News Archives
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Council Meeting time for April 12th, 2012 has been changed to 8:30AM.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
2011 End of Year hours are now posted in our system! Certification statuses for individuals have also been
updated accordingly. If there are any problems, please send an email to gfstc@gpstc.org.
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
*COUNCIL MEETING RESCHEDULED*
Date: 02/23/2012
Time: 8:30am
Location: GPSTC LRC (Old library where last meeting was held).
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Firefighter State Recertification Taskbook (Option B) for 2012 has been posted now! You can access
and download it by clicking here.
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Firefighter and Airport State Recertification Taskbooks for 2012 have been posted now! You can access
and download them by clicking here.
Friday, June 24th, 2011
As one of the first steps in debuting online testing to the fire service in Georgia, we have put up 3 practice tests that any firefighter
or fire department can challenge. These practice tests are made using older test banks that are not in use any more. If you would like
to try them out you will need to login to our site and then click the link below. If you are not already logged in then you will
be asked for your login information before proceeding to the test list.
Practice Test List
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Northwest Florida Volunteer Firefighter Weekend - Recruitment and Retention Workshop is coming up September 17th, 2011.
For more details, view the pdf here.
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
After almost 2 years of perseverance, the GFSTC Rules Committee presented to the Georgia Firefighter Standards
and Training Council a draft of the proposed rules for consideration. The continued effort by these dedicated
fire service professionals has produced a fair and balanced document which, by their efforts, received the highest
of praises by Council members during the April 14th, 2011 scheduled meeting. At this point, the Council will begin
meeting to make any final adjustments and modifications prior to proceeding with the promulgation process.
Thank you Rules Committee Members for a job well done!
Friday, March 25th, 2011
Department of Driver Services (DDS) Changes License Labeling/Class for Non-Commercial Vehicle License Types:
For more info and article click here
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
GFSTC Rules Committee Meeting:
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Location: GPSTC Auditorium
Time: 10:00 am
Monday, February 7th, 2011
2010 Hours and Core Competencies are now available in the system. If you view an individual's Personal Report or
the State Certification report for a department, the hours and CCD's displayed are now for 2010 instead of 2009. If
you notice any discrepancies please call our office at 478-993-4521.
Friday, January 14th, 2011
Office Test Calendar now online!
Departments and individuals: You are now able to schedule to come and test/retest at the GFSTC office from your computer! Just log in to your individual or department account and you will see a link to Schedule a Test at the GFSTC Office on the main page after you login.
Just click on the link and a new window or tab will open and load the Office Test Calendar. Find the day you want to schedule a test for and click on the link. If there are no more slots open for that day, then there will be a message that all slots are full. If the day is totally blank, then we will not be testing in the office.
Individuals: Your information will be automatically loaded once you click the link. Please input an email address if one is not loaded because we will send you a confirmation email letting you know when you signed up.
Select what department you are testing with, select what test you would like to take, and then select your timeslot.
Department: Select what individual will be testing from the pull-down roster that loads and click submit
His or her information will be automatically loaded once you click the link. Please input an email address if one is not loaded because we will send you a confirmation email letting you know when you signed up.
The department should already be selected; select what test you are signing up for, and then select the timeslot you would like them to test at.
TIMESLOTS: We are now beginning to test at two different times during the day: one at 8:30am and one at 11:30am. Please be here at this time or notify any individuals that are signed up that they should be here at or before this time. We will begin testing only at the beginning of these timeslots.
You are still welcome to call and schedule a test at our office over the phone if you would prefer to. Our office number is 478-993-4521. We normally test Tuesday-Thursday at 8:30am and 11:30am.
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
Our website will be down temporarily from 5:00pm to 6:00pm today.
Sunday, January 9th, 2011
In conversation with Rules Chair Skip Helfin, and due to the probability of some winter weather
in central and north Georgia Monday and Tuesday, the Rules Committee meeting is rescheduled for:
Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Time: 10:00 am
Location: GPSTC Classroom 219-B
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
GFSTC Rules Committee Meeting:
Date: Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
Location: GPSTC (Bay B)
Time: 10:00 am
New Draft of GFSTC Rules (Draft F)
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
2011 Firefighter and Airport Firefighter taskbooks are now available online! The Option B FF Taskbook (without
black diamonds) should be available Tuesday, December 7th. Just go to our
State Recertification Taskbooks page to download a copy!
Monday, November 29th, 2010
State certificates are now available to be printed online! Individuals and departments can now print individual
state Firefighter, Airport Firefighter, Fire and Life Safety Educator, Inspector, and Investigator certificates.
