EMTbravo

Thank You PVFD113 for your donation of 50.00 USD. One of the biggest problems facing EMTBravo is a continued source of funding, to provide domain registration, hosting costs, board license fees, etc... Your generosity and donation is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use maintaining and building a better community for you and your fellow members! Every bit counts! Click Here: EMTBravo Donation Portal (This thank you message was automatically generated by our new donation system)

Members, After a succesful 2008 and for the first time ever, I'm currently in the process of developing several strategic goals and plans for 2009. It will be EMTBravo's 6th year online, and this will act as a "road map" for future growth and refinement.. Some are related to strengthening our finances, administration, and other "behind the scenes" items. Also on my list is figuring out how intergrate EMTBravo into the "Web 2.0" world, making the site more social-networking friendly and developing mobile access features. If you have any suggestions, ideas, or feedback about anything with the site, please post on this thread. Thanks! -Seth G. Founder & CEO, Director Of Development, The EMTBravo Group Round Rock, TX Email: seth@emtbravo.com

Thank You markmets415 for your donation of 50.00 USD. One of the biggest problems facing EMTBravo is a continued source of funding, to provide domain registration, hosting costs, board license fees, etc... Your generosity and donation is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use maintaining and building a better community for you and your fellow members! Every bit counts! Click Here: EMTBravo Donation Portal (This thank you message was automatically generated by our new donation system)

Thank You DOC22 for your donation of 25.00 USD. One of the biggest problems facing EMTBravo is a continued source of funding, to provide domain registration, hosting costs, board license fees, etc... Your generosity and donation is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use maintaining and building a better community for you and your fellow members! Every bit counts! Click Here: EMTBravo Donation Portal (This thank you message was automatically generated by our new donation system)

Thank You Remember585 for your donation of 25.00 USD. One of the biggest problems facing EMTBravo is a continued source of funding, to provide domain registration, hosting costs, board license fees, etc... Your generosity and donation is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use maintaining and building a better community for you and your fellow members! Every bit counts! Click Here: EMTBravo Donation Portal (This thank you message was automatically generated by our new donation system)

Members, Merry Christmas!!! We hope this message finds you and your families having a great holiday! We hope Santa brought you everything you asked for! Warmest regards, -Seth G. & the EMTBravo Staff

EMTBravo's Member Of The Week Ending December 20th, 2008 is joetnymedic Posts to date: 107 Joined: 19-January 04 Member #:175 Click Here To View joetnymedic's Profile Page Congrats! -Seth G. & the EMTBravo.net Team An EMTBravo.net Member Of The Weel is chosen by the EMTBravo.net staff each week, and announced every weekend at the end of the week. Members are chosen based on their contributions to making this forum an informative and pleasant community to visit. Factors for Member Of The Week nomination include but are not limited to: -Regular, high quality informative posts -Detailed Incident Alerts -Photo sets -Member behavior and attitude -Member interaction with other members -Members willingness to help Members Of The Week are nominated and chosen internally by EMTBravo.net staff team, so please DO NOT contact the staff with any nominations or suggestions. EMTBravo.net Staff Members ARE NOT eligible for this program. A Member Of The Month is chosen by placing all the winners of "Member Of The Week" up for voting by the general membership at the end of each month. All EMTBravo.net Member Of The Month Award winners are then elegible for the "Member Of The Year" title, announced in December. Members can recieve the "Member Of The Week" award up to three (3) times a year maximum. If you wish to opt-out of this program, please notify an EMTBravo staff member ASAP.

The idea for this forum was created by Truck4. In his words, here's what this new forum section will be about: Special thanks to Truck4 for his idea/concept for this important current events forum. In the past, we've had special forums dedicated to disasters, major local issues, and we feel this is an extremly crucial issue right now that deserves its own section for discussion. If you have any questions,ideas, or comments, or need assistance, please contact Truck4 or myself for assistance. -Seth G. on behalf of Truck4

The "Bravo Christmas" skin is now available as a choice. From Christmas eve throughout Christmas day, it will be the primary skin on the forum. I MAY add another Christmas skin, not sure at this time. I purchase the Christmas skin from skin designers, and unfortunetly I don't have any money whatsoever to invest in a quality skin this year (they come from skin desginers and can be pricey, and our revenue only gets us by month to month right now, and anything extra is saved for the following month). Also, I don't have the time to modify the skin to adapt to this forum. But if I can find one for free that works, then maybe. Please note that the Christmas skin may have different or outdated features that I am unable to change at this time. I'm glad to see the interest from members and staff.....I will keep that in mind during holidays and try to save up for a nice skin next year.

