Foxboro, Massachusetts, 1991
3rd meeting and a “Beginning”

January 1991 was a wicked month that year, raw and cold with an unremitting crusty snow lingering on the ground. It had also been an unexpectedly abnormal winter with a rare winter hurricane (Hurricane Bob) that had stubbornly refused to die out in the Atlantic. The storm, with winds punching nearly ninety miles an hour still moved up the eastern seaboard, pelting coastal areas with high winds and surface waves that eroded beaches in it’s path. It struck the outer reaches of Long Island, New York and pelted the Cape Cod shoreline, blowing out windows in the Wellfleet Fire Tower out on the cape. Dave Quam, visiting a friend there, helped replace some broken windows at the tower before heading for the third meeting of the Lookout group at Foxboro’s District Four compound.

Bob Wolff and I braved the traffic on Route 95, taking the coastal route up from New Jersey and following Henry’s directions, located the meeting spot without any difficulty. I caught a “radio message” from Dave Quam as he was approaching Foxboro and Bob and I went out to “guide him in”. We located Dave at the rotary (as they call traffic circles in Massachusetts), merrily going around and round trying to find his way out of the stream of cars and trucks!

At Foxboro there were reported to be twenty-seven states actively networked with and thirteen state representatives. There were also strong indications from Canada and Australia for possible new representatives there.

One of the first orders of business was the adoption of our official name. The Forest Fire Lookout Association was born at Foxboro. The use of the terminology “Director” was to supersede the previous “Representative” title. A permanent register was presented, and one of the first “reports” given on our Lookout Network newsletter by editors Joe Higgins and Cindy Livesey. Progress on the non-profit application was reported on, as was the adoption of a plan to decide on a national logo. Several designs were gone over but none were approved as yet, this was tabled for future meetings. “Conference” was decided on to be used to describe our meetings. State reports were given by the seven attending directors present and a report also was given by Keith Argow on the progress of the National Historic Lookout Register which was now recognized as a full partner with the FFLA.

One of the most significant pieces of business was electing Steve Cummings of Pennsylvania to another full two-year term of office as Chairman. Finally there were by-laws discussions and enactments, the Constitution reading was agreed upon and the set of SOP’s was officially adopted. Awards were given out and an auction took place and door prize events were carried out. Dinner was a special event for all those attending. The networking was again in “high gear” with maps of the where-abouts of lookout locations and there was sharing of fire tower photographs and memorabilia. Some even had gone on a midnight hike to the Sharon Fire Tower.

The cold permeated the quarters where our conference was held, the combination of January, a damp cold front that followed on the heels of the departing hurricane, a concrete floor in the building and a cranky furnace that refused to work all combined to give several of us very bad colds, mine stuck with me afterwards for three weeks and was near pneumonia.

But despite all of this, Foxboro was a dynamic and vital Association meeting (aka Conference). A lot of very important legislative work was done and even though now as we look back at it with some disdain over how much time was spent developing Bylaws, we realized then as we still do today that it was necessary to have been done. It set the foundation for what has developed into the FFLA today.

Bob and I visited with others several area fire towers operated by Massachusetts Fire Control, before departing south for New Jersey, and the hoped for recuperative powers of chicken soup and rest…… ……….to be continued……….

Bob Spear, National Historian

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