Just login to your account and pull up your personal report to print any of your state certificates!
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
GFSTC Rules Committee Meeting:
Date: Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Location: GPSTC (Room TBA)
Time: 10:00 am
New Draft of GFSTC Rules
Friday, October 1st, 2010
Pooler Firefighter's Association 1st Annual Golf Tournament on October 11th, 2010!
Friday, September 24th, 2010
GFSTC Rules Committee Meeting:
Date: Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Location: GPSTC (Bay B)
Time: 10:00 am
Friday, September 10th, 2010
GFSTC Rules Committee Meeting:
Date: Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
Location: GPSTC (Room #219-D)
Time: 10:00 am
Friday, June 18th, 2010
GFSTC Rules Committee Meeting:
Date: 7/7/2010
Location: GPSTC (Room #219-C)
Time: 9:00 am
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Fire EMS SHS Week Posting
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
GFSTC Rules Meeting
As was determined during the last Rules meeting, the decision was made to meet at Warner Robins to allow members to attend the joint GSFA/GAFC regional meeting later in the evening.
For a copy of the agenda, click here.
Date: 5/13/2010
Location: Warner Robins FD Station 6 (401 Osigan Blvd, Warner Robins, GA)
Time: 10:00am
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Minutes from the April 2010 Rules Committee meeting have just been posted to our website. You can view a
copy of the rules by clicking the following link:
Rules Meeting Minutes (April 2010)
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
2010 Fire/EMS Safety, Health, and Survival Week
June 20-26, 2010
For more information click here
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
Agenda for Rules Meeting on April 21st, 2010
Friday, April 16th, 2010
GFSTC Rules Committee Meeting:
Date: 4/21/2010
Location: GPSTC Room 106
Time: 10:00 am
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Firefighter Memorial Service
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Georgia Public Safety Training Center
Auditorium
1000 Indian Springs Drive
Forsyth, Georgia
Services commence at 11:00 a.m.
Sponsored by:
Georgia Public Safety Training Center
Georgia State Firefighter’s Association
Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs
Georgia Forestry Commission
Georgia Firefighters Standards and Training
Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Minutes from the March 2010 Rules Committee meeting have just been posted to our website. You can view a
copy of the rules by clicking the following link:
Rules Meeting Minutes (March 2010)
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
GFSTC Rules Committee Meeting:
Date: 03/18/2010
Location: GPSTC Classroom 219-B
Time: 10:00 am
Agenda:
Message from the Executive Director
Professional Standards Officer presentation for individual certification and recognition to include:
- Good Moral Character
- Criteria for exclusion for certification/recognition
- Probation - criteria
- Suspension - criteria
- Decertification - criteria
Committee Discussion
Adjournment
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Minutes from the February 2010 Rules Committee meeting have just been posted to our website. You can view a
copy of the rules by clicking the following link:
Rules Meeting Minutes (February 2010)
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
We have discovered that since Monday, February 22nd, 2010, quite a few individuals in our system have
been incorrectly labeled as "Lapsed". We have corrected the issue on our side, and the website will be updated
with the results after 5pm today. If you notice any inconsistencies with your roster or personal report after
5pm today please email or call our office and let us know.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Individuals and Fire Departments - Reported recertification hours have been uploaded into our main system
and will now be reflected on our website under your personal reports and department rosters. If you see anything
that looks out of the ordinary then please email one of us or give us a call at our office. We are still in the
process of cleaning up our database in to these new hours, so please be patient while we get things in order.
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
During the January 21, 2010 meeting of the Council, an Option B for the Firefighter recertification Core
Competency Task book was approved. Fire Departments now have an optional method for documentation of this
recertification requirement. Changes include the removal of the "black diamonds" and "pass/fail" terminology.
The skills remain the same. For questions or clarification, please contact our office. See news item below
for the new locations of recertification taskbooks.
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
We have recently moved the taskbooks required for State FF and ARFF annual recertification. They used to be on the left side
of the page in the red bar, but now they will be located under either
Forms...Fire Department Related Forms...State Recertification Taskbooks or Forms...State Certification...State
Recertification Taskbooks
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
FF 2010 Core Competency Book updated! Please download the new version of the taskbook. There are a few corrections.
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2009
Due to scheduling conflicts the January meeting for the Rules Committee has be re-scheduled from January 7 to
January 6. The meeting will be at the GPSTC in room 104 at 10:00 am.
Please make note of this date change and we hope to see you on the 6th.
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Fire Chiefs and Training Officers: You are now able to print Pro Board applications for individuals from your
department account. Log in for more details.
