Cited: Business Wire

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company sponsored a national survey of firefighters that indicates negative economic effect on Arizona fire departments. The survey was taken by 9500 are departments or 30% of our departments in the country including €109 on a fire departments. The survey was called “Supporting Safer Communities: A National Firefighter Survey.” According to the survey the top challenges in Arizona facing fire departments today are:

• Three-quarters of all fire departments believe staffing, recruitment and retention is at least somewhat challenging in the current economic climate.
• Seventy-two percent say insufficient gear is at least somewhat challenging and 74% state old/outdated gear is at least somewhat challenging.
• Fifty-nine percent of departments have had to increase fundraising efforts and/or grant writing because of budget cutbacks.
• Six in ten departments have delayed replacing equipment and three-quarters have delayed purchasing new equipment.
• Forty-three percent of departments do not have adequate training when it comes to hazardous materials incidents.

“When you consider that firefighters are the first responders to nearly every fire, medical emergency, and natural or man-made disaster in our local communities, it is imperative that we have adequate funding to ensure we keep our communities safe,” said Jeff Piechura, Northwest Fire District Fire Chief, and Chairman of the Arizona Fire Services Institute. “This study is extremely valuable for both its depth and scope - one that effectively shows the needs of today’s fire service in communities across the country and particularly here in Arizona.”

The study was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs based in New York, and was available online for six weeks from mid-February to March 31, 2009 to all career and volunteer firefighters. Nearly 17,500 firefighters participated, 61% of which hold the rank of fire official (chief, captain or lieutenant). Full results can be found at www.firemansfund.com/firesurvey.

For those working in an industry where fire can be a work hazard. . . There are online vendors that provide clients with Carhartt workwear at an affordable price. With secure online ordering service that offer customer’s access to Carhartt and Bulwark flame retardant work wear from the comfort of their homes. Some may also embroidery and corporate pricing on purchases of 25 or more pieces with FREE Shipping in the U.S. on orders above $100 and the highest quality service possible!

Not all Arizona findings were grim:

Seventy-five percent of fire departments have adequate extrication equipment needed to safely and quickly remove injured people from a vehicle crash.

Eighty-two percent of departments have at least one thermal imaging camera, considered a critical tool to identify hot spots and locate injured or sleeping persons in a burning building.

“As a company, Fireman’s Fund believes it is extremely important to raise awareness of the needs of local fire departments,” said Chuck Kavitsky, Chairman of Fireman’s Fund. “Supporting the fire service means safer communities. That is why we have focused our philanthropic giving to directing grants to fire departments throughout the country.”

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company’s nationwide philanthropic program is designed to provide needed equipment, training and educational tools to local fire departments. Since 2004, Fireman’s Fund has issued grants to more than 1,100 different departments totaling more than $21 million. Independent insurance agencies that sell Fireman’s Fund products are able to direct these grants to support fire stations in their communities. In the last five years, Fireman’s Fund has issued 23 grants to Arizona fire departments, totaling $183,144.

Ipsos Public Affairs is a non-partisan, objective, survey-based research practice made up of seasoned professionals. Ipsos Public Affairs conducts strategic research initiatives for a diverse number of American and international organizations, based not only on public opinion research, but elite stakeholder, corporate, and media opinion research. Ipsos Public Affairs is a member of the Ipsos Group, a leading global survey-based market research company. To learn more, visit: www.ipsos-pa.com.

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company is a premier property and casualty insurance company providing personal and commercial insurance products nationwide and is a member of the Allianz Group (NYSE:AZ), who provide insurance and financial services around the world.. It is rated ‘AA-’ by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. It was founded in 1863 with the express purpose of supporting firefighters, Fireman’s Fund continues this effort today through its national philanthropic efforts. For more information, visit www.firemansfund.com.

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My Take: I am very glad that there is somebody out there helping Fireman! Firemen do not get paid enough as it is. Does it still are on the job, feel it is their duty. This makes them honorable men. The same goes for police officers. These two professions are the most underpaid professions in the United States today.

The police and the fire department keep communities alive. In turn, communities should keep police and firefighters happy. It is true that legally neither one of these groups can go on a full, all-out, strike. A full all-out strike is one where nobody is working. Therefore, the only alternative they have is what the police department calls the “blue flu”. It was so named because many police officers uniforms are a dark navy blue. Basically, at least half, if not more, of the working force of either the police or fire department, get sick and cannot come in to work.

Many city governments have started requiring medical proof from employees who are suffering from the “blue flu”. Ironically, almost all of them have the proof. This tells me that the medical profession supports our police departments and our fire departments. If only more of our communities would stand behind these two departments, they would probably have more people working than they do now to save lives.

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You’ve just landed a new sales job, perhaps your title is assistant vice president of IT sales leads. You’ve been charged with ramping up your company’s sales numbers by, oh, let’s say 4 percent by the end of the second quarter. How do you get there?

Most sales experts today contend that there is NO better strategy for boosting leads than by getting to know who the decision makers are at the companies you want to get business from.

Sending out e-blasts; blanketing your market with viral messages and links to your organization’s Web site and “About Us” pages isn’t going to cut it. You need to know who it is that makes the decision to buy what you are selling and target your sales efforts to include those people.

In the IT business then, you want to use your contacts, the Internet, and any other resource you have available to you to obtain the most current company profiles available and create your own it org. charts to use as sales tools. These org. charts are so invaluable according to many sales training firms out there, that they are becoming a requirement by many IT service providers and ancillary companies.

Want to create customized org. charts? There are companies who can help, such as CogMag.com, and online wiki that lets you see, edit and create organization charts for companies you want to sell your IT Services to, including many of the country’s Fortune 500 org charts, such as Google, Coca-Cola, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Other companies make supporting software programs that will allow you take your org charts a step further, creating “political” overlay maps, for example, to create a snapshot of and analyze the relationships between the key decision makers.

How important are these political relationships? I’ll let Dave Stein tell you. He is the CEO and Founder of ES Research Group, Inc., and author of How Winners Sell.

Stein writes: “If you’re in a complex selling environment and your team isn’t taking the political landscape within the customers’ organizations into account when developing a strategy to win, you need help. Yesterday.”

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