B Shifter
Fire command and leadership conversations for B Shifters and beyond (all shifts welcome)!
B Shifter
Blue Card Rundown May 2025
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This episode features Josh Blum and John Vance.
For free command and leadership support, check out bshifter.com
Sign up for the B Shifter Buckslip, our free weekly newsletter here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/fmgs92N/Buckslip
Shop B Shifter here: https://bshifter.myshopify.com
All of our links here: https://linktr.ee/BShifter
Please subscribe and share. Thank you for listening!
John Vance and Josh Blum deliver the Blue Card Rundown for May 2025, covering educational opportunities and system enhancements for Blue Card users and instructors. They highlight new training initiatives, conference information, and tools designed to improve command effectiveness and firefighter safety.
• Big Box Workshop successes featuring Shane Ray from the National Fire Sprinkler Association
• Mayday Workshop focusing on prevention rather than just management
• Hazard Zone Conference details for September 30-October 3 at the Sharonville Convention Center in Ohio.
• New Blue Card Command Aircraft Rescue Firefighting (ARFF) Train-the-Trainer program launching in June
• After Action Reporting system gaining traction as a tool for targeted improvement
• New data export feature for instructors to easily track student certification status
• Silverback Leadership Series adding new modules connecting firehouse culture to fireground success
• Multiple Train-the-Trainer opportunities available through the end of 2025
Visit bshifter.com to register for the Hazard Zone Conference, workshops, and to access all the new Blue Card resources.
Blue Card Rundown Introduction
Speaker 1Welcome to the B-Shifter podcast, john Vance and Josh Blum, here today. This is the Blue Card Rundown for May 2025, keeping you up to date on everything that's going on with Blue Card and the various classes we're adding and everything else that is happening in Blue Card land. How are you doing today, josh?
Speaker 2happening in blue card land. How are you doing today, Josh? I'm doing great. Yeah, it's all good. We've been super busy, which I like. I like being busy, so had a busy week last week here in Ohio with the big box and the Mayday Workshop and anytime we're, anytime I'm on the road like that, playing a lot of catch up the next week with emails and phone calls and all of that. But, uh, yeah, we're, we're busy, Like, uh, we're. We're actually on that verge of booking classes for 2026. Um, we already know we've got some interest for not some. But we have people who told us you know we're going to do classes in 2026 and we're just not there putting out dates yet. But, um, yeah, so that's all good. This weather in Cincinnati is up and down. We've had, you know, 85, and now it's 50 and raining and storming today. But I guess it's early, late, late spring, moving into summer. That's what we, that's what happens.
Speaker 1Yeah, it seems like the weather's been all over the place and also I know a lot of jurisdictions out there have been mitigating local disasters that have been going on, so it's been keeping people busy between some tornadoes. I didn't tell you this, but our friends in Galeton, Colorado had a six or seven day incident recently where they had a major gas line that was hit, a pipeline that was under pressure that they had to set up, you know, and it literally went from engine one to the EOC because they had command periods and everything for a number of days. So they were busy. I know there's been some other blue card departments out there busy with just firework. So it's an eventful spring.
Speaker 1A lot of it you don't see in the media right now for other reasons, but we know you guys out there are busy. So we're here to support you with all of that and hopefully today we'll give you some information on some educational opportunities that you might have and also, as a blue card user and instructor, some new tools that we're rolling out and making available for everybody. Hey, those workshops that were there just going back to that real quick, you did a May Day workshop and a Big Box workshop in Ohio, both in the same week. How did those go?
Speaker 2Yeah, so we did Big Box in the Columbus Ohio area at Whitehall Fire Department Lots of organizations around that Columbus area represented in that room. As always, shane Ray from National Fire Sprinkler Association delivered the entire first day and you know updates and you know every time he delivers that first day with us there's something new and one of the things that we know there's been an uptick in fires and sprinkler buildings, but that's just because there's more sprinkler buildings. So it's that data is all relative, um, and you really have to look at it see what makes sense. But, with that said, the sprinkler systems continue to. You know work. They are the first water on the fire. So, uh, you, once a week they're saying that they're having, they're, they're tracking a fire. And, uh, you know a very large distribution center. You know so, not a Lowe's, walmart, target, meijer, something like that. Uh, you know a distribution center. So you know 500,000, 1.4 million, 2 million square foot. You know facility, um, and you know the sprinkler systems are working. So, just right here in our backyard we kind of talked about a little bit of an Amazon distribution center, 1.4 million square feet Several weeks ago.
