Pro Board-Early History
Remarks Delivered by Vice Chair Steve Austin
Accreditation Conference Dinner Orlando FL
January 15, 2016
Good evening. More often than not I have been in your position. A long day following a short night, a
few drinks, a big meal, and a question on my mind. How long is that guy going to talk after dinner?
Let me assure you I follow the advice of the 32nd President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt
who once remarked be sincere; be brief; be seated.
I am honored to be given the liberty of providing some oral history and my personal reflections on how
we got here as a profession and an organization from someone who joined the fire service prior to any
uniform formal system of standards, training and professional development.
As a holder of a degree in History I was pleased when Fred asked me to share some remarks especially in
light of the fact that many in this room hadn’t been given the opportunity to learn where the National
Professional Qualifications System came from how we got to this very successful point in time that we
all share today. History majors are like that. We like to tell stories from the past.
Given the fact that most of this history that I’m talking about isn’t written down anywhere and as far as I
know there has been no attempt to memorize it. The natural tendency in looking back over time is to try
to pinpoint a focusing event, something like the big bang theory that when it occurred something
immediate happened. The Fire Service is full of such events often as not they were tragedies whose
magnitude in the loss of life and property were so great that change was thrust on the public. Examples
include the Great Chicago Fire that led to the establishment of building codes; the Triangle Shirtwaist
fire that forced workplace fire safety and the Coconut Grove disaster that led to panic bars on exterior
doors to name a few.
So in preparing for this talk I went looking for that one focusing event that I could highlight for you so as
to pinpoint the origin of the pro qual system and the Pro Board. But that single event could not be
found.
Feeling perplexed by not being able to deliver a Eureka moment, I did as I often do, consulted my friend
and mentor Louis J. Amabili. The founding director of the Delaware State Fire School one of the few
surviving members of President Nixon’s Fire Prevention and Control Commission and an author of
America Burning. Lou was quick to tell me that there was no one single event that triggered the
establishment of a more professional approach to fire service training and education and professional
development. Lou said all of this came from a caldron that was brewing in the late 1960’s and through
the next decade or so. That brew yielded much of the progress we enjoy today. I liked that caldron
analogy so I set out to determine what was in that brew?
In May of 1947 President Truman convened a White House conference to address the staggering loss of
life and property by fire. Yes, I was around, but at the age of 2 months I wasn’t invited to attend. At the
time Truman remarked that perhaps the experience that the armed services gained in developing new
firefighting techniques during WWII could be transferred to the uniform fire service in an effort to
reduce fire loss. Chief Lloyd Laymen’s address at the FDIC in 1950 “Little Drops of Water” reflected the
new found science of firefighting developed during the war especially on naval vessels. In the same way
as the NFPA has assisted in publishing information about new technics in fire attack in lightweight
construction today; the Association spread the word about Lyman’s work and his theory to a fire service
audience eager to learn.
At the same time extension services from many of the great land grant universities of this nation who
provided vocational fire training for decades started to look at their work as more of a science and
began to refer to it as such. Some of the more progressive institutions began to exchange data with
fledgling fire engineering degree granting programs already on campus.
Larger metropolitan areas in the nation who mostly had become fully career staffed in the 19th century
were ringed with volunteer fire departments who began consolidating and trending combination to full
career a tendency that continues today.
What else was happening out there? Filter masks a product of WWI began to give way to self-controlled
breathing apparatus. Open cab fire apparatus were being phased out.
While not a subject of the Pro Board System. Fire Based scoop and transport first aid squads influenced
from lesson learned in the Korea and Vietnam about trauma management cried out for a more
professional delivery of EMS services beyond the old Red Cross First Aid Card.
In February of 1966 The Johnson Foundation of Racine Wisconsin published the report of the
Wingspread Conference on fire service administration, education and research. One of the panel
members Chief David Gratz of Silver Springs MD would become a strong advocate of fire service
professionalism and a catalyst for standards based training.
All these ingredients and more were part of the brew in the caldron that was beginning to simmer.
The major fire service organizations decided to form the Joint Council of Fire Service Organizations to
attempt to provide some direction to matters of fire protection. Heretofore were mostly influenced by
the insurance industry who didn’t communicate fully or at all with fire service interests.
The formation of the Joint Council was a noble effort. Members included the NFPA, IAFF, IAFC, IAAI,
IFSTA, ISFSI, the Metro Chiefs, the Fire Marshal’s Association of North America, the International
Municipal Signalmen, the NVFC who came on board after their founding in the late 60’s, as did the Black
Professional Firefighters and others. Looking back on that era, if I were to select the most influential of
all these groups on the development of the Pro Qual system it would have to be the NFPA.
From the beginning of the formation of the Joint Council the NFPA was the secretariat. Maintaining
records, meeting notifications and generally providing the type of organizational support that an eclectic
organization like the Joint Council needed to function. Those papers are still maintained at NFPA
Headquarters. The selection of NFPA as Secretariat proved to be a wise decision for many reasons. The
NFPA was instrumental in providing the support needed to carry out the mission. The Joint Council was
involved in a number of fire service political issues the most important of which was implementing the
recommendations of America Burning including the establishment of the National Fire Academy.
