NFA Strategy and Tactics for Initial Company Operations

   The Region Four Training Council (Pierce, King & Snohomish Counties) is offering a class entitled NFA Strategy and Tactics for Initial Company Operations, January 21-22, 2006, from 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. The class will take place at the Snohomish Fire Department. Click here for more information.

WFCA/WSAFC Legislative Day--2006

   The WFCA/WSAFC Legislative Workshop & Luncheon will take place on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 in Olympia.
   This year the event will take place at the Capitol Campus, in the Legislative (dome) Building (Columbia Room). For more information and registration form, click here. For a map of the capitol campus area, click here. 

EMT Class

   An EMT Class will be held 2/1/06 - 5/1/06 at Station 17-3 in Roy. For more information, click here.

Region 5 Workshop

   WFCA Region 5 (Island, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish & Whatcom Counties) will present a one-day workshop entitled Governance vs. Management...The Role of the Fire Commissioners and the Fire Chief on Saturday, February 11, 2006.
   This workshop will take place at The Skagit--Skagit Valley Casino Resort, which is located off Exit 236 from Interstate 5). The class will begin at 9 a.m. and is expected to conclude at approximately 3:30 p.m. Click here for workshop and registration information.

Mapping Washington Communities: An Introduction to GIS and Community Demographic Analysis Workshop - One Day Workshop

   This fast paced, hands-on workshop teaches the fundamentals of how to use a Geographic Information System (GIS) in a way that is particularly relevant to social service providers, planners and researchers. Participants learn to make thematic maps of their community, geocode addresses and perform spatial queries and analysis. Participants also learn to extract and map Census variables such as race, poverty, language, education, health and many other demographic variables. Exercises are designed for beginners. Intermediate Excel skills required. Each students is assigned a computer on which to work for the day.

When: March 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2006 (8:30 am - 4:30 pm). Note: This is a one day workshop. Please choose which date is most convenient for you.

Where: New Horizons Computer Learning Center, 12822 S.E. 32nd Street, Suite 200, Bellevue, WA 98005. Limited seating, please register early.

Fee: $399--Checks, Credit Cards and Purchase Orders Accepted. 

   To register online or for more info visit https://www.urban-research.info/ur/workshops/workshops-gis.shtml or telephone us at 1.877.241.6576. 
   Workshop materials include a comprehensive workbook (75 pages), which includes the presentation, exercises and reference worksheets, ArcGIS (ArcView 9.1) software 60-day trial CD set, a subscription to the Planners' ToolBox subscription service which provides access to new 2004 Tiger/Line geography files (already converted to shapefiles) such as streets, zip codes, school districts, voting districts, census tracts and many other useful geographies. The subscription also includes the Analyzing Your Community Workshop: Using the Census to Better Analyze Changing Places and People online web workshop. 

Workshop Agenda

Lesson 1
Learn the basic functions of ArcGIS 9.1
Adding data and geography layers
Working with Layouts

Lesson 2
Introduction to Census Bureau's American Factfinder
Downloading Census and American Community Survey data to map
Downloading free geography files including tracts, zip codes, blocks and several others
Preparing Census tract data in Excel to import into ArcGIS

Lesson 3
Creating thematic (color shaded) maps to display data
Joining data with geography files
Working with legends and interval breaks

Lesson 4
Address mapping (geocoding)
Downloading free business addresses

Lesson 5
Performing location queries
Performing attribute queries
Creating target area shapefiles

Lesson 6
Elements of good maps including colors, fonts and map must haves
Critique of several maps 

Praise for the Introduction to GIS & Community Analysis Workshop

King County, Dept. of Transportation- Seattle (2005): "The workshop was great. The instructor did a wonderful job keeping the class together and flowing. Enjoyable class, thanks!"

Santa Clara Family Health Plan - San Francisco (2005): "Really excellent and informative. A great introduction but at the same time gave me real tools to apply right away." 

Oregon Dept. of Transportation - Portland (2005): "A VERY helpful workshop; good use of our time; good pace."

Oregon Dept. of Human Services - Portland (2005): "This workshop was excellent. I particularly like the exercises and take home materials."

   New Urban Research, Inc. is a social research company located in Portland, Oregon. For more information about the workshop, who we are and what we do, check out our website at www.urban-research.info. New Urban Research, Inc. 3323 NE 33rd Ave Portland, Oregon 97212 -- 877.241.6576 -- info@urban-research.info.

WFCA 2006 Saturday Seminar Series

   The WFCA Education Committee met November 19th to plan the course outline for the 2006 Saturday Seminar Series. A new commissioner program will be presented in Yakima and Ocean Shores. A different program will be presented in Chelan. Complete class outlines and registration form will be mailed to members and posted on this page in January.