Speaker 2Fire top shelf rack like 40 foot tall, three sprinkler heads contain it. The fire department flows very little water. They actually got called to a fire alarm Last week. The same fire department and the same building. Another fire in that building, top shelf fire. One sprinkler head contained it. They got called to a fire alarm. Drop, get there, upgrade it. You know, followed big box best practice based off of. You know really what NFPA says. And then you know what we teach in our big box class in conjunction with Shane and the national fire sprinkler association about how should we really be dealing with these. And but they still end up being there for four or five hours because of you know the risk and letting the sprinkler system run and letting him do his job and getting the smoke out, and you know all of that. So so you know the risk and letting the sprinkler system run and letting it do its job and getting the smoke out, and you know all of that. So so you know like once a week they're they're seeing those fires, but now every single day they're getting a fire in one of these retail places. You know the a hundred to 200,000 square foot. You know Target Walmart Squarefoot. You know Target Walmart Meyers. You know Home Depot Lowe's. You know one of those places. So definitely more data on that. And you know we're not seeing these places burn down when the system is working properly and when the fire department, you know, gets there and follows best practice and standard.
Big Box Workshop Highlights
Speaker 2As I always say in our big box stuff and anytime we're talking about sprinkler buildings is that sprinkler system was likely flowing while you were still laying in bed and then when you march that timeline out of, the fire started, the sprinkler system went off, fire alarm went off. Fire alarm sends a signal. The dispatch center dispatches you you're getting dispatched to fire alarm went off. Fire alarm sends a signal. The dispatch center dispatches you you're getting dispatched to a fire alarm drop. When you really march that out, I mean you're in like the 17 to 21 minute window of you know likely, when you're getting there and it's like, well, you know, with these big facilities flowing sprinkler heads flowing 250 gallons a minute, even if it was 10 minutes, the sprinkler system flooded 2,500 gallons of water before you even got there. You know likely 5,000 or more and that was from one sprinkler head. So you you start compounding that with two or three or four sprinkler heads going off in these places. You know it's something totally different. So, um, I always like, I always like the big box class, always like listening to Shane and you know it really connects the dots for people that all of us go to and I've probably been to the sprinkler fires and, uh, apartment buildings or hotels and that's a totally different system, designed to do a totally different thing, blowing a totally different amount of water. So, understanding it as Shane says, from homes to high-rises to big boxes, to mega distribution centers, understanding fire protection systems and their words of the Partners in Progress thing and fire department understanding and utilizing the system is, you know, critically important. So, yeah, the big box thing was fantastic.
Speaker 2We got lots of comments afterwards, like been doing this 30 years, I had no idea and you know we got so much footage and so on now of when it goes wrong because the system was shut off, or when the fire department didn't support the system, or when the fire department shut off the system or you know whatever, usually because of, you know, lack of education of how does it really work.
Speaker 2When you share all those things, the light bulb really comes on for people and then when they get to tie it into the system on the second day and go over best practice, and how do you assign divisions? And we really need to slow down. And what does it mean to be in that fire control room and what are the gauges on the riser really mean and how does that really help us. And connecting with the uh, with the people on site that understand the system, so yeah, so that's always great. And then that, the mayday workshop 41 or 42 more people through that, so, um, we've I've lost track, but I think 5,000 or more people we've put through that two day mayday workshop and every single time that we do that, you know it's a huge success and people always leave there and they're like, yeah, this is called mayday management, but the focus has to be mayday Prevention and you know we prevent the Mayday by, you know, doing everything right and you know everybody's got their own opinion of what everything right is.
Speaker 1But it's got to be coordinated. I mean, that's the one thing. And you always say that we're in command function number seven as an organization and that workshop continues to get tweaked and you rolled out some newer content this last time. I understand with the workshop You're continuing to add some case studies and share new information.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 2So I mean in that class we look at line of duty death reports, but we also look at and talk about events that are accidental success, where it just worked out. We go to so many of these Mayday workshops and then the train the trainer on Thursday. When we talk about Mayday stuff and you ask people, I mean you've been involved in a Mayday and everybody's so reluctant and then it comes out like well, I was lost in a house for like five minutes, but it was, it all worked out. Or my partner fell through the floor, but it was only up to his waist and I pulled him out, so it was really no big deal. Or yeah, my buddy fell through the roof, but we were able to pull him out, so it wasn't a big deal. And it's like, well, you accidentally made that work right.
