Some Thoughts on The IAFC Conference
departments
From the Publishers Desk
This issue of Fire Engineering features the 107th Conference of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and its associated exhibits of fire department apparatus and equipment. The conference will be held in Miami Beach, a city that has become one of the leading conference cities in the United States.
Fire Engineering, of course, has had a long association with the IAFC going back more than 100 years. And it is interesting to note that when Fire Engineering assumed its present title in 1926 (following several changes), the International Association of Fire Engineers also changed its name to the International Association of Fire Chiefs—at the 54th Annual Conference in New Orleans.
Another interesting association change involves the appointment of Fred Shepperd, editor of Fire Engineering as headquarters manager of the IAFC following the “Crash” of 1929. “Headquarters,” of course, was Fire Engineering Magazine in New York, and it remained so all during the Depression.
More important than a change in name of the association in this benchmark 1926 conference was the decision to make membership in the association available “to a greater number of chiefs in the smaller cities and towns, who by reason of the higher rate of the dues and inability to attend conventions were practically barred from membership in the association.” The “dues” incidentally was $2.00 for those who did not attend what was then called “the convention.”
Another first at this conference was a meeting called by chiefs of the Southwest to organize themselves into an association which was to become another division of the IAFC.
Fire Engineering was of course well represented at the 1926 conference, as it had been in all conferences going back to 1877. This year is no exception. We and our staff will be on hand in booth 186. Stop by and say hello!
