Members Present (in no particular order):

Kyle Evans, Simplex/Grinnell/Steve Hobart, Simplex/Grinnell/Bill Cook, Reliable Fire Sprinkler/Rick Sigmen, Commercial Fire/Ceven Cullens, Fire Dynamics/Dixie Cullens, Fire Dynamics/C.T. Cullens, Fire Dynamics/Mike LaBelle, Fire Dynmaics/Kevin Kane, Viking Supply Net/Joe Faulkner, Sprinx/Bill McKay, Advanced Fire/Mike Balsey, Advanced Fire/Randy Knighton, Knight Fire/Roger White, Knight Fire/George Goodall, Seattle Fire Department/Ron Greenman, Bates Technical College

So I’m really late with this newsletter but better late than never. This past meeting we had George Goodall from the Seattle Fire Department as our guest. George came to tell us what changes have been made to the Seattle Administrative Code. Probably the best news is that all those special little rules Seattle has grown over the years were scrutinized and, for the most part, eliminated. This went hand in hand with the hard work done in adjusting the new I Codes to Seattle’ special needs. You’ll find that there are fewer of these special rules and that the Seattle Fire Code is more in line with the IFC. If you’d like your own copy of the Seattle Fire Code 2004 and the amendments to the 2003 IFC you can get it at the SFD for $64.00 (not an advertisement). On the bad side is that fees have soared. For details contact Diane Hansen at 206/386-1450. I want everyone, especially Diane, to know that George told me to give you her name.

There are still issues regarding prevailing wage rates. As usual they reflect what union contractors are paying rather than a rate adjusted to the average. Bill’s still waiting for L&I to answer his letter about anomalies with prevailing wage and target money.

Thanks to all your support we have had a successful and active chapter. Over the past year we even picked up a couple of new members. A sign of a growing economy? But the sad truth is that only 10% of all the sprinkler contractors in the country belong to AFSA and NFSA combined. This is pretty weak and so I ask you to help Lloyd Ivy, Membership Guru from the national AFSA, recruit new members. For my part I’d like to direct you to the article by Bob Caputo in the current issue of FPC. Bob first makes a case for having two separate organizations and then emphasizes how much influence we can all have in the code development process if we’d all just participate. That participation starts with being members of AFSA. I thank all of you members reading this. Next year I’d like to be thanking twice as many members.

Our scholarship contest for this year is now completed. The winners are: 1st place, Harysan Sandell from Sequim, 2nd place, Daniel Pikora of Sammamish, and, 3rd place, Annie Walser from Mt.Vernon. Harysan’s essay has been sent on to the National Contest as our entry from the Pacific Northwest. Thanks to all the members that read and judged the essays.

The 12th Annual Apprentice Competition is coming up. The entry deadline is March 25th. Sorry to throw this at you at the last minute but as I said this newsletter is very late in getting out (blame that day job where I’m trying to crank out some designers and inspectors for you guys, the taxman, demanding kids…you know all the excuses). Contractors, the guys that matter here, should already be aware that the “Games are on,” already. What you may not be aware of is that the chapter that has the greatest turnout will win $500.00. Nice incentive for us but the real good that comes out of this is our ability to go to various state apprenticeship boards with a combination of this contest, the Wheels of Learning training program, etc. and show them that we’re every bit as professional as the union (better if you ask me). So get signed up quick.

Our next meeting will be on May 10th. Sam Pierre, the new state fire marshal for Washington, has agreed to be our guest. The August meeting will be on the 9th and Steve muncy, President of AFSA, will be our guest for that meeting. As usual I’ll be reminding you over and over as the dates approoach. That’s about it for this time.