CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Marshalltown Fire Chief David Rierson is sworn in as President of the Missouri Valley Division at the International Association of Fire Chiefs Conference in September.

Marshalltown Fire Chief David Rierson is already a leader in the community.

As of September, he also became the leader for a whole region of fire chiefs when he was sworn in as the President of the Missouri Valley District of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. He previously served as second vice president and vice president before being elevated to his current role, and he will serve as president for one year.

“It’s exciting,” Rierson said. “I seem to be learning new things every day as I do research on topics and how we can do things better.”

The IAFC is an international organization that provides education and guidance in the field of firefighting, and the group also lobbies Congress for legislation relating to fire services. The Missouri Valley Division encompasses eight states: Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming and Colorado.

Rierson has been a member of the association since 2007. He began serving on the Missouri Valley board about three years ago after finishing his term as President of the Iowa Association of Professional Fire Chiefs.

His responsibilities include leading monthly meetings, developing policies, discussing educational opportunities and attending conferences in each of the eight states in his division as a representative of the association.

During his first few months as division president, Rierson has already been hard at work. One of his first tasks was sending a survey to all of the association’s members to see how it could better serve its members.

“I wanted to find out if we were giving the members of the organization what they thought they should have for their membership dollars,” he said. “After we got our responses, the board started changing things.”

Changes have included overhauling the association’s website, creating a quarterly newsletter and providing more training opportunities for smaller fire departments.

“That’s the advantage to coming up through the chairs,” Rierson said. “You get an opportunity to participate a little bit. Then when you get to be the president, you have a good idea of what’s going on.”

Even though Rierson’s division includes eight different states, many of the issues pertinent to the Marshalltown Fire Department (MFD) are the same ones impacting departments from Missouri to Colorado.

“It’s just varying degrees,” Rierson said.

Staffing, funding, firefighter health and wellness are among the biggest issues departments are facing across the region. On the national level, fire chiefs are trying to find solutions to wildland fires which persist year after year, primarily on the West Coast.

When it comes to providing leadership to fire services of all types throughout his division, Rierson has found it better to remain general in direction and allow for ideas from a variety of perspectives.

“What might be right for somebody in Iowa may not be right for somebody in Colorado,” he said. “It’s also maybe daunting at times because you’ve got a lot on your plate, and there are a lot of people counting on you to get it right. I rely a lot on the presidents of the states’ organizations. I’m just always reaching out to know what’s going on.”

FOR MORE INFO:

To learn more about the International Association of Fire Chiefs visit www.iafc.org and to keep up on the Missouri Valley Division visit mvdiafc.org.