WE CAN-AND MUST-DO BETTER!

OUR ASSOCIATION IS DOING FINE, BUT THE LOOKOUTS WE ARE TRYING TO SUPPORT NEED OUR HELP MORE THAN EVER!

Most of the time in my Chairman's Column I make like an ever-upbeat cheerleader. Not a big deal because most of the time I have a very positive outlook. That's not always easy for someone who has spent nearly 30 years working closely with Congress!

As chair and CEO of the FFLA, my job is more than a cheerleader. It is my role to honestly share with all of you the state of the Association as I see it from here.

By most measures, the FFLA is doing very well we can be proud of our accomplishments. Unfortunately, the lookouts we are trying to support need our help more than ever. I don't like what I read, what I am hearing, and what I am seeing. We have got to pick up the pace!

Why the sudden crisis? The biggest reason is that many state and federal agencies with lookouts, especially the U.S. Forest Service, have had to postpone basic maintenance so long the lookouts have begun to decay. In fact, some would be condemned if the agencies had the manpower to inspect them. We can thank tight budgets for that, but the trend is definitely running against the future of many fire lookouts.

Yes, the FFLA has launched a number of programs to meet this impending emergency but my real concern is that we are still not doing enough.

Here's the good and the not-so-good news:

* We have developed an excellent membership brochure that has been distributed widely throughout the U.S. Initially we had very good response, but now the membership has leveled off at about 850.

* We raised our dues from $10 to $15, primarily so we could increase our services, including our important Restoration Grants program, improve our web site, and fund the membership brochure. Fortunately, the $5 increase in FFLA dues was offset by a $7 reduction in the subscription rate for NATIONAL WOODLANDS Magazine with the quarterly reports of the National Historic Lookout Register, so our Plus members (about 1/3 of us) actually had a dues reduction. We are financially sound.

* We upgraded the Lookout Network Newsletter dramatically by changing it to a magazine format with greater reader appeal. Our goal was to make the four color magazine alone more than worth the $15 "subscription rate." I think the results speak for themselves. Gary Weber produces a first-rate publication.

* We have constantly, and consistently, upgraded our website: www.ffla.org. Take a moment to bring it up. It is amazing the information that our Webmaster, Bill Cobb is able to post, with the participation of our Directors and members. Our Internet Answerman and eastern co-chair, Henry Isenberg, is responding to more requests than ever. Dave Bula, our western co-chair is assisting lookout inventories in nearly all western states.

* In order to focus attention and resources of individual lookouts, or small groups of lookouts, we have created a new Chapter structure. This encourages

1) local leadership and local publicity for a project that people can identify with.

2) It gives people a way to connect with FFLA and get involved.

3) It is a clear way to appropriately confirm our federal tax deductible to assure that it is used wisely (if not we could and should lose it).

4) Chapters help share the leadership burden of our National Directors. Yet, only five of our Directors have established Chapters. The two year trial of this effort will come to an end in January, 2007 unless the Board extends it.

The bottom line: we are still not clicking on all four cylinders! We have more requests than we can every hope to respond to, and sometimes we just don't respond-which always hurts. One of the National Historic Lookout Register websites, www.lookouts.us, has a Lookout Inspection Report form that can be completed by any citizen who happens to visit the site and cares enough to describe what they saw. More and more of these reports are now coming in. They are promptly sent to the appropriate Director for action, but if it that person does not respond, the report falls on deaf ears.

OK, so what can each of us do?

Here is a three-point program for the remainder of 2006:
* Follow up on every Lookout Inspection Report.
* Five more Directors create Chapters and put those benefits to work
* Add 150 members to bring us to 1,000 by January 1, 2007.

As individual members, every one of you can quickly get involved in any one of those three steps. The quickest way is to phone or email the Director in your area. If you can't reach them, contact me at the address below and I'll be more than happy to follow up for you. Don't be shy, I mean it.

Please, don't put this off. We need you! More important: the lookouts themselves need you!

Keith A. Argow
Chairman of the Board
argow@cs.net

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