Hello and Happy New Year from the Emery family.
As your President, I would like to start off by wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New
Year for 2025. May this year be all you want it to be. It hardly seems possible that we should
already be dating everything in 2025, but I guess the reality is that time just keeps moving
along no matter what we have going on in our individual lives.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve as the 42nd President of this Association. I
am a 2nd generation volunteer fire fighter and have been an IVFA member for close to 30
years. I want to thank my wife Jenny for supporting me in this venture.
Our Association is blessed to have so many talented professionals as members and
although very few of us ever act with the desire to be singled out and awarded for what we
do please review the different IVFA and IVFAA awards on the website and make a
nomination before the February 1 deadline. All the information on the various awards and
criteria is available on the website.
While you are reviewing those, you might also look at the available Bridgeport scholarship
information and even if you do not need that educational financial assistance reach out to
your fellow department members or a graduating high school student meeting the
requirements and encourage them to apply. The Association gives out Four $1500 dollars
scholarships annually at our State Convention in June. The deadline for submitting the
Bridgeport application is March 1.
In 2019, the IVFA Board of Directors commissioned a study to determine the economic
value that the Indiana volunteer fire service generated for Indiana taxpayers. While we all
knew that value was significant, I do not think that many realized just how significant it was.
At the time of the study, the Indiana volunteer fire service saved Indiana taxpayers 4.5
million dollars annually. We have shared this information with our members, local elected
officials, and state legislators over the last 2 to 3 years and will continue to make our
elected officials aware of these savings. We are currently in the process of updating the
study, we hope to have this complete in the next few months.
We as an association recently launched our phone App for smartphones to use as another
way to reach our membership. We as an association struggle to get information to our
membership in a timely manner. We hope this app will be an additional way to get
information out. If you haven’t downloaded it, you can find information on it on our website
and our Facebook page.
Speaking of communicating, if your department would like to communicate with us via email, please give your district chairman a valid e-mail address that you or your department
check regularly.
This year we will be honoring 108 of our members for Fifty (50) years of service. All
honorees will be sent a letter in the coming weeks inviting them and their families to the
Indiana Statehouse for a special recognition event. Once the date is confirmed and
finalized the letters will be sent to the members. Convention 2025 will be in Madison at the
Clifty Falls State Park. The dates are June 18, 18, 20th. If you need additional information, it
can be found on our website.
Mother Nature came in 2025 with a bang, the first couple of weeks it seems the southern
part of the state has taken the brunt of the he punches. I want to thank all the departments
and members who have put in a lot of time into serving their communities and keeping
them safe.
In closing, let us all strive to do what we can to make 2025 the best year yet, grow our
membership, and above all keep each other and those we serve safe! If any officer or I can
be of assistance please reach out, our contact information can be found on the IVFA
website or in the IVFA newspaper, we are here to serve you-the members.
Thank you for doing what you do every day for your department and community and the
State of Indiana. Serve Proudly. Be Safe. I hope to see you at a future IVFA event or a
department function.
Ross