| June 2010 Meeting Photos | 
Click on the image above to see a photos of the June 2010 meeting. | |
| AFSA By-Laws | To download a copy of the current AFSA ByLaws as an Adobe Acrobat Reader file (.pdf) please follow this link.
(Revised 04/07/10.)
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| Travel Information |  | |
| $$$ Savings |  | |
| Newsletter Information |
| We need content for the AFSA VA Chapter Newsletter.
If your company or organization has a Fire Sprinkler Industry related news release or article, please contact George Wagner
Content may be submitted as ".PDF", ".RTF", ".TXT" or ".DOC".
Please, no Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Works files.
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| Your Website Statistics | Who's looking at us? How many? How often? When?
Following any of these links will allow you to download an Adobe Acrobat Reader document (.pdf) of the Year 2010 or the Month listed.
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| Fire Sprinklers Save Lives |  | |
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Golf Tourney Announcement
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
11:30 am Registration & Lunch, 1 pm Shotgun Start, 6:30 pm Dinner
Hunting Hawk Golf Course - 15201 Ashland Road - Glen Allen, VA
Captain’s Choice (3 Flights),
Trophies for 1st Place (3 Flights). Prizes for Longest Drive (2) and Closest to the Pin (2).
Longest Putt and Longest Drive on Hole 9 sponsored by FirePro, Inc.
Please follow this link to get your copy of the Golf Tourney Registration Form
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Upcoming Vendor Presentations
| Lanny Gault |
Victaulic |
SEP 14 |
| Jim Dooley--Amber Brock |
Viking |
NOV 9 |
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A Letter from the Burn Camp
Mr. Timothy Loscomb
10343-A Kings Acres Road
Ashland. VA 23005
November 11. 2009
Dear Hooper,
On behalf of the Central Virginia Bum Camp, I would like to thank you so very much for your part in organizing and running the Annual Bum Survivors Golf Tournament again this year. I know how much work you put into making this awesome event a success and truly. we cannot thank you enough. I know that you felt disappointed that the amount of money raised this year was not more, or as much as last year. But, please know that the amount of $20,000 is a fortune to us and to the children that benefit year after year from burn camp - you are OUR hero!
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AFSA scholarship contest for high school seniors
September 17, 2009
The Virginia Chapter of the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) is sponsoring a scholarship contest for high school seniors. Students could receive Virginia prizes of $1500 for 1st place, $750 for 2nd place, and $500 for 3rd place. The requirement is to write a 700 to 1000 word essay on the following subject:
Write a creative, interesting and convincing essay on the history of automatic fire sprinklers and why they are important.
The deadline to postmark entries is February 1, 2010.
Requirements for submission are a completed application form and the essay. All essays must have a bibliography. The essays will be judged on accuracy, content & creativity, and spelling/grammar/punctuation. Particularly CREATIVITY! The AFSA scholarship awards are not based on financial need. Applications can also be found at Essay Application
SEND ESSAYS TO:
RON REYNOLDS-SFMO
1005 TECHNOLOGY PARK DRIVE
GLEN ALLEN, VA. 23059
AFSA is dedicated to the educational and professional advancement of the automatic fire sprinkler industry. You are also encouraged to enter the AFSA National contest. For contest information on the National contest, go to http://www.firesprinkler.org/, where 10 students will win $2000 each.
If there are any questions, please call Ron Reynolds at 804-612-7268. Good Luck!
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Legislator's Guide To Life Safety
RESIDENTIAL FIRE SPRINKLERS AND HOUSING ECONOMICS
A LEGISLATOR’S GUIDE TO LIFE SAFETY
This most recent version of the Housing and Economic Economic Guide is available here. To download a copy of this document as an Adobe Acrobat reader file (.pdf) please follow this link. |
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Your Right To Work is in danger!
The agenda of the current administration is to pave the way for legislation that favors unions and destroys the "Right to work" in all states.
Please OPPOSE the "Employee Free Choice Act" that would take away a worker''s right to a supervised secret ballot when deciding whether or not to join a union. You can sign a petition and get more information at www.MyPrivateBallot.com |
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Golf Tourney Committee Meeting Dates
Below is the schedule of our Golf committee meetings for this year’s event. I hope these dates and times are acceptable to everyone participating.
Please make every attempt to be at the first meeting so we can get everyone’s duties assigned and get the ball rolling on sending out event notices and such.