Policy #: 08-122008A Issued By: Seth G. Effective: Immediately Many members have expressed concern about the use of profanity on this forum, and the staff not allowing shorthand profanity. The staff has discussed this, and although we did not all completely agree, we came to a consensus on what would be the best for the forum. 1. You should be able to make your point without the use of strong profanity. 2, FU, WTF, etc. are all just ways of bypassing the filter in place to remove strong profanity. 3, The rules need to be evenly enforced. Profanity = post deleted. Members will either get the hint or they will continue to have their posts deleted. And I say just delete the whole thing - don't go in and edit it out for them. We all have enough to do without editing nonsense. 4. Shorthand "WTF" will be at the moderators discretion AT THIS TIME, however, we WILL NOT tolerate it in topic titles, nor using it as the sole words in your reply. 5. BS, LOL, etc, aren't profanity. However, we STRONGLY discourage the use of "texting shorthand" on the forum. 6. Given the nature of the forum, it's hard to "read people". Profanity often contributes to hostility between members 7. Posting photos alluding to profanity will be considered profanity, all other photos will be covered by our photo posting policy. This policy stems from the broad membership that read EMTBravo each day. Although they do not post, it's like a daily newspaper to them. We have ranking officers from some of the top deparrtments in the region, as well as the United States, who browse this forum. We want to maintain a decent atmosphere for them and for the everyday member. If you have questions, concerns or suggestions regarding this new policy, please email me at seth@emtbravo.com, Please keep in mind moderators are only doing their jobs, and it's nothing personal. Thank you, and I look foward to your anticpated cooperation. -Seth G. Founder & CEO The EMTBravo Group EMail Me

Members, Our staff works hard to keep this forum going. I couldn't do it without them. They volunteer numerous hours of their personal times so that we can provide the best to our members, and extend themselves so each member has the best possible experience. From a behind the scenes perspective, members don't see all the day-to-day work that goes into running this forum. We have staff assigned to a wide variety of daily tasks, and lisiting them all here would take a lot of typing. Also, staff members have to meet very strict standards to stay on the staff. They are required to actively particpate in our staff workgroup and meetings, and keep up with all the training and policies that are issued. We have a rigid "check and balance" system in place. Each staff member is hand picked by me, and each one has a unique strength that makes the staff a great team. They also are constantly brainstorming to come up with new ideas, and constantly refininfing to forum.. So, to all the EMTBravo.net staff, I want to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you put in and continually put in to keep tihis forum running and growing!! -Seth G. Founder & CEO The EMTBravo Group

ALS, As you know, we love you on this forum and value your membership greatly....you have contributed a great deal since day one of this site. However, we have an obligation to treat each member fairly and equally, and follow the policies of this forum. The staff is currently evaluating and discussing this policy and we will advise the membership of our stance on this issue shortly. -Seth G.

Let me make some things perfectly clear here. We encourage open discussion of factual information. While discussions may get heated and we all may have different experiences and viewpoints, there is no reason for personal attacks on each other, etc. The moderator only reminded people to keep this thread civil. He said nothing about keeping comments to yourself. I absolutely agree with people immediately labeling something a "bash" when they don't like what they are reading. HOWEVER: It's not the content of the thread ALS, it's the way members treat each other that concerns us. As you know, we try hard to maintain a positive and respectful atmosphere, as difficult as it may be at times, no matter what it being discussed. We have had to remove numerous back and forth comments between members on this thread that had absolutely nothing to do with the discussion at hand that many reading this did not see. All members should be reminded that if they wish to make this personal, then use the personal message system. If members cannot treat each other respectfully after this post, then this thread will be locked.

Members, The EMTBravo.net team has discussed and decided that all Winter storm discussions take place in ONE thread, entitled "Winter Storms 2008" in "The Lounge" section. All exisiting threads will be merged into this thread. This decision was made due to multiple different threads being created regarding one storm, and to keep all discussion centralized. As some of the older members of the forum may rememeber, this is how we first did it.....with one of the most popular threads to date, "Snow....grrr".... I'd also like to take this oppurtunity to invite all members to take and post winter related photos in our photo section, if related to apparatus or incidents, or post in the winter storm thread otherwise. Thanks for your anticipated cooperation! -Seth G.

