As many of you are aware, we just finished our Conference and Expo in Chicago. The event was a great success; the general session, featured presentation and educational sessions received great reviews from attendees from all over the globe, and there were many new products and services shown at the Expo. I continue to hear from attendees that this is one of the best educational and networking events in the world of fire and electrical safety.
It was also an exciting time for me because I was able to share my vision of the NFPA of the future. We know that, as an organization, we have to transform as you, our stakeholders, adapt to an ever-changing environment of fire and life safety.
Today, we realize that we are largely seen as a standards development organization. However, to fully meet the needs of our stakeholders, we must transform ourselves into an information and knowledge organization. I want to be very clear that codes and standards have been and will continue to be a vital and important part of what we do, but they are just one facet of the information and knowledge that is important to our stakeholders. Our challenge is to add value and deliver additional information and knowledge that helps you do your job every day.
As we embarked on this transformation, we identified six key areas of focus and change for NFPA: to be more stakeholder-centric; to have a greater digital focus in the information we produce; to become more global; to produce focused education and advocacy programs; to engage in partnerships that move us closer to our vision; and to fully exploit all sources of data. Each of these contributes to our recognition as an information and knowledge organization versus being seen just as a standards developing organization.
Through this effort, we have arrived at a new vision and mission for NFPA. Our new vision: “We are the leading global advocate for the elimination of death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards.” As a global advocate, we want to be known around the world as leading the effort to reduce and eliminate loss—a world where no one dies or is injured by fire. Our scope includes economic loss, a key feature in areas like resiliency and business continuity. And we have made it clear that this vision includes protection from electrical hazards.
Our new mission also reflects this broader embrace of information and knowledge: “We help save lives and reduce loss with information, knowledge and passion.” When we do our job right around information and knowledge, we help all of you save lives through what you do.
In our efforts to become more global, we have much to offer and much to gain. We have a lot of information and knowledge that can be shared with developed and developing countries. But we also recognize that our information and knowledge can be enhanced with data and information gathered from those working to save lives and reduce loss in these countries. This is an area in which we all can do better. In addition, our mission can be furthered with a greater exchange of information, particularly research and data to support enforcement. We have long recognized that safety is improved through the use, adoption and enforcement of the latest codes and standards.
I invite you to support this new vision and mission and I look forward to working with all of our members to make the world a safer place.
For more information, go to www.nfpa.org
About the Author
Jim Pauley is President and CEO of the NFPA.
