Greetings to all fellow NSFA members,

First let me start by saying it has been an honor and a privilege to serve you as a Board of Director for the past 6 years and looking forward to putting my best foot forward as your 2015 – 2016 NSFA President. As most of you are aware, I come from a long line of Lovelock members that has served on the NSFA Board of Directors. One of the original Lovelock Volunteer Firefighters and one of the NSFA’s original Board of Directors was Chief Carl Olfer, which is where we get our namesake OLFERS ENGINE COMPANY, and even till this day our main firehouse still sits on the same property and function out of Carl’s very own repair shop which he donated to the City of Lovelock for our members to continue our services to Pershing County.

These past 6 year have been a tiring and rewarding adventure, from brain storming thoughts and ideas to seeing our very own Executive Director Mike Heidemann represent us successfully at not only at the State but National level as well. Current Past President and 2 term Board of Director Steve McClintock currently sits on the NVFC Main Board of Directors and is doing a phenomenal job voicing his opinions and showing his leadership for our State. Thank you gentleman for the guidance, education and mentoring you both have given me these past years, including you great individuals that currently serve and have severed as a Board Members.

We have several projects we are working on that would provide you with a friendlier website that gives you the ability to becoming a NSFA member or simply renewing your membership with automated renewal services to help you to continue to be a part of our association. Including a simpler way for you to register for our annual training conference, which would give you the opportunity to specify what courses or classes you would be participating in to help our Keynote Speakers and Instructors provide a more structured training towards class size and level of experience. And of course, if you are one of individuals that chooses to download, print and send through the mail, all forms will still be available online.

We have be working hard as a Board and doing our due diligence working with various fundraising groups to not only to help build up our coffers for a “rainy day” but to give you and your family a rewarding, secured and enjoyable experience being a part of the NSFA. If you were in Virginia City for Conference in June you heard a little about this at the General Meeting on Saturday morning. We are currently in the final stages of necessary formalities and we’ll announce those opportunities as they are completed. This will not hinder us one bit to continue to oversee the function, guidance and rewarding experiences that we provide for many, many years.

So to all Firefighters out there in our great State, I ask and pray that each of you stay safe and healthy for our constituents and visitors to Nevada in any emergency response. And I will see you at the 81st NSFA Conference in the most patriotic town of Hawthorne, Nevada.

Till next time…

Marco Ortega
NSFA President and Member of the Lovelock Volunteer Fire Department