During 2010, the Fayetteville Fire/Emergency Management Department continued its quest for excellence as an organization. Although not as great as in other fire departments and communities, the Fayetteville Fire/Emergency Department faced a challenging economic climate and in other ways a changing environment throughout the year. In spite of the challenges, the department was able to realize several important goals as it continued its work towards accreditation during the year. Successfully meeting these goals will help us, as a department, to continue to excel towards our vision of a leader in the state and region.

Among our successes were the revision of the department’s mission statement and the first formal adoption of a strategic plan and standard of coverage. The revised mission statement takes into account the values of the department as a whole as well as those of the community we serve. The mission statement helped to clarify the organization’s purpose and served as a primary building block for the development of the strategic plan. The strategic plan, which was approved and is supported by the City council, has helped to more clearly define the department’s purpose and establish goals and objectives, which are consistent to our mission. Using the strategic plan as our guiding light will help establish a focus that will lead to improved efficiency and effectiveness throughout the department.

Development of our Standard of Coverage document added to our success as a department in 2010. Although the development of the document is a part of the accreditation process, the real value behind the creation of the document is that it enables us to more effectively manage required staffing and other resources to accomplish our mission. Periodic review of data along with last year’s implementation of benchmarking activities within the department will continue to help us to establish realistic expectations as we evaluate our efforts. The data and results will be beneficial to our planning processes as our city continues to grow and our community’s landscape continues to evolve.

Finally, we must acknowledge the advances towards technological improvements that were made during the year. From a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system to the planning and coordination of installation of mobile computer terminals (MDT’s) to be installed in response apparatus and vehicles, great strides have been taken to take advantage of technology to increase the effectiveness of our delivery of emergency services. Additional anticipated technological improvements will help improve our responsiveness to our community.