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Hendricks County Professional Firefighters International Association of Fire Fighters Local 4406 6319 E. US Hwy 36, Suite 9 Avon, Indiana 46123 www.local4406.org Sean Atkinson, President president@local4406.org Danny F. Brock, Jr, Vice-President vicepresident@local4406.org Jeff Schlageter, Secretary-Treasurer treasurer@local4406.org LOCAL 4406 DISTRICT LEADERS David Brock, Brownsburg District President Jon Zajicek, Brownsburg Trustee Bryan Fleck, Danville District President Eric Rollings, Danville Trustee Keith Ross, Pittsboro District President Steve Milstead, Pittsboro Trustee Roberta (Bobbie) Dixon, Plainfield District President -, Plainfield Trustee Robert (Bob) Phipps, Washington Township/Avon District President -, Washington Township/Avon Trustee GENERAL COUNSEL Matthew G. Langenbacher, Esq. Attorney At Law NEWSLETTER Publisher Danny F. Brock, Jr. Creative Services, Art/Promotion Danny F. Brock, Jr. *If interested in creating the cover for the next issue, please contact

Danny Brock at 317-717-0299 to discuss and submit artwork for

consideration. Material must be appropriate in nature and reflect the

fire service or Local 4406 in a positive manner.

TheTheTheThe

Straight StreamStraight StreamStraight StreamStraight Stream Hendricks County Professional Firefighters of Local 4406

PRESIDENT

p. 3

VICE-PRESIDENT

p. 3-4

DISTRICT NEWS

p. 4-6

EDITORIAL

p. 7-8

LOCAL 4406 and DISTRICT POLITICS

p. 9

UPCOMING EVENTS

p. 10

ABOUT THE COVER

The cover for this month is simply representative of the season and

Halloween. I found and edited a graphic which also includes the

IAFF Logo encompassing all 5 Districts represented by photographs

from www.indianafiretrucks.com. We are officially on our second

issue. This issue will include an order form for a T-Shirt pre-order

thanks to the designs of Alex Brand. Any interest in designing a

cover should be communicated to vicepresident@local4406.org.

Please submit your interest and sample of your idea for

consideration. The photo should be no larger than 6”x7” and

300dpi. Hope you all enjoy and look forward to more participation

in 2015.

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A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT

SEAN ATKINSON

Dear Brother and Sister’s, What a year this has been for us here in Hendricks County. I would like to thank all those who has been diligent in helping this union and its firefighters move forward in a positive manner. It takes a team effort to be able to achieve success and we have achieved it throughout the county. As many of you already know I did not seek re-election this year for the President of the Local. The past 2 years have been such a pleasure for me. I have created new friendships throughout Hendricks County and I will cherish those as I move on to another challenges in my life. Again thank you for having me as your President and I will look forward to seeing you at other events throughout the county. The person who will be leading you for the next 2 years will be David Brock. David has been serving this Local as the President of the Brownsburg District and has achieved great success. Let’s all make sure that we congratulate David on his this new position and make sure that we support him in future endeavors. Again thank you and please be safe. Sean

VICE-PRESIDENT

DANNY BROCK

Members, The 3

rd Quarter of 2014 has been an interesting one. As

you will read in Danville District President Bryan Fleck’s article, we had a significant meeting with District 5 VP Tony Murray and Danville Fire to discuss Meet and Confer with 3 of the 5 districts represented and seven people present. Ms Dixon stated she would have been present, but was at the NFA with a prior commitment. Pittsboro President, Keith Ross, was on shift or he would have also been present. It appears we will have 4 Districts in Local 4406 pursuing Meet and Confer to formalize the role of our organization and recognition of members via the governing political entities. Our current leadership and newly nominated leadership for 2015 leave me optimistic about our involvement for our members and further advancement of Local 4406’s involvement in Hendricks County and beyond. We have continually gained recognition with the PFFUI and IAFF throughout 2014 and will do so into the future with involvement of our leadership on all levels. To end the year, we do not have a lot planned outside of Danville educating, meeting, and starting the process to pass Meet and Confer within the District. They appear to have the support of the Chief and good political relations already. So Meet and Confer will not change the way they do business, but further protect them and their rights should the political or leadership environment change in the future. Avon will be starting the process soon and we look to begin the actual process for them early in 2015. Pittsboro has also stated strong interest in passing Meet and Confer soon as well. Shirt pre-orders will be forthcoming and we currently have decals in stock. Many pre-ordered decals, but never paid upon the arrival of our current stock. Regardless, we ordered plenty of each style so if interested, contact your District Rep or any Local Representative for an order. To follow the decals, shirt pre-orders will only be placed upon payment by a set date which will be communicated soon. We will offer kid