March 19 – Friday 10:30 am @ VSC (Start up)
(potential further meeting dates)
April 13 – Tuesday 10:30 am @ VSC
May 17 – Monday 10:30 am @ VSC
July 20 – Tuesday 10:30 am @ VSC
August 24 – Tuesday 10:30 am @ VSC
September 7 – Tuesday 10:30 am @ VSC
September 13 – Monday 1:00 pm @ VSC
September 15 – day of the tournament
Thank you for your time and please advise of your intentions. |
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AFSA Calls for Support of Center for Medicare and Medicaid
CMS Proposal Seeks to Mandate Fire Sprinkler Systems in All Long-Term Care Facilities
DALLAS–The American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) endorses a proposal by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that aims to equip an estimated 2,500 older long-term care facilities with life-saving fire sprinkler systems and end an exemption in existing law that mandates sprinklers for new nursing homes but not older facilities.
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Virginia Legislature Contact Info
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| House |
Senate |
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New Revision of Housing Economic Guide
RESIDENTIAL FIRE SPRINKLERS AND HOUSING ECONOMICS
A LEGISLATOR’S GUIDE TO LIFE SAFETY
This most recent version of the Housing and Economic Economic Guide is available here. To download a copy of this document as an Adobe Acrobat reader file (.pdf) please follow this link.
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News: ICC & AFSA Present: 2009 IBC Changes & NFPA 25, 2008 Ed.
Wednesday, June 30 @ 03:30:21 PDT by howard (29 reads) |  ICC & AFSA Present: 2009 IBC Changes & NFPA 25, 2008 Ed.
Richmond, VA – October 7-8, 2010
FAX THIS FORM BY SEPTEMBER 20th TO RECEIVE DISCOUNT!
Don’t miss this opportunity to get required Continuing Education credits for NICET in this seminar series
hosted by the Virginia Chapter of AFSA, presented by the International Code Council and the
American Fire Sprinkler Association.
Follow this link to download the form as an Adobe Acrobat Reader document (.pdf)
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News: Eagle Scout candidate and AFSA-VA Chapter join forces to protect families
Wednesday, June 30 @ 03:25:45 PDT by howard (25 reads) |  We all know smoke detectors are a great
safety item when installed and operating properly. However when smoke
detectors are not in working condition due to bad batteries or
missing all together, the results can be quite tragic. Recent studies
across the country have shown smoke detector failures over a 10 year
time frame can be as high as 65%. This failure may be due to poor
maintenance, removal of smoke detector or detector not in working
order.
Life Boy Scout De’Ron Pinkston of
Troop 487 in Richmond Va., realized this fact after having seen on
the news several times in quick succession the damages and loss of
life that occurred from homes with missing or non working smoke
detectors. In his own county 8 persons had died within a 6 month
period in which detectors were missing or no longer in working order.
So when it came time to complete a project for his Eagle Scout rank,
he chose to do something about this in his neighborhood. De’Ron
contacted his local fire department, Henrico County Division of Fire
and was placed in contact with Lt. Will Shumate of the Fire Marshal’s
office. Will contacted Bill Jones of FirePro, an AFSA Virginia
Chapter member who had experience in dealing with Boy Scouts and
whose own son achieved Eagle Scout to help plan the project. Will
and Bill met with De’Ron to go over his plan of action and how he
proposed to accomplish his goal of making his neighborhood safer.
Part of De’Ron’s project included making a fire safety flier to
hand out to those in his neighborhood even if they chose not to have
a smoke detector installed. De’Ron also solicited information from
other localities on fires and found in many cases homes having fires
did not have working smoke detectors in 55 – 80% of the cases
matching the national average.
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Technology: AFSA-VA Announces Bruce Carter Seminars
Wednesday, June 30 @ 02:49:57 PDT by howard (24 reads) | Bruce Carter Seminars
Sell To Win!! A super-motivational seminar that teaches rock solid selling principals essential to the success of today’s fire protection sale and service professional. From prospecting and cold calling techniques to presentation skills and objection handling, Sell To Win! Is jam-packed with tips, strategies and ideas that will get results the very next day!
Available as a full day seminar or half day workshop.
FIRE IT UP!
Actually two great seminars in one, this full day program features classic sales training in the morning portion of the day followed by an afternoon that focuses on one of the fire protection company’s most valued  assets … its CUSTOMERS. There is something of value for everyone in this exciting seminar making FIRE IT UP! the ideal training experience for your entire team
CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE
Without a doubt one of the most valued assets of any fire protection
organization is its customers. In this high content half day seminar
your team will learn the 15 essential characteristics that today’s most
discriminating buyers insist their service providers posses. We will
then carefully apply those qualities to today’s fire protection service
environment. The results will be step-by-step plan of action for
delivering outstanding service to your valuable customers.
