At the beginning of Day 3, one of the most sought after classes, Tires: Everything You Thought You Knew, But Didn’t, began. Instructor TJ Tennent and Ron Winkleman led students through information on tires. Repeatedly asking the class, “How many knew that before,” no one could raise their hands. It turns out that as much as we may think we know about tires, there’s a lot we don’t know. But toward midmorning, Tennent challenged the class to “be the obvious choice.”
At the end of the day, The William F. Foster Outstanding Service Award was presented to Toronto Fire Services Division Chief, Asset and Equipment Management, Rob Anselmi. In between, more than 400 “obvious choices” participated in 150 class sessions. In addition to aerial maintenance, students had hands-on training for pump rebuilds, pump testing, the IDEX SAM system and different suspensions.
In his remarks after accepting the award, Anselmi was quick to thank REV and the Fire Truck Training Conference, but also to praise the technicians who have attended in the past up to now and the award’s namesake. “Mechanics are the worst ones to talk about themselves and I would like to think I am the same,” he said. “I’d like to talk about the fine man that this is named after. He has touched everything that’s ever happened in this place. Imagine winning an award named after a legend. Bill is a legend in the industry, plain and simple. Think of what he did just to change what we all do for a living.”
Anselmi recounted all the years Bill Foster had his designated spot on the bumper of a Spartan rig at whatever trades show he was attending. It was there that he would hold court. “Think of what the world was like before Bill started this thing.” Foster recognized in 1994 the need to provide technicians with an opportunity to get the education they need to stay abreast of new developments as fire apparatus evolve and to stay up to date on their emergency vehicle technician (EVT) certifications. During this week, instructors walked students through a variety of systems—some of which are new enough that many students had not encountered them yet. But, that is the point of the conference—to prepare them for when they do. Addressing the attendees, Anselmi said, “The things you people work on now is absolutely cutting edge. Whatever’s coming, we are the ones who have to fix that. So, we have to be on the cutting edge of knowing how to do that. As long as I’m in this job, I am going to keep trying to promote that. All I can say is thanks for everything you do.”
Everyone he was addressing were the obvious choices Tennent challenged his class to be in the beginning of the day. The ones who take the time to come to this conference to further their knowledge to keep our rigs on the road and the obvious choices. Anselmi also mentioned how hard it is in Canada to find vehicle technicians and encouraged everyone in the audience to continue to promote the trades and to get kids back into them. They will be the future obvious choices.
