I hope you are all keeping well and busy. Well, we are now well into the New Year. How time does fly, and at the time of writing this, I have just returned from our first technical meeting of the year at the Euston Hilton, which was attended by 70 of our members. A big thanks to the speakers for again making this another memorable event.

I am pleased to say that we are in the first stages of opening a branch in Scotland. We will have more details in the next edition of Daedalus.

We have the dates and venues for our three technical meetings in 2023.

The dates and venues are below: -

• 15th June 2023 Coventry Building Society Stadium Coventry. I can confirm the speakers for this event.

• Colin Todd
• Nicholas Coombe
• Warren Spencer
• Dame Judith Hackitt

The above event is restricted to 230 members and guests. Tickets will go on sale towards the end of March 2023. Look out for the advertisements nearer the time.

The event at the CBS Stadium is a joint event with Western media and will be on the same day as the FSM fire safety awards evening at the same venue.

• 4th October 2023 The Tickled Trout Preston.
• We shall be holding numerous workshops during 2023. Look out for further information.

The President and I will continue to represent you on all levels within the industry.

We shall be accepting applications to gain a Fellowship of the Institute from the 1st of March 2023. I hope we have more applicants in 2023 than in 2022. The qualifications and requirements to meet the standard to be a Fellow are on our website.

Just browsing through new member applications, I was totally taken aback by an application from a Chief fire Officer from Kansas City, United States of America.

Our New member from Kansas is: -

Fire Chief Michael Callahan, who is the Chief of the Kansas City Fire Department. He is in his 40th year in the Fire Service and has served in every operational rank and frontline, managerial, and administrative disciplines in his career. Chief Callahan is internationally credentialed as a Designated Chief Fire Officer by the Center for Public Safety Excellence. Chief Callahan came to the Kansas City Fire Department after serving with the Chicago Fire Department.

Kansa City Fire Department consists of 34 Fire Stations, which are organised into seven battalions.

A very warm welcome to Chief Callahan from me and our Directors, Council, and members.

As always, I look forward to meeting many of you during the course of the year.