Thank You hawkbase for your donation of 25.00 USD. One of the biggest problems facing EMTBravo is a continued source of funding, to provide domain registration, hosting costs, board license fees, etc... Your generosity and donation is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use maintaining and building a better community for you and your fellow members! Every bit counts! Click Here: EMTBravo Donation Portal (This thank you message was automatically generated by our new donation system)

Thank You FFD260 for your donation of 20.00 USD. One of the biggest problems facing EMTBravo is a continued source of funding, to provide domain registration, hosting costs, board license fees, etc... Your generosity and donation is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use maintaining and building a better community for you and your fellow members! Every bit counts! Click Here: EMTBravo Donation Portal (This thank you message was automatically generated by our new donation system)

EMTBravo's Member Of The Week Ending December 14th, 2008 is INIT915 Posts to date: 574 posts (1 per day) Joined: 13-December 05 Member #:16297 Click Here To View INIT915's Profile Page "He's consistently onboard with intelligent posts, factual information, and other input"- Chris192 Congrats! -Seth G. & the EMTBravo.net Team An EMTBravo.net Member Of The Weel is chosen by the EMTBravo.net staff each week, and announced every weekend at the end of the week. Members are chosen based on their contributions to making this forum an informative and pleasant community to visit. Factors for Member Of The Week nomination include but are not limited to: -Regular, high quality informative posts -Detailed Incident Alerts -Photo sets -Member behavior and attitude -Member interaction with other members -Members willingness to help Members Of The Week are nominated and chosen internally by EMTBravo.net staff team, so please DO NOT contact the staff with any nominations or suggestions. EMTBravo.net Staff Members ARE NOT eligible for this program. A Member Of The Month is chosen by placing all the winners of "Member Of The Week" up for voting by the general membership at the end of each month. All EMTBravo.net Member Of The Month Award winners are then elegible for the "Member Of The Year" title, announced in December. Members can recieve the "Member Of The Week" award up to three (3) times a year maximum. If you wish to opt-out of this program, please notify an EMTBravo staff member ASAP.

Just to note, the actual end of the week is the 13th....I put "14th" as the week ending due to December 12th being a horrible day in my memory, and the 13th being supersticous. And also, I just noticed INIT915's anniversary on this forum coincides with this award!

EMTBravo's Member Of The Week Ending December 6th, 2008 is markmets415 Posts to date: 571 posts (4 per day) Joined: 15-July 08 Member #:16297 Click Here To View markmets415's Profile Page markmets415, an EMTBravo.net VIP-Supporting Member, has rapidly become an active member on this board since joining in July. He has helped to recruit new members to join and post and helped them to figure out the forum. His enthusiasm about this forum is commendable. Congrats! -Seth G. & the EMTBravo.net Team An EMTBravo.net Member Of The Weel is chosen by the EMTBravo.net staff each week, and announced every weekend at the end of the week. Members are chosen based on their contributions to making this forum an informative and pleasant community to visit. Factors for Member Of The Week nomination include but are not limited to: -Regular, high quality informative posts -Detailed Incident Alerts -Photo sets -Member behavior and attitude -Member interaction with other members -Members willingness to help Members Of The Week are nominated and chosen internally by EMTBravo.net staff team, so please DO NOT contact the staff with any nominations or suggestions. EMTBravo.net Staff Members ARE NOT eligible for this program. A Member Of The Month is chosen by placing all the winners of "Member Of The Week" up for voting by the general membership at the end of each month. All EMTBravo.net Member Of The Month Award winners are then elegible for the "Member Of The Year" title, announced in December. Members can recieve the "Member Of The Week" award up to three (3) times a year maximum. If you wish to opt-out of this program, please notify an EMTBravo staff member ASAP.

Recently, a member suggested to me that I had a "US Military" affiliation to the affiliation category of a Verified Member profile. However, I want to do things right. Can someone name all branches of the Military that would be applicable to list in the Verified Member Profile? I know there are a bazillion different ranks, so I don't know if it would make sense to add ranks, unless there's a very basic structure. Thanks for your anticipated help! -Seth G.

I have added the afformentioned options for your Verified Member profiles, for either primary or secondary affiliation and titles. I also added "Reserves" to the list.