Speaker 2I mean, this is a dangerous blue collar job, but the bottom line is is that those are still Mayday events, because if you didn't make it work, then what does that really look like? So we're trying to connect you know all of those things and get organizations to look at every event, which we'll talk more about it on here in a little bit. But is the after action reporting system. You know, like, when we use the after action reporting system and we have that opportunity to talk about, did we really do everything right based off of our own SOPs and our own training, and we measure that we have an opportunity to fix it and hopefully prevent, you know, some sort of an event from happening. So you know, most of the time when I ask somebody, yeah, my partner fell through the floor and I, I we hear that a lot. I mean last week, I mean we're in Hamilton County, we're in basement land and we've we've had more than our fair share, unfortunately, of line of duty deaths from folks falling into the basement, but other people in there, who, who had other events that were not, I mean, where they made it work but they didn't call a mayday and then you ask them well, what were what was going on before, before that happened and what they tell you lines right up with what was going on before that happened and what they tell you lines right up with. You know some of the things that we've learned from the Squirrel's Nest fire and that we've learned from the City of Hamilton fire.
Mayday Workshop and Prevention
Speaker 2You know, right here in our own backyard of you got to hurry up and go and you know there's not a whole lot of thinking going on and it's that focus of get water on the fire which, yeah, that is a big deal, but we still have to think right. We can't get killed or get hurt between the door and the fire. And when we go through the door and through the floor, all of it's out, all of it's out. And, um, I always say in the Mayday class it's all, it is all about them until it's about us. And I know that there's a whole lot of other you know highly respected people all across this nation that have used that line and I mean that's not an original for me. Other people, you know that came from other people and that is the case, right, it's, it's. It is all about them until it's about us.
Speaker 2And all you got to do is look at a video of when a mayday happens and the focus turns to us and it's like well, those are the people who you know we work with every day at your family, so we shouldn't be surprised of that. And uh, along that, along that path, is we better be doing everything right when something goes wrong, so that we are prepared to deal with it. So that doesn't mean, you know, balls to the wall, gangbusters, we're going to just go, go go. We have to think which really lines up with the whole strategic decision-making model right, evaluating critical fire ground factors, pushing it into the risk management plan. What is our strategy? Developing an incident action plan? Not I jump straight to my incident action plan, which is just I go, go, go. Then you don't have a plan for when something goes wrong.
Speaker 1I wrote an article that's going to be up on B-Shifter, I think, in the next couple of weeks, and we've been reviewing NIOSH reports. We've been posting NIOSH reports on our download center at bshiftercom and I noticed a lot of line of duty deaths that have recently been reviewed by NIOSH involved young firefighters, and I'm talking 25 to 30 years old, and in the article I draw a comparison to and talk about how these firefighters are go-getters. They have a lot more education I think they're the fire nerds, as they call themselves than my generation of firefighter did. But one of the things that they lack is perspective and they've never been in command of a fire and having to coordinate all those things. So in no ways do we want to denigrate what these new generation of firefighters are doing, but it's up to us as the incident commanders and leaders on the fire scene to set the stage to have a scene that is safe, that you're thinking about what could go wrong. You're making plans for that. You're doing a whole size up. You're coordinating activities. You're doing true risk management.
Speaker 1You know two of these fires that were recently reviewed by NIOSH, which thankfully we're still getting some NIOSH reports, involve defensive fires. So really, why are we taking risk at defensive fires and one of them was softening the building for nobody who was in the building. So I think it's you know, think it continues to be a problem. It is not problem solved. We have seen some rhetoric out there on. Is it time for the risk management model to be retired? Absolutely not. We haven't fixed the problem. People, we still need to educate ourselves and really truly understand what that means. And I think in the May Day workshop and also in our day four in our train the trainer that we do for Blue Card, we talk extensively about that and give our users an understanding of why we're doing the things that we're doing. And it's 100 percent relative to exactly what's going on out there today, in addition to what's been going on in the fire service for the last 200 years.