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
2010 Firefighter and Airport Firefighter Taskbooks are now up. Just look in the left column on the page under
Quick Links.
Fire Chiefs and Training Officers: If you would like a copy of the cover pages of the Taskbooks in an
editable format, just log on to your department account and you should see the links.
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Fire Chiefs and Training Officers: If anyone was having problems with the test dates on the Test Roster Lookup under
your department account then those problems should be fixed now.
Friday, October 30th, 2009
NOTICE: Our website will be unavailabe for portions of the day on Sunday, November 1st, 2009.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Thanks to Fire Chief Freddy Howell of NSB Kings Bay, we are pleased to provide this editable "Change Your Clock" flyer.
It is available for use by any individual, department, or agency wanting to remind people of the upcoming time change.
It is available by clicking here.
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Chiefs and Training Officers: If you have a departmental account, you can now log in and view Test Results Rosters online. All you have to do
is log in using your departmental account and then click on the 'Test Results Lookup' link. Then pick a test type, test date and click submit.
If any of your firefighters that are on your current roster took that test type on that test date, they will show up on the results page. If
you have any additional requests for this page, just let us know.
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
We have made a few changes to our Forms menu in the Quick Links section. You will notice that there are now four (4) main sections after you click on the Forms link.
At the top, we have Fire Department Related Forms, which includes Fire Deparment and Agency Information Update forms, Change of Status forms (for use with registering new firefighters into our database or adding/removing firefighters from your roster if you do not have an online department account with us), Fire Department Compliance forms, etc.
We have a link to our State Certification section of forms, which includes Compliance Packages for FF, ARFF, INV, ISP, and FSE. Also included in this section are Lateral Transfer/Short forms, which are primarily used to transfer State Certifications when a firefighter transfers from one department to another.
We have a new Forms section called Test Related Forms. This is where all of our Test Prerequisite forms are now located. We now have equipment lists, exam prep guides, score forms, additional skill sheets, and additional taskbooks for various test levels in this new section!
The fourth section is for the GFSTC approved Physical Agility Test forms.
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
A couple of new things are happening here at GFSTC as far as distribution of grades are concerned.
The most exciting news is that we will be emailing test grades to individuals within one (1) business
day of being downloaded into our system! However, you must register your email address with us to receive
your test grades.
To register an email address with us, you must:
1) Contact your department(Chief/Training Officer) and find out your GFSTC ID if you don't already know it.
2) Go to http://www.gfstconline.org and click the login link near the top left of the page.
3) Your GFSTC ID will be your username. Your initial password will be the last four (4) digits of
your SSN, unless you have logged in before and already changed your password. If this is your first
login attempt, you will be required to change your password.
4) Once logged in, click on the 'View/Update Your Information' link near the middle of the screen and
input the email address that you would like your scores emailed to after they are downloaded into our system.
Also, walk-ons to test events will now have the option of selecting their department/agency and name off
of a drop-down menu. All walk-ons will receive an email confirming your sign up for the event. If you use
the drop-down menus for department/agency and name, then you will receive your GFSTC ID which you can use
to check your test results once they are downloaded into our system.
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Following research, GFSTC has decided not to display numeric test scores. GFSTC exams are "high stakes" examinations,
designed specifically to identify minimum competency. In this sense, they are fundamentally different from other
tests you may have taken, such as the SAT or GRE, which are designed to rank candidates along a continuum.
Certification examinations are about scoring relative to a defined standard, not about scoring well relative
to other candidates. Upon completion of a test, candidates will now receive a “Pass” or “Fail” instead of a
numeric score. Test feedback showing areas of candidate proficiency will be distributed as customary and upon
request.
Monday, March 9th, 2009
An Online Change of Status form is finally available! Just log in to your department account and click on the
"Change of Status Menu" link. From here you can input a new COS form, or you can view any previous online COS
forms that have been submitted by your department. If you have individuals that are new to the fire service
and are not currently in our system, then you still must fill out a paper COS form for them. If you do not
have a department account yet, you can start by downloading and printing the
Website Registration Form. It must be signed by an authorized
individual (such as Chief or T.O.) at your department. Enjoy, and if you have any questions, please call Chad
Griffith at 478-993-4666 or email him: cgriffith at gpstc.state.ga.us (substitute the @ symbol for at).
Thursday, February 4th, 2009
2008 Training Hours and Core Competency dates are now in our system and live online! Individuals and departments,
when you login you will now see 2008 information instead of 2007 information. We have not entered anyone's hours
who did not meet the January 31st deadline yet; we plan on beginning to enter them in next week. Thanks go out to
all departments who have used our new online system to input their training hours and core competency dates!
