Missouri Fire Equipment Distributors Association
WHAT WE´RE DOING AND WHY WE´RE DOING IT!
Over the past several years there have been many changes in the rules and regulations controlling the fire equipment industry. For those companies who have the wherewithal to participate as members of the National Fire Protection Association´s (NFPA) Standards Committees or some other national code developer, some control over those decisions may be exercised. But for small to mid-sized companies, who make up the majority of the fire equipment industry, there is little chance to have a say in where the future of their industry is headed. As founders, owners, and usually, the driving force behind the companies who provide much of the fire safety services to our customers, there should be an entity that provides a voice to those professionals who have invested their blood, sweat, and tears in their businesses.
MOFED was organized in order to give those business owners an organization that allows for input and to assist in providing a more professional, better trained force of technicians in both the fire extinguisher and fire suppression system fields. With a common effort we can increase the amount of training available, aid in establishing standards acceptable to the authorities having jurisdiction (AHJ´s) and promote honesty, skill and integrity to our industry.
Some of the objectives MOFED´s members intend to pursue are:
· Develop and enact legislation regulating companies involved in the sale and service of fire suppression equipment and to promote uniform, state-wide enforcement of fire code standards pertaining to the sale and service of fire protection equipment.
· Promote cooperation and share best practices information, as well as serve the needs of its members. Where the member companies, large or small, have an equal voice in determining and implementing the goals of the organization.
· Act as a conduit with AHJ´s, on both the state and local levels, to utilize the vast experience of the member fire equipment distributors to establish rules and regulations that provides the optimum level of safety to our clients and their constituents.
· Establish training programs to provide the technicians with the skills they need to properly service their customers and the education necessary to obtain required certification in the particular discipline.
These objectives are not a complete listing of MOFED´s mission, but merely a starting point toward building as association that can benefit the fire equipment distributors of Missouri and the industry as a whole.