I'm going with Chris192's idea, and FireDivers notion....keeping it simple. I will try and update the choices this week. Thanks to everyone for their input! Much appreciated! -Seth

EMTBravo's Member Of The Week Ending November 29th, 2008 is dadbo46 Posts to date: 405 posts Joined: Joined: 30-June 05 Member #: 2676 Click Here To View dadbo46's Profile Page dadbo46, an EMTBravo.net VIP-Supporting Member, was unanimously nominated by the EMTBravo staff for being an all-around great member. Always has positive contributions. Congrats! -Seth G. & the EMTBravo.net Team An EMTBravo.net Member Of The Weel is chosen by the EMTBravo.net staff each week, and announced every weekend at the end of the week. Members are chosen based on their contributions to making this forum an informative and pleasant community to visit. Factors for Member Of The Week nomination include but are not limited to: -Regular, high quality informative posts -Detailed Incident Alerts -Photo sets -Member behavior and attitude -Member interaction with other members -Members willingness to help Members Of The Week are nominated and chosen internally by EMTBravo.net staff team, so please DO NOT contact the staff with any nominations or suggestions. EMTBravo.net Staff Members ARE NOT eligible for this program. A Member Of The Month is chosen by placing all the winners of "Member Of The Week" up for voting by the general membership at the end of each month. All EMTBravo.net Member Of The Month Award winners are then elegible for the "Member Of The Year" title, announced in December. Members can recieve the "Member Of The Week" award up to three (3) times a year maximum. If you wish to opt-out of this program, please notify an EMTBravo staff member ASAP.

Thanks for your input, however, some of your facts and claims about previous moderation are incorrect. I understand why it's easy to throw judgement, so let me have a chance to explain. The moderators of this forum use their discretion, and often talk about threads such as this one in our workgroup and we have staff members from other EMTBravo sites evaluate our actions and ask them for their unbiased input. I feel that this issue relates to the hiring and standards of a department, in addition to the history possibly relating to an incident at the fire academy. These members were also tried in a court of law and convicted. It was also published in a widely read newspaper. The rule you are referring to regards issues that are COMPLETLY unrelated to issues that are discussed on this forum. For example, we don't need to discuss a firefighter who had a minor feud with his neighbor over a noisy leafblower, etc. Also, we don't need to talk about the guy who was a volunteer firefighter for three months five years ago who had kiddie porn on his computer. At the time this rule was put into place, these threads were becoming frequent and often threw judgement to people who's claims hadn't been substantiated or hadn't been convicted. Also, their usually wasn't a point to these threads and there was most often no productive discussion. In addition, there are also many "behind the scenes" things that go on with the moderation of this forum day-to-day that members don't see or understand, such as when members request that threads that they started be deleted. Nor do they know or understand the history of this forum and why certain policies are developed. If you have an issue or questions about a thread or moderation of this forum, please contact one of the staff members. We ask that, in the future, you don't "hijack" discussions about moderation issues. We do appreciate input, -Seth G.

EMTBravo's Member Of The Week Ending November 22nd, 2008 is Remember585 Joined: 16-November 03 (5 years) Member #: 34 Posts to date: 2,824 (Posts per day:1.54) Topics statred to date: 302 Click Here To View Remember585's Profile Page Remember585 has beeen a member of this forum since it's inception, and is an EMTBravo.net Staff alumni. Since he joined, he's posted very high quality detailed information and adds perspective to others topics, and is very active and popular on this forum. During his 5 year tenure, he's made close to 3,000 posts- ranking #4 just 91 posts behind ALSFirefighter. His active participation on this forum keeps things lively, and his proper spelling and grammar skill are appreciated by the "Grammar Police". And, despite some skirmishs, we mods still love him! Congrats John!!! -Seth G. & the EMTBravo.net Team To view a list of all of our past Member Of The Week Award winners, click here An EMTBravo.net Member Of The Weel is chosen by the EMTBravo.net staff each week, and announced every weekend at the end of the week. Members are chosen based on their contributions to making this forum an informative and pleasant community to visit. Factors for Member Of The Week nomination include but are not limited to: -Regular, high quality informative posts -Detailed Incident Alerts -Photo sets -Member behavior and attitude -Member interaction with other members -Members willingness to help Members Of The Week are nominated and chosen internally by EMTBravo.net staff team, so please DO NOT contact the staff with any nominations or suggestions. EMTBravo.net Staff Members ARE NOT eligible for this program. A Member Of The Month is chosen by placing all the winners of "Member Of The Week" up for voting by the general membership at the end of each month. All EMTBravo.net Member Of The Month Award winners are then elegible for the "Member Of The Year" title, announced in December. Members can recieve the "Member Of The Week" award up to three (3) times a year maximum. If you wish to opt-out of this program, please notify an EMTBravo staff member ASAP.