Speaker 2Really, yeah, so you know just to just to hit on that briefly that that whole risk management plan thing, you know so much of that that they're focused on residential settings, right, houses and apartments, and it's like you know we're going to. We need to have a totally different mindset at a place that has beds than we do when we go to the strip mall, than we do when we go to the grocery store, than we than any other place that we go that does not have beds in it. Right? So, uh, but we take this general, we're kind of like laying this generalized blanket over it. Not we, some of the folks are laying this generalized blanket over it about, yeah, we don't need this risk management plan at all, and it's like, well then, how do you really make decisions and differentiate between you know, residential two o'clock in the morning, somebody reports somebody's trapped inside the building, versus two o'clock in the morning at the, at the local bar, that it's closed and there ain't nobody inside. All the lights are out, not a car in a parking lot. You were going to treat it differently or any of the events that we could talk about that.
Speaker 2Uh, you know, the place is locked and closed or commercial buildings at all, for that matter, right? I mean, uh, you know the the place is locked and closed. Or or commercial buildings at all, for that matter, right? I mean, uh, walking somebody out of Walmart is not a rescue, right? Like they were headed out, you had to coach them a little bit more to get them out. And I always use the example of people don't die in Walmart. They even stay in there and you know video until they're like, oh shit, I got to get out. And then they, you know, get out. But you know, those places have suppression systems in them for the purpose of saving the building and buying a little bit of time. But that system is going to outperform our capabilities every single day, and it's there for a reason.
Speaker 1So I want to hop back to big box, because we do have, uh uh, some openings in a big box workshop and I I've gotten some questions about that. It's in Severance Colorado, windsor, severance Colorado, which is roughly between Denver and Fort Collins, closer to Fort Collins. Fort Collins is a great place to stay, by the way, my son went to college there and it's a wonderful community. If you're looking to go to Colorado for the Big Box Workshop but that's going to be July 7th and 8th and you can go to B-Shifter to sign up for it, but that's our two-day Big Box Workshop Shane Ray will be there.
Speaker 1The Colorado Fire Departments are very progressive, so it's a good group of people you'll be training with while you're out there. And if you need any hotel recommendations for the Fort Collins area, look me up, because it's a great area to visit, especially during the summertime, because there's a lot of hiking and some other things to do. If you're looking to, you know, maybe take a couple days off before or after that workshop, because it would be a good destination. So that's coming again July 7th and 8th to Windsor, severance Colorado, big Box Workshop.
Speaker 2Yeah, and that's the only big box class we have left for the year with any open seats in it. So I think there's 18 or 19 open seats left in it, but yeah, that's until 2026 there. That's the only the only seats available for any big box classes.
Speaker 1So how's the conference coming? We have the Hazard Zone Conference coming up into September, beginning of October, right outside Cincinnati, ohio, sharonville Convention Center. We're back again. What is happening with that? Yeah?
Speaker 2so through year three of bringing the conference back. Uh, we got quite a lineup again this year of uh general session presenters with uh Dan from FSRI and Shane again giving us an update on you know what they've been doing and what they've been burning. Let me back up for a minute. You know Dan's got I think all of them have new stuff that they're delivering this year, so it's not a repeat of anything else that they've done. So both those general sessions and then, after he hasn't presented at the conference for several years, john Cirillo, captain of Rescue 1 at FDNY, is going to be back presenting a general session and a breakout session at the conference for several years. John Cirillo, captain of Rescue 1 at FDNY, is going to be back presenting a general session and a breakout session at the conference this year with some focus on fire growth, what we know now, some fire phenomenon stuff, and then some wind-driven fire pieces, lessons learned. He is the man on that, when it comes to wind-driven fire, so happy to have him back at the conference. And then I think we're at 26 unique different breakout sessions that we'll have. So four general sessions and then 23 different breakout sessions and then on the front end of that. Uh, we're doing our cert lab again that Monday, tuesday, wednesday, so the 29th, 30th and the first we got uh offering the cert lab. So that'll be delivered by lead blue card instructors, so pre-conference workshop piece. And then on a 30th, and the first we got, uh, we're doing a safety train the trainer. We've never done that before, we've always just delivered them on the road when somebody actually, you know, buys that class, and you know, when they buy that class they get the prop, all the curriculum, the support, two days of training classroom and then on the second day they exercise actually using the prop. But in this case you come to the two-day safety train-the-trainer pre-conference workshop. It's the same price as all of our other pre-conference stuff $345. When you leave there you have all the curriculum package. So they're going to do everything except for you're not going to leave with the prop. So we're doing this so that people could get the classroom portion and then we would not come on site at your location then and do the training because you've got it there at the conference. And then you buy the prop for about 60 percent of the cost of what it is to do the whole class. So that's starting to fill up. We're getting some interest in that.