Even COWARDS Can Cold Call
Don’t let the title fool you… this seminar means serious business!
Prospecting and cold calling is a crucial first step toward selling
success and one that many fire protection sales and service personnel
would just as soon skip! In this program participants will learn not
only why cold calling and prospecting is essential but also that it is
really easy and very effective when approached properly. As a training
option, this half day workshop can also include hands-on in field
instruction and coaching from Bruce.
Download the seminar application form as an Adobe Acrobat Reader document (.pdf)
Download the profile of Bruce Carter as an Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf) file by following this link.
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Contests: This Years Essay Contest Winners Announced
Friday, April 30 @ 05:26:05 PDT by howard (116 reads) | |
American Fire Sprinkler Association’s (AFSA)
Virginia Chapter Announces the Winners of the 2009-2010 Essay Contest
Ron Reynolds
AFSA Virginia Chapter Essay Chairman
Each year, the AFSA Virginia Chapter awards scholarships to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place essay writers in our statewide contest. First place receives $1,500, second place $750, and third place $500. The Virginia Chapter also offers three Honorable Mention prizes of $100 each.
Only open to high school seniors, the purpose of the contest is to help educate people about fire sprinklers and how they save lives and property, and to help students continue their education. The essays must be from 700 to 1000 words, and include a bibliography. Essays are judged on accuracy, content, punctuation, and with an emphasis on creativity. Judges come from Chapter members in the sprinkler industry, fire and building code officials, and others.
Contestants in the contest this year were asked to “write a creative, interesting and convincing essay on the history of automatic sprinklers.” We received over 120 entries and as usual, they were very well written. The high quality of the essays makes it very difficult for the judges to pick the contest winners. After much deliberation using the skills of 12 different judges, the winners were picked, and here they are:
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First Place
$1500
Christina Lee
Potomac Falls HS
Sterling, VA.
Christina wrote an essay from the prospective of a fire sprinkler, protecting a residence that was very interesting and creatively done.
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Second Place
$750
Leah Coates
Washington and Lee HS
Colonial Beach, VA.
Leah’s essay was written about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, and what the might have happened had sprinklers been present.
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Third Place
$500
Caitlin Tignor
Essex HS
White Stone, VA.
Caitlin’s essay described the contribution of Philip Pratt, the first person to patent an automatic sprinkler, at an imaginary gathering of people who had survived fires because of automatic sprinklers.
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| Read the essay |
Read the essay |
Read the essay |
Christina Lee’s essay will be entered in a contest for an additional $1000 from the AFSA National organization.
$100 Honorable Mentions go to:
- Samuel Roderick of Broadway High School, in Broadway, VA.
- Regan Mukai, home-schooled, from Alexandria, VA.
- Megan Wiles, of Courtland High School, from Spotsylvania, VA.
For the first time ever, AFSA National will have a “2nd Chance” contest open to all graduating seniors where all can enter a contest and have a chance to win $1000. Go to http://www.afsascholarship.org/ for more details. This contest is open to all of those who entered the contest as well as those who did not. There is no requirement to write an essay for the 2nd Chance contest.
AFSA-Virginia thanks the many high school seniors who entered the contest this year for sending in their essays. It is always very tough to pick the best out of so many very good essays.
The Virginia Chapter congratulates all participants. Although not everyone can win a monetary prize, we believe that everyone who entered can come away a winner in the valuable knowledge they gain of what automatic fire sprinklers can do to save lives and property.
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News: April 6th Meeting
Monday, April 12 @ 04:37:48 PDT by howard (84 reads) |
| Mike Meehan, AFSA Chairman, receiving an award from Jerry Pruden of the Old Dominion Professional Fire Fighters Burn Foundation for the continued support of the Burn Foundation by the Virginia AFSA Chapter. |
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R.C. Moore of Tabb Brockenbrough & Ragland making a presentation to the meeting on Insurance Terminology for the Fire Sprinkler Industry. |
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News: NC Inspection Issues
Monday, March 22 @ 02:51:13 PDT by howard (179 reads) |  Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am attaching a letter from the North Carolina
State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating & Fire Sprinkler
Contractors.
If you do any
Inspection contracts in North Carolin
you must read and understand
this letter!!!
