In-Person Trainings
The VFCA offers many in-person training courses throughout the year. These are to engage members on a variety of topics to help give them actionable takeaways that will help them continue to develop and grow as fire service leaders.
Virginia Chief Officer Academy (VCOA)
The Virginia Chief Officer Academy is a week-long residential leadership course designed to prepare the newly appointed or prospective chief officer for various aspects of leadership challenges they may face. The program includes lectures from fire service leaders from across the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VCOA staff and instructors will guide students on a leadership journey starting with personal leadership all the way to executive level leadership.
Virginia Fire Officer Academy (VFOA)
The Virginia Fire Officer Academy is a week-long residential program designed to develop current or aspiring company officers. The theme of the VFOA is “Safety Through Leadership” and is based on the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives. The program is focused on improving leadership techniques, personal accountability, and fostering the cultural change required to improve firefighter safety.
Chiefs Summit
The Chiefs Summit was established in 2015 and is the only statewide event solely designed for Chiefs and/or Deputy Chiefs! Agenda topics vary from year to year but usually focus on hot topics in Fire and EMS. The event is normally held in May and is hosted in the Richmond area. This is a unique event and a great opportunity to spend time with other fire chiefs and network both in the classroom and during social time together. This is a no-pressure, high-value summit with your peers from across the Commonwealth.
VFCA Company Officers Summit
The VFCA Company Officers Section hosts a two day summit each November that focuses on career development of company officers. There are many topics covered from human resources, relationship building, career planning, critical decision making, mentoring and many more. Each presenter must align their presentation with our core values and mission.
We try to keep it fresh with topics and follow current industry trends or needs. We are always open to suggestions and look forward to the next summit. The next summit will be advertised on the VFCA Company Officers Section’s Facebook page and a link will be posted here when registration opens.
VFCA Life Safety/CRR Section’s Sound the Alarm Summit
Sound the Alarm is the Commonwealth of Virginia’s premier Summit for life safety professionals, who strive to save lives across Virginia. The Summit provides opportunities to learn and network with professionals from varying disciplines within the fire service and Community Risk Reduction minded professionals. Join us if your mission is to save lives in your respective community.
VFCA Federal Military Summit
The VFCA Federal Military Section proudly hosted its first summit in 2022, introducing another professional development opportunity to Virginia’s federal fire service. The summit provided an exceptional conduit for training and networking among fire service peers.
As the section continues to see growth, we intend to support a summit annually in the fall. Registration will be open to all fire service professionals of any rank, position or department who seek to participate with a focus on federal/military organizations.
Summit location and instructors will change to ensure variety. We invite you to attend and participate in valuable classroom training capturing topics in leadership, administration, behavioral health, new technologies, current challenges, and many others while sharing ideas and best practices with peers. The summit will be advertised in section membership emails, VFCA social media and a link will be posted here when registration opens. Hope to see you there!
VFCA Administrative Professionals Retreat
The VFCA Administrative Professionals Section (APS) hosts an annual two-day retreat; different jurisdictions throughout the Commonwealth host each year in hopes of attracting new professionals from the host’s region. Topics range from personal and work-related behavioral health, active shooter response for administrative professionals, understanding operations, to tips and tricks for Microsoft Office, social media, and public interaction(s). While we hope that each attendee leaves the retreat with a bit of knowledge or tools that may help in their professional experience, the ultimate goal is networking with our peers.
The APS has become an irrefutable tool for daily work life. If there is research to be done, or questions about a system or process members just have to reach out to the group and there are helpful responses. Members know that we can rely on each other not just during training, meetings, or conference but in our daily routines, as well.