Speaker 2Some organizations just adding instructors, you know, for their, for their safety prop and, you know, maybe even just getting access to the, to that curriculum, the safety curriculum, which is, I don't know when we've really gone through it, it's probably 24 hours of material that you you could get through or you could use. So it's not made to be delivered altogether, it's really, you know, made to be broken up. And then we have John you mentioned it so we got Tim Schaubel, kevin Alexander doing that from Engine 1 to the EOC. So you know, every year we have a couple of our fire departments that reach out to us and say, hey, we had this event that you know, engine one got there and then this thing escalated and you know, some of them turned into a type one event. So, from engine one to a federal, you know, type one event. So like, really, that two day workshop is about what does that really look like? So you know it all has to start. That first five minutes is critical and how engine one builds it out is really, you know, helps on how it's going to end. So, um, you know they're going to get through. You know, the front end piece division ops, building out your command post and then connecting to the eoc and what that really looks like. So that'll be a uh, we're looking forward to delivering that.
Speaker 2We've never really delivered that workshop, you know, in this manner. We've delivered some similar classes on the road to some organizations about, you know, expanding and getting into their command van and those kind of things. But yeah, so we're looking forward to that. The critical thinking and decision-making class, which is the focus on the strategic decision-making model, that class is filling up very quickly. So we've delivered that many, many times and every time people are like, oh yeah, we have, there's so much to think about right making piece and, um, that one slide. I think you could spend a week talking about critical fire ground factors, pushing into the risk management plan, strategy and action plan, all of that. So, uh, yeah, that's filling up.
Hazard Zone Conference Details
Speaker 2And then the mayday workshops. Or last year we had a hundred and some people, I think in the mayday workshop we started out just like we did this year. There's 40 seats available and we're we're going to keep it at 40 seats because we just want to have a little bit more one on one with with all of, with everybody participating up pretty quickly. So the front end piece of the workshops on, you know, certainly on Monday, tuesday, wednesday, the regular workshops Tuesday and Wednesday and then the conference Thursday and Friday. So yeah, we're looking forward to it, it is it is filling up.
Speaker 2People are registering. I think we're about four months away and I think there's a couple of hundred seats maybe left and you know, the locals around here haven't, um, haven't really jumped on it yet because they don't have to worry about a hotel and all of that. And we sent it out, I think last week or the week before. Our hotel room block is, uh, filling up very quickly. So if you're traveling, you want to take advantage of that hotel room block. I would, I would get your registration going as soon as possible.
Speaker 1So bshiftercom again. If you want to combine the workshops and the conference, it's $830. Conference only is $485. Workshops are $345. So it's a great bundle. Conference only is $4.85. Workshops are $3.45. So it's a great bundle. It is a lot of training for what we're offering for the dollar. So it's a great value to get signed up. Love to see everyone in Cincinnati, especially Blue Card users out there, and if you haven't been to a conference either before or in a while, come on out and see us and get refreshed on what's going on on Blue Card and Command.
Speaker 2And we always tell everybody John, anybody who signs up for the conference gets a free, transferable online account. So you know, yeah, the conference is $485,000, but if your fire department was going to buy any online accounts this year at $385, really the conference is going to cost you $100 for registration because when you sign up for the conference, you're going to get a transferable, free online account. So, yeah, that makes that whole value go even further, especially for all of you who are going to be putting additional people online, or even if you're just putting one person online, all right.
Speaker 1See you, cincinnati. Go to the link there at the bshiftercom on the top and it'll give you all the information. We are about a month away from the first arf train the trainer. We've developed an arf program for blue card. Is that full yet how many seats do we have left? Uh, do people still have an opportunity to get in if they're interested in the ARF train the trainer?
