Meeting was called to order at 1508 hours. President Todd Grave presided. Secretary/Treasurer Danielle Sims, VP Greg Bailey, and board members; Reed Gracie, Dave Rains, Tim Logozzo, Jacob Burkhart were all present. Jacob Weigley joined at 1620 hours.
Minutes from last meeting were read by the secretary. Motion to accept the minutes as read by Greg Bailey, seconded by Tim Logozzo, motion passed.
President Graves asked Danielle to share the Treasurers Report: January 1 – November 30, 2025. Account Balances are: STCU Checking: $12,117.96, STCU Savings: $97,573.50, QB Checking: $9,697.42, PayPal: $56.93. (PayPal balance is transferred to STCU Checking monthly). $60 is outstanding in account receivable at the time of this report. Final balance is $119,505.81. Danielle then reviewed the Profit and Loss that would be presented at the general meeting later today. Danielle told the board that we don’t use Metro Fax service anymore and asked if we should cancel it. We will bring it to a vote at the general meeting later today. President Graves asked what the difference in the balance from the spring ($165K) to today ($119k)? Danielle explained that it was the expenses that have occurred up to now. In the spring we take in nearly all our income from training; after that we are just spending.
Danielle shared that we had a bad debt from Omar Ortiz, Diamond Back Forestry of $520. Originally $490 but the PayPal dispute fees were $30 more. She shared the timeline of the events after the Field Day training on August 2, 2025. Once the funds were collected on September 3 via PayPal, she marked the class paid and passed for the 4 students and inspected records for 3 students at Omar’s request, then the signed cards were emailed to Omar. On September 30th we got a notice from PayPal that the funds were in dispute and being held. Danielle reached out several times to Omar and told him what had happened and she asked him to get it corrected asap, each time Omar said he would take care of it. Danielle responded to the dispute in PayPal as directed and on November 8 PayPal closed the dispute in favor of Omar and took the funds that had been held. Danielle reached Omar that day and he said he would take care of it. By this meeting date we have not heard from Omar and the debt remains. Discussion followed. Jacob Burkhart made a motion to hold the funds in accounts receivable, tell the contracting officer and the membership. Motion was seconded by Greg Bailey, motion passed.
The board had a discussion on how to handle payments from non-members in the future. We already have a policy in place, and it was determined that we just need to be better at enforcing it.
Training Committee Topics: RT-130 Development Change. President Graves shared that Danielle had said that she does not want to create the RT-130 anymore. President Graves had accepted her request and took the roll on himself to create the refresher. Danielle will remain to help finalize and distribute the refresher.
Under Old Business Danielle shared the updates to the Database Updates are ongoing and we have paid $6770 so far.
President Graves shared that the Fire Defense Committee had started meeting in person and he has not been able to attend. In the future he would like to be sure that a board member will attend when he is not able to.
DNR relationships and the State Fire Marshall’s office – Discussion about State Mob. President Graves had sent a note to the State Fire Marshall’s office, and they basically told him that they didn’t want to bother contractors for 2- or 3-day calls. For emergency State Mob they don’t call contractors. President Graves ask VP Bailey to share his contact with Russ Lane at DNR regarding the use of IC positions and other contract resources. Russ has not gotten back to Greg. We need to be aggressive in keeping relations with the DNR and State Fire Marshall. More discussion followed.
No other Old Business.
New Business:
Cross-carding / Trainee Cards $$ – We decided to remove the fee for cross carding. We discussed trainee cards and the need for those to be designated on the cards per the contract. Discussion on the lack of follow through at the fires, basically no one is checking.
NWSA Conference Reno – March 10-12, 2026. President Graves presented the offer for himself, a board member and possibly a member attending this year. The cost last year was $3900 for one. Discussion on how to choose one from the membership. Decided to put the names in a hat and draw one. Reed Gracie motioned to present to the membership at the later meeting and draw the names from a hat. Danielle will facilitate the drawing and have her husband choose. Seconded by Tim Logozzo, motion passed.
All the following topics will be discussed at the later general meeting.
• Use of Fire Dist/Fire Dept instead of/in place of, Contract resources.
• Impact of DOI and DOA combining forces, (Wildland Fire Service) how will that affect the Contract firefighting world?
• Combining forces, (Wildland Fire Service) how will that affect the Contract firefighting world?
• Fire Shelters – Replace – (Pre-2006 Fire Shelter Degradation and Discontinuation of Use. This advisory recommends all pre-2006 fire shelters should be removed from service by January 1, 2026).
This advisory recommends firefighters and fire managers to:
o Inspect fire shelters immediately, Replace and destroy any pre-2006 shelters (identified by white or pink insert label), Order replacements as needed.
• Making a concerted effort to Lobby the State Lawmakers when it comes to using Contract resources.
• Use of Chainsaws: didn’t seem to change any as far as Teams using contract water-handling resources.
Any other New Business
• Privacy Policy added to the website – Danielle shared that this policy was added to our website, approved by President Graves and VP Bailey, as required by Resmark. This improves our compliance and integrity.
• Records inspections – other regions not the same standards (Fallers R4, Cards for other regions?) Danielle shared information she had on East Zone and West Zone Faller contracts and the problems with inspecting records from R4 specifically. After much discussion on how to prevent fraudulent cards being made, Jacob Burkhart suggested that we just add the name on the card to the back of the card. This was a great suggestion and the board agreed. Reed Gracie made a motion to add the name to the back of the card, seconded by Jacob Burkhart, motion passed.
• Aero Methow – New Director Derek VanMarter. A new membership application was submitted, and the database was updated with the new information.
• Reed Gracie commented that he had tried reaching out to the newly formed Faller Committee and did not get any responses. He wanted to know if anyone had received his emails. For reference the committee is consisted of: Chair – Reed Gracie, Jacob Weigley, Buck Smith, Dave Rains and John DeLuna.
• Jacob Burkart said he was in discussion with L&I on employment issues. He said that L&I would come to one of our in-person meetings to discuss these topics.
Spring Meeting TBD
Meeting Adjourned 1710 hours. Motion to adjourn by Jacob Burkhart, seconded by Greg Bailey, motion approved.