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sizes on pre-orders only. There will not be any stocked in our office. The design we will use was supplied this year by Alex Brand and we will put the offer for a design in the following year during the second half of 2015. The current design appears as follows.

Lastly, we were approached by a representative to implement CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) for our members and will be meeting with said representative in the coming weeks. Our meeting will layout a road map for implementation early 2015 while discussing what is available in Hendricks County, how to go about the process, and what issues can be referred to the counselor(s). Your incoming Local 4406 President and I see this as an important implementation. While dealing with various disciplinary issues or employee crises around the county, only one time have I seen the employee be offered EAP or some type of counseling to help correct the behavior at hand. Besides obvious behavioral issues that may be addressed by a department leader, we need to keep in mind that something as simple as running late to work, poor performance, etc… could be a result of something greater for our members. To that end, if there is an issue resulting in discipline or not, we would like to make available from our end a means to an end to life stresses and foster the health and well being of our members as able. Though it is the job of the departments to monitor these things as they relate to incidents and issues, that is not always the case so we have to look out for each other as well.

AVON DISTRICT PRESIDENT

ROBERT “Bob” PHIPPS

Nothing Reported… Plenty happening and communications with Local 4406 are continuous. Bob was nominated unopposed for Avon District President of Local 4406 for another term starting in January 2015.

BROWNSBURG DISTRICT PRESIDENT

DAVID BROCK

This is my last article as District President of Brownsburg; my next article will be as the president of Local 4406. I would like to thank the roughly 30 members that showed up to the last local meeting. The bylaws state that I must resign my position as District President upon accepting the nomination. I am looking forward to learning the concerns and listening to the request from the 160 plus members that I am going to have the honor of representing from the county districts. It was a pleasure to represent the members of Brownsburg over the last several years and I’m sure that the members of Brownsburg will nominate someone into the district that will continue the work of representing concerns of the members with the politicians and administration. Another summer has come and gone and it has been a very busy one in the Brownsburg district. I would first like to share with you the events of the 52

nd IAFF

convention held in Cincinnati Ohio that took place on the week of July 14

th. It was a very busy week as there

were 38 proposed resolutions on the floor at the beginning of the week. This was my first international conference that I have attended in my tenure as district president in Brownsburg. The convention is set up as a very long union meeting that recesses at the end of every day and concludes at the end of business. In this meeting was the first roll call vote in several years;

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General President Schaitberger did an outstanding job maneuvering through that process which lasted most of one day. There were several resolutions passed in support of health and safety of our members, a resolution passed to renovate the IAFF Fallen Firefighter Memorial, another to help support our local union representatives if they are wrongfully terminated for conducting union business, and a few per capita increases due to the rising cost of doing business and inflation in the international. We have also made it through another budget season and it has passed through the Executive Board and also made it through the first reading of the Brownsburg Town Council. This budget included a 2% pay raise for the second year in a row without a change to our insurance or retirement. I would like to thank the Executive Board for supporting this budget. I have also been exploring retiree insurance options with HR in the town of Brownsburg, in the next two and a half years we have several members eligible to retire and we need to understand what is currently available and our options outside of what the town can offer us. There is a lot of work being done in a couple of our districts in this last quarter of the year and I will be keeping up on the progress they make as we together move this great local forward heading into 2015. Remember, it is the work of the members of the districts that make the Local 4406 an organization that we all can be proud of. When the majority of our district members state the direction that they want to go as professional firefighters and paramedics we all need to stand in solidarity together with those brothers and sisters even if they are not members of our own district to support their cause. We are only as strong as our participation in the Local 4406. Later on in the year I will be visiting all of the districts of our local to share my thoughts on the direction of the local and also listen to the ideas of the membership on the direction that you would like to see us head in 2015. Stay safe in the last quarter of 2014. In Solidarity, David Brock Brownsburg District President