Speaker 2yeah, I think while we've been on here, somebody else signed up, so I think there's only two seats left so that that train the trainers got had 24 open seats. This is the first one that we're doing. That curriculum has been in the development for for several years. Uh, it was. It was built out by subject matter experts that worked in the military. You know ARF arena as well as those who worked in regional. You know airport like type response, and those who worked at very large. You know international airports, all of them you know working through the system of multiple different levels, from company officers all the way through to, you know, the chief at the airport. Um, so there's a couple of seats left in that. Uh, it did fill it when we posted it. It filled up very quickly.
Speaker 2The the uh, the ARF working group, um, we sent it out to that and as soon as we sent that out, it was, it was, they were piling onto it. So it's been interesting to me. You know understanding and listening to a little bit of what goes on and you know the airline industry and studying, you know some of that decision-making. It was very interesting that in the ARF arena that there wasn't a lot of command training stuff offered. You know a lot of task level training, a lot of required task level training. A lot of you know a lot of. You have to do this annually and meet these requirements but really just like just like the fire department, I guess you know, when it came to you know the command part of it not not a lot of a lot of offerings out there, which I'm sure is why people are jumping on it. So we got everybody in the class, from some military folks to several people from some international airports across the country and then everything in between, the people who have the city municipal airport to the regional airport. You know those that get two people and two trucks to. You know they got 45 people on duty and you know they're going to get an entire response. You know, on the international level, on a large international airport. So there are a couple of seats left. There's still time. You can register for that.
Speaker 2If you're looking for more information on the ARF program, just reach out to really any of us and we'll get you in contact with the right people. Josh at bshiftercom, if you just want to reach out to me, I'll get you connected. Or Chris Stewart chris at bshiftercom, if you're looking for information. We are working on scheduling some fall dates right now for another ARF trainer in Phoenix and then, starting in 2026, we are going to deliver the ARF train-the-trainer program on the road. So it'll be regionalized. You know, no one fire department is going to, you know, likely fill and take every seat in the train-the-trainer, but we'll likely end up doing a train-the-trainer in the northeast, the southeast, and then likely in the northwest and then maybe the one in the south will probably maybe just continue to be in Phoenix. But if you're looking into the ARF program, just reach out to us and we can get you any information that you might be looking for about the program June 23rd through 25th at the Allen V Brunicini Command Training Center in Phoenix.
Speaker 1That'll be a great class. Looking forward to that. The AAR is continuing to really get a lot of action. We added the after action Review module this year. It's a feature that's only available to Blue Card instructors. However, you can share the information from that Any news on the AAR and how that's going and some of the new features that have been added.
Speaker 2Yeah. So the After Action Reporting System that's another one of those things again been several years in the making and we built it with, you know, all of the input from all of the users out there. You know it's on a piece of paper to we're going to draw it up here on the whiteboard and that's all fantastic. But you know what we have built is a system to be able to measure how well you're really doing, based on your SOPs and your training that all align with best practice, and then to be able to have that data for you know multiple events and look across all of that data within your organization to figure out, well, what does this really mean and where can we improve reporting session or an incident review. And it's like, yeah, we sit there and hammer on it and then you walk out and it's like, well, what are we going to do about that? And and nothing ever comes of it. So you know, part of this whole thing is is from the tailboard to doing a full scale after action report. You know we're, we're giving you all of those tools and then you know, a critical important piece of it is all of the data collection capability on the back end of it that helps point you towards as an organization or as a region. Where do we need to work Like? Where should we provide the most training? And as one of our lead instructors, eric Phillips, always says, he said I'm tired of going to training and training on the same old thing that we do OK on or that we do good on, but we suck at these other things and we don't train on it. And a lot of it's because we just haven't identified as an organization that that we need to improve there. It's like the training schedule every year is the same thing In January, you do this February, you do that January, you do this. In February, you do that. In March, you do this. And when it comes to command training, why do we keep running?
Speaker 2You know residential simulations when we're, you know when we plug it into the after action report, our working fire events and we're, you know we're getting 85 to 100%. But when we look at commercial response, we get a 60%. And when we look, look at commercial response, we get a 60 percent. And when we look further at commercial response, the details of it, you know, where are we not doing so good? What's the difference in the commercial response of how we evaluated the incidents, and you know that's where we should focus our attention. And really you can break it all the way down to a piece that we've talked about in that four-part webinar series, john, that I'd like for you to mention here how they would get to that because it's still available on.