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2009
165th Airlift Wing Fire Department has 2 openings for Airport Firefighters. For more details, click
here.
Friday, January 30th, 2009
2008 End of Year Reports are due by 5pm on Monday, February 2nd, 2009. At 5pm on Monday, the
2008 End of Year Report link under departmental accounts will disappear. If you have not completed your End of Year
report by this time, you will need to submit a letter to GFSTC stating the reason why and asking for an extension.
Thanks to all who have submitted their reports so far this year! Click here to login to
your department account and finish your report.
Monday, January 26th, 2009
We have totalled and finalized the numbers from the "Your Opinion Counts" Site Visit survey! We ended up receiving responses
from 69 total individuals. We've given the results as percentages, and where an individual did not give an answer to a
question there is an "N/A" percentage group. Click here to see the results of the
survey.
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
On January 14th, 2009, the Honorable Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, Casey Cagle, appointed Captain James "Skip"
Heflin as a member of the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council. Captain Heflin will be replacing
Chief Craig Tulley. You may view the changes at our other website:
gfstc.georgia.gov. Click on 'Contact Information' and then 'Georgia
Firefighter Standards and Training Council'.
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
Our 2009 Firefighter Core Compentency Taskbooks are now available! The staff of GFSTC has been directed by
the Council to cease conducting core competency reviews during
departmental site visits. This directive, however, does not relieve State Certified individuals from the responsibility and requirement of performing core compentencies as a condition of annual recertification. Click here for the 2009 FF Core Compentency Taskbook! (You can
right-click the link and choose 'Save As..' to save the Taskbook to your computer/disk.)
Friday, November 7th, 2008
NEW SITE SURVEY HERE
We would like your opinion on GFSTC conducting department Site Visits. Please read the overview on this survey,
familiarize yourself with our specific Site Visit procedures, and then complete our survey. Thank you in advance
for your input! (You must login and click on the "Take Site Visit Survey" link to begin.)
Login Here!
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
Council-approved Firefighter II Program is now here on our website. It is separated into
14 sections for your downloading ease.
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
Safety, Leadership and Training presents the Gwinnett
County Leadership and Safety Conference in Norcross, Georgia on January
23-25, 2009. Click here for registration details and more information.
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
2007 Hours posted on the website
We have just finished posting the reported 2007 hours to the website. Any fire departments that have not reported
training hours and core competency dates for their State Certified firefighters are urged to get in touch with us
by phone (478-993-4525) or by email (gfstc@gpstc.state.ga.us). Also, if you notice any discrepencies regarding
2007 hours please notify us. Training hours and core competency dates for 2006 should be available
again soon as well.
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
GFSTC launches Test Event Calendar
After a few months of diligent work within our agency, we are proud to announce that our GFSTC Test Event Calendar is now available for use by GFSTC evaluators.
GFSTC evaluators that work through this agency will now be able to visit our site and browse though our online Test Event Calendar to find test events and sign up for test events.
Individuals desiring to challenge exams are now able to browse the Calendar to view scheduled test events as well as registering as a “walk-on” candidate.
A FEW NOTES ABOUT THE CALENDAR:
To change the view from daily to weekly to monthly, just click the tabs near the top of the page labeled “Day”, “Week”, and “Month”.
To view an event in more detail just click on the title of the event. When you view more details about an event you will also see the links that you can click to sign up as an evaluator or as a walk-on!
PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SIGN UP AS AN EVALUATOR IF YOU ARE NOT REGISTERED AS AN EVALUATOR WITH US.
Click here to access the calendar:
Test Event Calendar
Wednesday, March 7th, 2007
GFSTC launches Course Credit Lookup
At the request of many individuals and fire departments in Georgia, we now have developed a part of our website which
allows you to access GFSTC accepted courses for state recertification. You must be logged in to access this part of
the website and you must also accept the End User Agreement that is displayed before you access the Lookup system. After
you login to the Certification Lookup, just click the Search link under Course Credit Lookup on the left-hand list.
Login to access Course Credit Lookup.
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
GFSTC launches the Firefighter Certification Lookup
Formerly known as the GFSTC Data Access, the Firefighter Certification Lookup enables individuals to access their certification, testing, and employment history. You can also view and edit personal information, such as address, phone and email.
Fire Chiefs can view certification and test history for all individuals listed on their department, as well as station listings for their department.
Login to the Firefighter Certification Lookup.
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