DANVILLE DISTRICT PRESIDENT

BRYAN FLECK

First, I would like to thank the IAFF 4406 Executive Board for their leadership and guidance over the last several months. I am new to this role, and the entire Danville District sincerely appreciates their many contributions. Several members of Local 4406 leadership and brothers from Avon and Plainfield recently joined me to meet with PFFUI 5

th District VP Tony Murray. Mr. Murray provided

many valuable ideas for future development of the districts and local. We also began the process of making meet and confer a reality in Danville. With the blessing of Fire Chief Mark Morgan, I started the conversation to make the IAFF the exclusively recognized fire department employee organization. Our goal is to solidify an already superb relationship between the Danville Professional Firefighters Local 4406 and the Town of Danville. This Christmas, the district will adopt a Danville family in need. Working with Center Township Trustee Judy White, we found a family and plan to brighten their holiday season with gifts and other essential winter needs. In May, we will field our first fire department Mini-Marathon team. With the sponsorship help of Hendricks Regional Health, Mill House Realty, HomePro Heating and Cooling, and the DFD administration, 12 runners from the department will sport custom team shirts in their quest to complete the 500 Festival Mini Marathon or 5k on 5/2/15. Firefighters of all running abilities will compete for prizes from Timex, The Fire Store, and HRH. Some of our team may even compete in full fire gear. If any other district in the local would like to form a team to compete for bragging rights, we would gladly accept the challenge. We look forward to the camaraderie, friendly competition, and the test of endurance that this event will surely bring. Improving the health and wellness of our firefighters is a priority for the Danville District. We are proud to

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announce that our aging fitness facility at Station 92 will be renovated with new Life Fitness Hammer Strength equipment. This much-needed upgrade was made possible by a generous contribution from Marion Township. Finally, The Danville Fire Department Dive Team completed several extensive trainings over the summer. We recently trained at the deep Gilboa Quarry in Findley, OH and the pond in the Wexford Estates neighborhood in Danville. The team also continues to train in the safe environment of the Danville H.S. pool. On 9/29/14, the team successfully recovered a vehicle from a pond in Putnam County. This night operation was executed in a safe and professional manner. The driver of the vehicle was uninjured and escaped the car before our arrival. The two divers hooked the car, safely emerged from the water, and completed a post-dive safety evaluation in approximately 30 minutes. Stay Safe, Bryan Fleck

PITTSBORO DISTRICT PRESIDENT

NO PHOTO

KEITH ROSS

Nothing Reported.

PLAINFIELD DISTRICT PRESIDENT

BOBBIE DIXON

Recruit Class started Monday, October 27, 2014. Meet the Probies – Help me welcome them to the family. Joe Brown(EMT) – Whitestown FD & IEMS Brandon Harris(Medic) – Greenfield FD & private ambulance service

Dustin Moffitt (EMT) – DPW & Monroe Twp FD Steven Goheen (Medic) – Private ambulance service & FD way up North. ***Shift assignments will be announced next week, the current plan does not include moving any current employees***

Recruit Graduation – If they make it that far, we will have recruit graduation on Friday, November 21, 2014, 18:00 at the Rec Center. Plainfield Fire Territory is happy to announce the promotion of Mike Thompson to Lieutenant effective November 10, 2014. His first A-Shift will be November 11th. Help me in congratulating Mike on this accomplishment. The Town has approved the following additions:

• Station 122 – New building on Moon Road, opening in early 2016. Old station (Re-purpose or parking lot ???)

• HQ – New building on Moon Road, opening in early 2016. Repurpose current building as a dispatch center.

• Station 121 – New building location TBD, soon after S122/HQ finished.

• Plainfield has ordered 2 fire engines the first one will be delivered in February.

