Texas Fire Chiefs Association
Best Practices Recognition Program
Achieve Excellence with policyBUILDERS
Elevate Your Department’s Standards with the TFCA Best Practices Recognition Program
The Texas Fire Chiefs Association Best Practices Recognition Program is a groundbreaking initiative designed by fire service professionals across Texas. Since 2013, only 19 departments have earned this prestigious designation, a testament to the program’s rigor and commitment to excellence in emergency service delivery.
Why Pursue the TFCA Best Practices Designation?
- Enhanced Professionalism: Demonstrate that your department is setting higher standards in operations.
- Community Confidence: Strengthen trust among residents and businesses through proven professionalism.
- Improved Safety: Boost the safety of both firefighters and community members.
- Long-term Planning: Establish effective operating guidelines, risk management, and strategic planning for a modern fire service.
How policyBUILDERS Can Help
Preparing for the TFCA evaluation process can be demanding. That’s where policyBUILDERS comes in. Our service is tailored to help fire departments seamlessly meet the program’s comprehensive requirements:
- Expert Analysis: Our subject matter experts evaluate your current policies and procedures against the 117 best practices.
- Policy Optimization: We recommend necessary changes and enhancements to ensure your department is fully compliant.
- Digital Organization: We assist in capturing, formalizing, and digitally organizing all proofs of compliance.
- Blueprint for Success: Even if your department already meets many standards, we provide a clear, effective blueprint to document policies and procedures that might otherwise be overlooked.
Ready to position your department as a leader in the Texas fire service? Let policyBUILDERS streamline your journey to TFCA recognition.
We’re proud to be working with these Texas Fire
Departments and Emergency First Responders
Why policyBUILDERS?
Greg Pica created StationSmarts from the ground up to meet the specific information management needs of the fire industry. In his role as Product Developer, Greg enlists the latest database technologies and hardware expertise along with targeted feedback from fire industry professionals to continually enhance StationSmarts’ all-in-one records management system. Customer feedback is critical to this process. Greg believes ongoing relationships with fire chiefs are what fuel the functionality of the software. His goal is to provide fire personnel with access to mobile tools that can be used anywhere and anytime, back at the fire station or at a live event.
The ultimate utility player: a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. That’s our John. Throw a ball in the air and John will catch it and do so with aplomb. John works many business projects for us from marketing research, data base development to building elaborate data dashboards for dozens of fire departments.
Heather Vaughn has worked in an administrative, project management and customer service capacity for most of her career. Prior to joining StationSmarts, she worked with the Concord and Carlisle Fire Departments, where she gained a first-hand understanding of the fire service’s information management needs. Programming is in her DNA, so she was already thinking about ways to make the records management systems at her departments more streamlined when she was introduced to StationSmarts. She immediately understood the impact it would have on managing fire department operations.
When Judy takes charge of a project, it is evident from the outset that her expertise, coupled with her experience, will transform your manual. She’ll streamline the process to produce a completed, published document. Judy seamlessly moves from Zoom meeting to Zoom meeting each and every day, keeping track of each department’s progress, addressing questions, offering guidance, reviewing tasks and providing Chiefs with encouragement. Department manuals that have been years in the making are, for the first time, truly coming together.
Dave Rocco isn’t surprised to hear StationSmarts customers say, “This is the exact program I have been looking for!” Before their product launched, he and business partner, Greg Pica worked closely with a small group of Massachusetts fire chiefs, collecting their wishlist for an effective, easy-to-access records management system. Today, the StationSmarts team continues to consult with fire personnel to perfect the design and functionality of the software. Dave plays a critical role in that effort, establishing strong relationships with area departments and meeting in person with chiefs and staff members to demonstrate StationSmarts, train new users and answer questions.