Speaker 2You know, steps one through four, basically four-part series of a webinar on what is the after-action reporting about and how do you use it. Initial radio report so if your initial radio report, you know you're getting a 60%, well, within the tool and the data collection you can dive into it further. So you know, if you got a 90% everywhere but you got a 40% in strategy, it's going to drive your score way down. Well, when organizations can look and say, well, we have, we got 50 fires in here currently and our average score for strategy is 50%, well, that's what we need to work on. We don't need to work on building size and incident action planning and risk management plan necessarily as as much, but we've got to focus on the strategy, like why are, why are why not? Why are we staying straight? Why are we not saying strategy? Do people not know what it means? Do they not understand the importance of it. You know it can't be. Oh, I'm not saying offensive, because I told you we were going inside and it's like you're missing the whole point. There's a whole other piece connected to it. So, yeah, the after action reporting system nothing like it.
Speaker 2Everybody who's using it is making strides forward and they're actually showing improvement, because when you can show where you need to improve, people want to do better. So when they see that, they're like, oh yeah, I want to work on that because I want to do better, so, uh, you know Lincoln, nebraska, putting in quite a few fires and, uh, their focus and their training, their command, training around you know the data and what they need to work on. So, um, right now we're getting, you know, quite a bit of traction. You know, with it, a lot of organizations are using it. It was a tool that we built as an added value for instructors so that they can really help evaluate their organization and measure their measure, their operational success, really without without the success being well, nobody got hurt in the building, doesn't burn down. No, let's like really look at it and see where can we do better, cause you have to be doing everything right when something goes wrong.
Speaker 1Right, so I'll add all those webinars to our show notes.
Speaker 1There was a four part series that we had here at the beginning of the year with Eric Phillips and the whole gang talking about how our show notes.
Speaker 1It was a four-part series that we had here at the beginning of the year with Eric Phillips and the whole gang talking about how to input, how to mine the data, how to make a difference in your organization using this tool. It is once again added value, free for Blue Card instructors, if you haven't explored it yet, and there's a lot of organizations because every month I'm doing a train the trainer that they are blue card users. They've been online for a long time. They didn't even know it was there. So we bring it up here. So we continue to spread the word on it. We want you to use it because it is an excellent tool for continuous improvement. Speaking of tutorial, we rolled out a new tutorial this week on the YouTube channel. It is also available in the B Shifter Buck Slip this week if you subscribe to that, and that is talking about a new tool that we added for instructors. On reports, tell us about that new tool on generating reports for blue card departments.
ARF Train-the-Trainer Program
Speaker 2Yeah, so for blue card instructors, we want you to spend more time, you know, developing and providing training and not have to spend as much time, you know, on the administrative end. And we, we all understand that that is a struggle, right, all of the reporting we have to do, all the data entry we got to do, all the tracking We've got to do all of that. So our IT department, along with our staff, has built out a data export area. So under the instructor tools on the left side of your screen as an instructor, you go to that data export and when you click into that you can export all of the data, anything and everything you might want to know about your organization and the student's progress on everything from certification to recertification, to assigned CEs or CEs that they've completed, not completed, how many hours they still need to complete. It really just gives you kind of a roadmap, I guess, if you will, of where is your organization in that three-year cycle for renewal and then, on the front end, where's your organization on initial certification.
Speaker 1Well, that is again in the show notes. I'll link that so you can get the tutorial. It's four minutes and 20 seconds. You'll learn how to use it. You'll be generating reports in no time. There are still the options to export to a PDF as well, so there's tools for you to get those reports to the people that you need them to. A lot of times, the blue card admin for the department isn't necessarily the training officer, and what I do at my home department is I'll generate the report, make it a PDF, send it to the training officer, so then that training officer knows exactly where everybody stands as far as their renewals, how many hours are needed, and it also helps that person plan for the next training cycle for us, so that it's a great tool. I love having it and it really takes no time to generate those reports.
Speaker 2On that. On that topic, john, I just want to throw this out there. So, as an organization, as an instructor, as a student, don't get frustrated with trying to figure something out on your own. Pick the phone up. I mean, I think our business is all about customer service, right? That's what the fire chief himself was all about and that's what we continue to try to be about. So you know, pick that, pick the phone up.
