State Fire Marshall’s Office is under the State Patrol. When there is a State MOB it goes up through the chain of command and if it is approved resources will be called, usually fire districts are called. They will not put anything into writing currently. A question was asked about how these entities are dispatched, Todd said they are not tied to using our dispatch lists. They are working on calling closest available. More discussion followed.
New business:
Some information about chainsaw use on engines. Craig Erickson from the
contracting office sent out a memo in April saying that that statement was
conflicting and that they were going to take it out of the agreement. Reed Gracie
shared that he thinks that we can go back to doing the tasks that we were doing
before but we do need to be careful that we don’t use the chainsaws beyond what
would be necessary on an engine. A question was asked about why the S-212 is
not required on an engine. Todd thought that some of these things are going to
be required but Reed Gracie commented that none of these extra classes are
required they are just considered beneficial. More discussion followed. Danielle
reminded everyone that the chainsaw class has been changed from S-212 to the S-112
because it’s considered a beginner’s class. Danielle shared that she thought
that the S-112 would not be added as a qualification to a card and the only way
would be if the Faller 3 TB was completed, then that qualification could be
added to the card. (We have learned that S-112 can be put on the card as a
qualification and that’s what we continued to do for the remainder of the year.)
President Graves shared about the e-mail that came out about updating your employees records. Todd asked how many people actually got the memo and there was some discussion on what it actually means. Danielle shared the information that she learned after opening this memo and how to submit the information. It says if you are a Region 1 or Region 6 contractor then you just click yes and then you click “I understand” and submit. You don’t have to submit any of your employees’ records because you have your records inspected. If you’re from any of the other regions then you’re going to have to enter all of the records. Danielle believes this came up because over the last few years she has received records from other regions that have different requirements. Danielle feels that this is the the contracting officers finally catching up with the fact that their national template is not actually a national template and finally having some accountability because training in region 4 and training in region 6 like for fallers for instance, is different and so I can’t approve someone from region 4 because they don’t need firefighter 2. More discussion followed.
Election of Officers:
President Graves, Tim Logozzo, Reed Gracie are up for renewal, and EB #5 is
Vacant. Tim Logozzo has decided not to continue as a board member. Todd thanked
Tim for all his many years of service to the WCFA. All the members present
thanked Tim for his service.
President Graves asked for nominations for President, Reed Gracie nominated Todd, Charlie Curtis 2nd, Susan Hanson thanked Todd for his service. All in favor of Todd for 2 more years. All approved.
Reed Gracie said he would accept a nomination, nomination by Charlie Curtis, Joe Beatty 2nd. Any other nominations? All those in favor, all approved another 3-year term.
Nomination to fill Tim’s vacant seat. Greg Barker said he would accept a nomination. Reed Gracie nominated, 2nd by Mike Meyers. All in favor, all approved for 3-year term.
Nomination to fill vacant, 1 year remaining of 3 year term. Reed nominated Bill Duguay, Mike Meyers, Vitis Labanauskas. Vitas accepted the nomination by Reed Gracie, Greg Bailey 2nd. All in favor, all approved. President Graves reminded the new board members that the EB positions will be listed by seniority from now on.
President Graves read a list of members who have passed their one-year probation. He asked if any were here, Dutchman Logging, Sterling Wildfire and Artimis were here. Charlie Curtis welcomed all the new members and was happy to see the WCFA growing. Greg Bailey asked how many members we currently have, Danielle said 69.
New Members – Boulder Operations did not show up for the meeting. This is the first time this has happened. They were told to send a letter or attend. They just decided not to come. Should we suspend their membership and they can re-apply. Todd said they could come to the fall meeting. JJH Earthworks Jeff Huber spoke. Working to get his engine and faller contract. He has 2 engines and has on-boarded them this season. Discussion followed. Mike Gray, Brothers Forestry, Inc. Mike shared about his company, started out with Alder Creek and Brothers Fire. Tried a chipper last year and didn’t go out. He switched this year to a faller module. Saul suggested that he join. Discussion followed. Todd put Jeff and Mike in a waiting room while we voted on them. Discussion followed. All in favor of accepting Jeff Huber, all approved. All in favor of accepting Mike Gray, all approved. Both new members are accepted as new members. President Graves congratulated them and Danielle reminded them of their one-year probation.
Aaron Burkhart of Early Winters Outfitters lost their membership and are here to reapply. President Graves as Aaron to share his reason for reapplying. Aaron spoke and said that this is the 3rd time that he is reapplying for membership. He explained that he did not pay his dues in full according to the WCFA. He explained that he paid $120 and had $30 credit. He said he didn’t know he wasn’t a member until a letter came from President Graves in April. He continued to explain his situation. He feels that he was slighted on this and he didn’t like the way it went down. He quoted the by laws and said he would have paid $30 right away. A question was asked by a member what happened the 1st 2 times that he had to reapply. Aaron explained. Todd asked him to share about his company, and Aaron said he had been a member for so long he didn’t need to explain. Todd told Aaron that he would be in the waiting room. Todd asked if anyone else had something to say. Greg Bailey said that we have gone through this 2 times before. Aaron has not conformed to the way the WCFA does things. He just wants everyone to think about that.
Danielle went on to explain her long, long 18 years of dealing with Aaron Burkhart. She addressed the first 2 reasons he had to apply. Danielle explained that in 2023 the board would not let her tell the membership what happened and he was voted back in. Danielle explained that in January 2026 she received Aaron dues payment where he gave himself $30 credit. Danielle explained that was unprecedented to assume a credit without first contacting the secretary. Danielle continued to explain and unfortunately relive the difficulties of these past years. Todd thanked Danielle for sharing and went on to explain the grief that Aaron has continued to inflict on the WCFA needs to stop. Please consider if this is someone we need to keep in the WCFA or not. Susan Hanson said she was sorry that Danielle had to go through this and said that this association may not be a good fit for his company. Others shared discussion and the difficulty in this decision. Greg Bailey called for a vote. The votes were counted, 19 out of 24 remaining – 5 abstain = 19. Todd asked for anyone that wanted to keep EWO to raise their hand, none. By a vote of the members present Early Winters Outfitters is voted out. Greg Bailey said that praise in public, reprimand in private. We decided to adjourn the meeting and tell Aaron after alone.
Fall General Meeting TBD
Motion to adjourn Greg Bailey, 2nd Ambrose Bassette. Meeting adjourned 20:26.
President Graves brought Aaron out of the waiting room and told him he was voted out. Aaron left the meeting immediately.