Fresh report from SFPE Denver Conference!

So finally, I'm back blogging again. Parental leave in 2015 and other stuff came in the way and it can sometimes be hard to prioritize social media to other tasks at work. 

SFPE's North America Conference and Annual Meeting is right now going on in Denver and I've been here since Friday. Many things are going on in the society and we're soon coming to the end of year two of the three year strategic plan (2015-2017) that we worked on in 2014, which was my first year on the board of directors. I am very glad to see that things are rolling along well; the chapter model is being looked over, the new committee structure is running well, a democratic election system for society's leadership and much more. All in all, I think we are well under way to meet the needs of our growing number of SFPE members and chapters, and most importantly - with a global perspective too.

Board meetings start early and finishes late - lots of things to be covered in the two face to face meetings that we have each year (the other are online meetings).

Board meetings are long days, where many have travelled far for the meetings. In the evenings there's a board meeting at a local restaurant. At the board dinner in Denver we thanked the two board members whose terms are up at the end of the year and who are not up for reelection. I've been fortunate to be able to work with Mike Madden for my three years on the board and he's been doing a great job as president of the society, showing strong and wise leadership. John Woycheese has been on the board for two years with me and like me, he also represents a non-US region - Middle East - which has been welcome and refreshing, adding to the board's global perspective. A big thanks to both for excellent service on the board!

Director John Woycheese receiving a gift from current president Milosh Puchovsky.

Immediate past president Mike Madden holding a great thank you speech to the board.

At Sunday the second day of the board meeting continued and now was the time for the five committee chairs to report to the board. In their reports they give an overview of ongoing activities, subcommittees and also point out areas where directions and decisions from the board is needed. SFPE is dependent on all the good work done by volunteers in the committees and we are grateful to all those walking the extra mile.

Committee chair Paul Hart and president Milosh Puchovsky discussing the increased focusing on online content.

People start to arrive for Sunday afternoon's Chapter Leadership Forum, SFPE Annual Business Meeting followed by the President's Welcome Reception and Expo Opening. All in all - great opportunities to catch up on what's happening in SFPE, how the strategic plan is coming along, and not least networking with fellow members in the fire safety engineering community.