Plainfield has started using Tenzinga for employee performance. The goal is to have goals and expectations before reviews and a constant interaction between employees and their supervisors so that evaluation time is not a surprise for anyone. Plainfield Fire Territory has helped with the “Welcome Home” on September 6 and October 18. The next one will be on November 8. A shift has gotten to see this event a couple times now. I encourage all of you to attend if you can. It is a very special event. Roberta “Bobbie” Dixon

NOTICE: *Next District Articles will be due January 12

th, 2015 for

distribution by the end of the month to our members. Members, if there is anything you would like noted by Local 4406, please let us know prior to the date above.

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EDITORIAL DANNY BROCK

VICE-PRESIDENT LOCAL 4406

GOOD ON THE RIGHT

Good On The Right is a term we hear from our officer every day as we drive our multi-ton rigs around town, in and out of traffic, and emergent when our residents are in need. While performing these duties, we hear “good on the right” from the guy in “The Seat” who we rely on to direct us to the scene, direct us on the scene, and direct us during our day to day operations around the firehouse and in training. We often take the word of the person to our right that we are “good on the right” over a dozen times per day. To go along with this sometimes blind trust to ease into an intersection while driving, enter a hazardous scene, or any other issue we deal with day to day, we often are left to trust the person to our right. The chauffer relies on the officer to the right to let them know if we are “good on the right”, the jumpseater relies on the jumpseater to their right to back them up and be competent on scenes, the other jumpseater relies on the chauffer to get the water flowing on a fire or grab the appropriate tools for other scenes we encounter. Our reliance on each other is a continuous circle of trust always moving and changing. However, one thing is always constant the person next to you may be your lifeline at some point, the person to your right for the sake of this article. So are we actually “Good On The Right”? The answer to this question may not be finite, but actually lay in a philosophical thought process. If A is true and B is true, then C must be true based on another term we often use…common sense. I hated Philosophy 101 while at Hanover College, but ultimately life is philosophical at its core and is a game best played with common sense. George Edward "G. E." Moore OM, FBA (/mʊər/; 4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher. He was one of the founders of the analytic tradition in philosophy. He led the turn away from idealism in British philosophy, and became well known for his advocacy of common sense concepts, his contributions to ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics, and "his exceptional personality and moral character."

Moore famously put the point of common sense

into dramatic relief with his 1939 essay Proof of an External World, in which he gave a common sense argument against skepticism by raising his right hand and saying "here is one hand," and then raising his left and saying "and here is another". He goes on to state, “There are at least two external objects in the world. Therefore an external world exists.”

Here, Moore is taking his knowledge claim (q) to be that he has two hands, and without rejecting the skeptic's premise, proves that we can know the skeptical possibility (sp) to be not true. The skeptical argument Where S is a subject, sp is a skeptical possibility, such as the brain in a vat hypothesis, and q is a knowledge claim about the world:

• If S doesn't know that not-sp, then S doesn't know that q

• S doesn't know that not-sp

• Therefore, S doesn't know that q

Moore's response

• If S doesn't know that not-sp, then S doesn't know that q

• S knows that q

• Therefore, S knows that not-sp

Moore's argument is not simply a flippant response to the skeptic. Moore gives in Proof of an External World, three requirements for a good proof. (1) the premises (assumption of truth) must be different from the conclusion, (2) the premises must be demonstrated, and (3) the conclusion must follow from the premises. He claims that his proof of an external world meets those three criteria. Moore is also remembered for drawing attention to the peculiar inconsistency involved in uttering a sentence such as "It is raining but I do not believe it is raining."—a puzzle which is now commonly called "Moore's paradox." The puzzle arises because it seems impossible for anyone to consistently assert such a sentence; but there doesn't seem to be any logical contradiction between "It is raining" and "I don't believe that it is raining." because the former is a statement about the weather and the latter a statement about a person's belief about the weather, and it is perfectly logically possible that it may rain whilst a person does not believe that it is raining. (Reference for the above - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_is_one_hand)

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In answering the question, “Are We Good On The Right?”, we can use the three requirements for a good proof mentioned in GE Moore’s Common Sense Argument and also consider Moore’s Paradox. First let’s consider the beliefs we sometimes hear when we discuss leadership in our departments, shifts, and houses using Moore’s Paradox: The person in charge on any given day is “riding the seat” or “in the buggy”, but I do not believe they have the ability to be in charge nor possess the knowledge to navigate any challenges we may face.