Earlier in 2009 I uncovered a
problem where the North Carolina contracting regulations prohibited a
Licensed Sprinkler Inspection Contractor from taking a contract from any
party other than the Owner of a property.
After significant research
and discussion with roughly 20 Contractors I determined that this was
an Industry issue that needed to be addressed as Sprinkler Contractors
were starting to get citations from the State Board in regards to this
issue.
I contacted Jeffery Dunn, the President of the North
Carolina AFSA Chapter and reviewed the issue with him and we decided to
ask for a meeting with the State Board to review and seek clarification.
On
October 1, 2009 Jeffery Dunn, Joe Collins and John Turnage of the North
Carolina AFSA Chapter and I met with Dale Dawson, the Executive
Director of the State Board, to discuss this issue.
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News: Central Virginia Burn Camp
Monday, February 22 @ 07:15:39 PST by howard (128 reads) | Know of a child who has been hurt in a fire or been scalded? Remember the scars and damage that was done to them? Now think to when they get to return to school, or when they go shopping? To a movie? The stares they get or the questioning looks from their peers or strangers who wonder – what happened to him or her?
There is a group of firefighters, nurses, therapists and other volunteers who work each year to provide kids like this a chance to be with other kids like themselves in a fun environment. The kids each year show up to Charlottesville Va for the Central Virginia Burn Camp where kids who have varying degrees of burns come and share a camp experience without the questioning looks, the avoiding eye contact, etc that happen to them outside this event.
Their burns range from full body to barely noticeable. They occurred accidentally or in some cases through child abuse. Some are missing hair, eyebrows, and other parts of their body. Many still suffer though pain and / or are still undergoing medical procedures, therapy, etc.
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News: VSC Fire & Security changes with the times
Tuesday, February 16 @ 09:52:14 PST by howard (213 reads) | VSC Fire & Security changes with the
times
MARK GORMUS/TIMES-DISPATCH
Martin Giles is chairman of VSC
Fire & Security whose roots date to 1958. Over the years, Giles expanded the businesses' geographical footprint from Maryland to Florida and bought other companies. The various companies operated under their individual names.
But that changed last year when Giles changed the name of his companies to VSC Fire & Security.
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News: AFSA 2010 Economic Relief Program
Thursday, February 04 @ 12:09:03 PST by howard (158 reads) |  Now AFSA is extending support to individual company members. AFSA will be absorbing a significant loss of income to assist our members in this difficult economy.
Specifically, the AFSA Economic Relief Program offers members:
- Free AFSA Educational Webinars, a $75 value each webinar you attend. CEU’s are awarded for each technical seminar;
- AFSA Bucks coupons equal to 10% of annual dues amount that can be used for any product or service produced by AFSA. AFSA Bucks coupon will be sent upon dues renewal and must be used within one year of issuance (associate and contractor members only);
- Critical, time-sensitive training. Educate your supervisors on labor and union issues at exclusive AFSA prices Click here for details on these two new training programs.
AFSA values its members. These are tough economic times, and we will work together to make sure the fire sprinkler industry has a bright outlook for the future. Only members in good standing can take advantage of these offerings.
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News: AFSA Introduces Fire Sprinkler eCampus
Thursday, February 08 @ 05:38:52 PST by howard (2099 reads) | New cost-effective, web-based continuing education aims to advance careers
DALLAS – The American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) recently unveiled convenient, cost-effective online continuing education courses through its new program for professional development, the Fire Sprinkler eCampus. All available right from your laptop or desktop computer at AFSA’s Web site, www.firesprinkler.org, eCampus offers targeted, in-depth fire sprinkler and construction-oriented courses, authored by leading industry experts. These targeted courses were developed for fire sprinkler contractors – owners, sales, project managers, designers, and their teams, as well as Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs), architects, engineers and plan reviewers as part of AFSA’s comprehensive continuing education program.
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Fire Protection Engineering
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| Welcome to the AFSA Virginia Chapter Website | |
If you are a member of the Virginia Chapter of AFSA and would like to participate in the content of this site. We need stories and articles about the work that you do in your community.
If you have sprinkler related items of interest, employment opportunities or press releases, please contact George Wagner.
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| Meeting Dates for 2010 |
- Sep 14
- Sep 15 — Golf Tourney
- Nov 9
Watch for the details for each meeting as the meeting time approaches.
Meeting information will be posted in the center column of this page and will be available for download as it becomes available.
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| Mission Statement |  | |
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