9th District Conference

Recruiting and Developing Leaders (4 hours)
Your local relies on the strength of its members. Between dwindling active participation and your local’s organizational history retiring with past union leaders, it becomes harder to run an effective union. New leaders become involved when they understand the local’s core values and find a calling for their talents and passions. This class will provide current local leadership with a framework on how and why they should recruit and develop new leaders, strategies for reaching out across different generations, a brief overview of labor history to help new members understand the value of their membership, and a plan for mentoring rising leaders to carry your local into the next generation.

IAFF Union Leadership: Self-Awareness (2 hours)
What kind of leader am I and what kind of leader do I want to be? This workshop will help IAFF affiliate leaders learn what kind of union leaders they are and will provide them with several tools to become more effective leaders. During this workshop, participants will identify their own leadership styles and will learn how those styles are perceived by and impact the members that they lead.

Budgeting for Local Unions (2 hours)
Budgeting is an essential function for those who safeguard local union assets. In this workshop, you will learn the art of planning your local’s income and expenditures. Topics discussed will include preparing, adopting, and amending your budget, as well as common income and expenditure categories that should be part of your plan.

Ethics for Union Leaders (2 hours)
Most IAFF leaders are public employees and have fiduciary responsibilities to their membership. Due to the nature of your position, you are subject to higher ethical standards than the average member or employee. These standards must be upheld in order to maintain the trust of your members and run an effective local. Failure to do so can result in loss of credibility, loss of union position, or even criminal charges. This workshop will cover the principles of ethics, the requirements of public employees, and strategies for making ethical decisions. You will use these strategies to analyze scenarios and case studies.

Internal Local Communications (2 hours)
The most important audience for our communications is our local union membership. Lack of communication within a union can seriously weaken unity in purpose and reduce the effectiveness of our efforts. This workshop shows how to move from fighting back challenges to taking charge of the message in communications to our membership.

Sleep (2 hours)
Many fire fighters are chronically sleep deprived. Examining sleep hygiene tactics is essential for teaching fire fighters to get the sleep that they so desperately need. The World Health Organization recognizes shift work is a carcinogen, and anything fire fighters can do to improve their sleep helps address not only several behavioral health issues but also multiple physical health concerns. This presentation will discuss proactive ways fire fighters can get more sleep and better sleep.

Moral Injury in the Fire Service (2 hours)
Moral injury has lasting psychological, biological, spiritual, behavioral, and social impacts on fire fighters. This training will explore the causes of moral injury and share tools that fire fighters can use to combat this behavioral health issue.

The Stress Continuum (2 hours)
The Stress Continuum Model is an assessment tool, developed by the Navy and Marine Corps, to help service members better identify their stress levels and reactions to stress. This model creates a common language, gives examples of observable warning signs for stress, and can be applied to many different populations, including the fire service. This class will help attendees understand how stress develops, better identify unmanaged stress in oneself and peers, and learn practical ways for managing acute and chronic stress.