This statement would appear to be impossible for anyone to assert from the outside looking in, but similar to Moore’s Paradox above, there doesn’t seem to be any logical contradiction between ‘The person in charge on any given day is “riding the seat” or “in the buggy”’ and ‘I do not believe they have the ability to be in charge nor possess

the knowledge to navigate any challenges we may face’ because the former is a statement about the description of the position regarding person in charge and the latter statement is about a person’s belief concerning the person in charge. Therefore it is perfectly logical that a person may be in charge while those around them may not believe they possess the abilities to be in charge. This could be the regular or assigned person in the stated seats. With that extreme example, we still have the existing question “Are We Good On The Right?”. So let’s look at the 3 Requirements for good proof:

(1) the premises (assumption of truth) must be different from the conclusion. The positions on all apparatus’ at the fire department (Officers, JumpSeaters, Chauffers, Medics) consist of individuals who have received training according to their responsibility.

(2) the premises must be demonstrated. The person to my right is qualified to do his/her job based on policies regarding training and their position while never having put themselves or others at risk.

(3) the conclusion must follow from the premises. Therefore, I am Good On The Right. RIGHT?

The above premises(1) and conclusion(3) support each other based on the demonstration(2), but this inference depends on the form of the inference. Consider this, the word "qualified" does not refer to the truth of the premises or the conclusion, but rather to the form of the inference based on people having training. This training now raises questions over the effectiveness of the training, the knowledge and abilities of the instructor, etc… so the word “qualified” cannot be considered the truth unless we can further support its make-up as true. An inference can be valid even if the parts are false, and can be invalid even if some parts are true. But a valid form with true premises will always have a true conclusion. (Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inference)

At the end of the day, I personally believe we are Good On The Right based on my shift and crew while having each other’s best interests in mind. However, it does not hurt to be educated and a self thinker when it comes to our job in order to ensure each other’s safety including our own. Always follow directions, but always be aware of your surroundings and do not go into any situation blindly. Do your job as if the person next to you is incapable while working with both skill, awareness, and aggression. It is OK to ask questions when it comes to safety, but know there is a time and place for such conversation and tact should be used when doing so. At the end of the day, we all go home .

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Hendricks County Professional Firefighters Of Local 4406 And

District Politics

As we near the 2014 Midterm Elections, the political landscape for Hendricks County and the Districts will remain mostly unaltered. However, this time next year as we approach the General Elections, we will need to be involved on a few fronts around the county in order to support the causes and people who support public safety. This off-year election for 2015 will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2015. It will only feature special elections to the United States Congress, should any arise. There will also be gubernatorial and state legislative elections in a few states, as well as numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races, and a various local offices. Our PAC’s are becoming more organized and Local 4406 will be looking into our PAC By-Laws during the budget process and re-visiting old notes regarding their proposal and implementation. We will also be discussing our PAC with the PFFUI in order to re-confirm our operations and communicate our intentions as we progress. To go along with the politics, a Fire Ops 101 was discussed pretty heavily during the aforementioned meeting in this newsletter with District 5 VP Tony Murray. Local 4416 put on a great production for its politicians and other county officials and in turn created great camaraderie among their members throughout the experience. We have began the discussion and hope to bring the idea to the table for the members in January 2015 during the first Quarterly Meeting of the year.

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Hendricks County Professional Fire Fighters IAFF Local 4406 6319 E. US Hwy 36, Suite 9 Avon, Indiana 46123 www.local4406.org NOVEMBER – Newsletter, Plainfield “Welcome Home” November 8

th (Bobbie Dixon – Contact), Shirt Pre-Orders,

Meet and Confer organization with Danville. DECEMBER – Shirt Pre-Order end and place actual order, continue Meet and Confer as needed with Danville and begin in Avon. JANUARY – Local 4406 Budget Process, 1

st Quarterly Meeting, Newsletter Articles Due, Begin Fire Ops 101

Planning Aggressively, Send out 3rd

Newsletter and consider printing and printing costs.