But the Council was also interested in firefighter professional development. The Council was influenced
by Martin Grimes a Fire Chief from Bermuda and a graduate of Morton in Marsh; and by Chief David
Gratz. On October 25, 1972, the Joint Council founded the National Professional Qualifications System
(NPQS) in an effort to help guide the fire service toward professionalism. Certification arose over a
concern discussed in the Wingspread report that training was becoming very uneven between
jurisdictions and sometimes even inadequate. As a result of these concerns, a nine member National
Professional Qualifications Board (Pro Board) was established by the Joint Council to direct the new
accreditation and registry system.
It should be pointed out that the impetus for the standards were solely to provide a promotional path in
the career fire service. Another sign of awakening professionalism. At the time career mobility between
fire departments was almost unheard of and seniority and/or patronage played a big role in promotional
opportunities.
It is important to remember that the standards were developed by persons performing the jobs (e.g. fire
fighters worked on the fire fighter standards, fire investigators on the fire investigator standard, etc.).
The initial standards for professional competency were developed for Fire Fighter, Fire Inspector/Fire
Investigator, Fire Service Instructor, and Fire Service Officer. So influential was the Joint Council that
NFPA made an exception to the committee member appointment process allowing the Joint Council to
select all the members of the Pro Qual Committees. This process remained in effect until NFPA President
Bob Grant changed the process to reflect current NFPA committee member selection and balance in the
1990’s.
In 1982, the Pro Board began the process of accrediting entities that were certifying members of the fire
service to these standards. In addition, the Pro Board issued National Certificates to individuals certified
by an accredited agency and maintained a Registry of individuals receiving National Certificates. The
charge for those first certificates was $17.50. That would be about $77 in today’s money.
I must point out that the collection and the holding of these funds was an issue for the Council. You see
the Joint Council was never formally chartered or incorporated. Maintaining a bank account was a chore
and something that probably would be impossible today due to financial services laws and regulations.
Again it was the steady hand of the NFPA who maintained the check book and assisted in managing the
funds.
Due to the dedication of what amounted to all volunteer staff the system began to grow. The National
Registry again housed at the NFPA started to reflect larger and larger numbers as students successfully
passed examinations at the accredited agencies.
But initial success was short lived. The Joint Council was plagued by an unanimity rule that required
100% agreement on every issue. That rule along with inability of some organizations to vote without
first checking with their principle began to take its toll on the effectiveness of the organization.
As a result, in the late 1980’s, several organizations offered a motion to dissolve the body at a regularly
scheduled meeting without first contacting the other members. Chaos arose. At the end of that last
meeting the only agreement was to somehow try to preserve the National Registry and to ask the NFPA
to archive the Joint Council’s minutes and documents. It was agreed that the NFPA, ISFSI, IAFC, the IAFF,
would accept the challenge. I made a request to include the IAAI which was granted. All agreed to
attempt to salvage the National Professional Qualification System.
We were faced with a herculean task. Only $60k in cash assets, no legal corporate entity to allow the
transaction of business and no staff. But one thing we did have was a commitment to protect the
firefighters’ certs in the Registry.
We were attacked from all sides. Many of our supporters chastised us for failing to act quickly enough.
Others viewed the individual fire service organizations as power grabbers who had seized control of the
system. Others thought they were deliberately disenfranchised. None of these assumptions were
correct.
It would have been easy to give up. Later, unannounced, at a meeting with then new NFPA President
George Miller in Quincy, the ISFSI and the IAFF abruptly resigned from the system. But later we received
applications from the North American Training Directors and NASFM to come on board.
It was agreed to incorporate as a nonprofit entity and seek tax free status from the Internal Revenue
Service a task that took some time to accomplish thus leading to more impatience from critics. That was
accomplished by June of 1990. The suspicion that somehow the organizations on the Board were
involved in some conspiracy to grab power began to fade way. In fact, we had no money and if it were
not for the organizations who were represented on the Board and particularly the NFPA providing
support we couldn’t have survived those early years.
Through it all the volunteers on the Committee on Accreditation continued to perform at the highest
level of professionalism just as they do today.
In recent years the return of the IAFF to the Board was a significant event. Even though the Union had
left the Board they were represented on the COA throughout the entire period which was a plus that led
to their application to rejoin the Board.
With great pride we welcome the British Fire Service College as an accredited agency, the place from
which the concept of a national fire service professional qualifications system arose. I am sure Chief
Grimes is smiling down upon us.
We had our ups and downs and I can tell you personally there were those nights where I would wakeup
worrying if the system would survive. Not only did the Pro Board survive it grew and grew well past
expectations. And while I will maintain we at the Board level provided competent fiscal and legal
management, the system’s growth is because of that desire for professionalism in the fire service that
steeped from the caldron of ideas in the 60’s and 70’s.
It is you our accredited agencies who nurtured the desire to make firefighting a profession and it is you
who deserve much of the credit.
I can tell you that as I look out on this crowd tonight that every personal and professional sacrifice we as
Board members made to preserve the Pro Board was well worth it. I hope as you evaluate your
contributions to this wonderful institution you feel the same way.
Thanks for letting me share these thoughts with you this evening and thanks for your steadfast support
and now I will be seated.