Welcome
Dear SFPE Europe members,
It is a great honour to take over the role as SFPE Europe Council Chair from Kees. A special thanks to Kees for his great leadership over the last two years. It will be a tough act to follow!
As you know SFPE celebrated 50 Years of Engineering A Fire Safe World this year. Maya Angelou once said: "I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going." I believe it is worth looking back to understand what it took to get us where we are now in Europe. In 1948 NFPA President John L. Wilds appointed a special committee "to consider the professional status of fire protection engineering ...". Professor Ahern was appointed chairman of this special committee. After considerable work on the part of the committee and NFPA staff, in July 1950, the NFPA Board voted to implement the concepts presented by Prof. Ahern. The provisional organization was completed in October 1950 with John J. Ahern elected president and the first SFPE Annual Meeting was held in May 1951 in Michigan. After another 20 years, the Society of Fire Protection Engineers was incorporated as an independent professional society on February 10, 1971.
The first European Chapter was established by the SFPE in Italy in March 1993. As the number of chapters grew the chapter leaders expressed the desire for a more formal structure and the European Chapters Coordination Group (ECCG) was established in 2013 with "the purpose of fostering inter-chapter exchange of information and sharing of activities among the SFPE chapters throughout Europe." To my amazement, even at that time there was no Swiss chapter, the statement was signed on 8th October 2013 in Basel. SFPE Europe continues to grow with currently 15 chapters and 4 student chapters. Due to the growth in numbers of chapters and members, the regular meetings amongst the chapter leaders and the establishment of SFPE Europe conferences (this year will be the 4th SFPE Europe conference) there was the desire to introduce a formal SFPE entity in Europe. Just as Prof. Ahern set the tone at the first Annual Meeting, this still holds with SFPE Europe: "This society, with your active participation and help well be a real asset to the fire protection field and will focus attention on the vital part which the fire protection engineer plays in our national life."
With this in mind the most important part for SFPE Europe starts now – through our active participation and exchange we get it working to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves! The first SFPE Europe board meeting will take place in March, which will be followed by the first General Assembly meeting sometime before the summer. I look forward to working together with you to further SFPE in Europe and hope that this venture will be as successful as that of our forefathers in the US!
Reflecting on last year it is also incredible how much has changed within the space of one year. Whereas previously I had hardly used videoconferencing, in the last three months I have probably spent 70% of my working hours in online meetings. So, with the first daffodils appearing I really hope this summer may bring us back the possibilities to meet and travel again! I really miss the in-person conferences and networking that goes with it.
David Grossmann SFPE Europe Council Chair 2021