Speaker 2If you call the office, if they don't have the answer, they're going to get you in contact with somebody and within 24 hours or less Monday through Friday I'm going to tell you. Within six or eight hours we were likely going to have an answer back to you. Uh, or if you have a suggestion, you know the same thing just reach out. So don't spend 10 minutes doing something you can't figure out. Pick the phone up and somebody on the other end is going to answer it and can probably walk you right through it and save you time. And for me that just goes back to the training officers, program managers, all of that. We want you spending time with your people and training people. We want that back end piece to be as easy as it could possibly be.
Speaker 1So Speaking of the chief and customer service, the Silverbacks are ready to release a new module that's coming out in the next couple of weeks, and that is another added value. What do we have coming up as far as the new module goes in the Silverback Leadership Series?
Speaker 2Yeah, so that group continues to move forward and make sure that they're putting out, you know, the best thing that they can put out and collaborate with, you know, multiple people and make sure that we're, you know, sending the message that the fire chief would want us to send and trying to put together a program that helps everybody and make sense, you know, to everybody.
Speaker 2So that the whole leadership piece and I think how do you, how how do you run your fire department, and you know connecting all those dots, so look, look for that next module be posted within the next two weeks and then before the conference we will have four or five modules posted and, like John said, that's added value. Now it's just in the CE section, but when all eight modules are complete it will become a program of its own and they'll end up, when you go through those eight modules, they'll end up connecting then with a two day workshop in person on the back end for organizations that that choose to do that. And really the the reference books for that are, you know, fire command three, customer service for the fire department fire department customer service.
Speaker 2Anatomy and physiology uh, you know, books that exist, but it's connecting all of it together, right? So, uh, as so many people out there say and maybe Mike Dugan was the original guy on it, from FDNY, but whatever, whatever it looks like on your firehouse is what it's going to look like on the street. So you got shitty leadership in your firehouse is what it's going to look like on the street. So you got shitty leadership in the firehouse. It's not going to work out for you in the street either. They don't just flip a switch. So the Silverback leadership thing, I think, connects all of that, but it really focuses on us delivering the work, which is the service that the community pays for us to provide.
Speaker 1We have some train the trainers that have been announced in the last couple of weeks. They're filling up fast Bay County, Florida, Columbia, South Carolina, Winston-Salem, as well as the fall train the trainers at the AVBCTC. How are those going? Any other trainers, or do you think we're about filled up for the year here as far as our calendar goes?
Speaker 2Yeah, so we're booking classes. We have some availability in November and December, but between now and then we are pretty much so at capacity. I think there's I was looking at it before we jumped on here we have like a three or four weeks where we're delivering three trainers in that in the same week. So in October, right after the conference, uh, we're doing six trainers training, six one week long train to trainers in October and I think it's the third week in October where we have three of them at the same week. So when I say we're at capacity, we can only do so much work.
Speaker 2And it's not that we can't work every week. We are working every single week. We have something everywhere every week. We are working every single week where we have something everywhere every week. But it's, it's the depth part of you know how many classes can we deliver in the same week? So, yeah, we're. If you're looking to do a workshop or a train and trainer, yet this year, really we're looking at November and December. If you absolutely positively have to do something because of a budget constraint or spending the money before, we can probably, you know, fit something in here and there. But our availability for program delivery is, is that window's getting smaller and smaller.
Speaker 1So I mentioned those other ones I also wanted to mention. We're in Plymouth, minnesota, september 15th through the 19th, and the class in September at the AVBCTC is already filling up too. So hop on it if you're going to register. And a lot of these classes that I'm involved in it's the second or third generation of instructors for an organization. So think about the planning ahead, because a lot of times what we're seeing in the classes is okay.
Speaker 1Bob retired. He was in charge of our blue card program. Then we realized we needed to get another trainer. So there wasn't really a cohesive handoff between that retiring trainer and the new trainer or trainers. So think ahead a little bit. Do your succession planning, get the new folks on board. So there's that clean handoff and there's plenty of opportunities. Although they are filling up at the ABVCTC and also on the road in various regions throughout the country. I mean I can't believe how we're doing in Florida right now. We've got a number of classes coming to Florida both this summer and fall, so a lot of stuff going on with train the trainers. All right, josh, you have anything else for us before we wrap it? I think that's it. I think it's good. All right, thank you very much. It was good to talk to you today and thank you everybody for listening to the Blue Card Rundown on the B-Shifter podcast. We'll talk to you next time.