The next point system category is meetings:

The biggest issue that surrounds the meeting category are what types of meetings qualify as a meeting for the purposes of this category.

The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) has issued two legal opinions about the meeting category. Comptroller Opinion 94-25 states that meetings of an emergency rescue and first aid squad, fire police squad, or the executive board of a fire company, are not considered meetings for the purposes of this category. The reason given is that these meetings are not of the entire membership of the fire company. 

​The second is Opinion 95-9, states that committee meetings are not eligible for points under this category, neither are meetings of the fire district (i.e., commissioner meetings).

In both cases, the Opinions state that committee, squad, and executive board meetings could qualify for points under the Miscellaneous category.

It would appear reasonable that meetings would include department meetings as well. In one-company departments, this isn't a significant issue. However, for multi-company departments that hold a routine department-wide meeting, it appears reasonable to give a meeting point for department meetings as well. Although there isn't any direct guidance from the OSC on this issue.

The sign-in procedures are important for meetings, as well as drills and miscellaneous activities. Meetings is often where we hear about members signing-in other members on the attendance sheet. Everyone should sign themselves into a meeting. It should be a very rare and special circumstance when someone signs in another person, and there should be procedures for this (such as, the president and vice president must initial, and/or record that this is happening in the meeting minutes).

Another point that comes up often is what happens if someone does not attend the entire meeting - either shows up late or leaves early. There is no guidance on this issue, so each sponsor can make its own determination o the best practice here. 

Yet another frequent question is what if there is a call during the meeting? Any active volunteer firefighter at the meeting and that is able to respond would then be given a response credit, since they were there and in theory was available to attend the call. In theory, the meeting point can also be earned, subject to any special rules the sponsor may make about not attending the complete meeting. 

Finally, another "double-dipping" scenario is what if the department utilizes the sleep-in or stand-by category as a way to have volunteers on call, in particular for fire departments that run ambulance operations. If someone is participating in a stand-by at the same time a meeting is going on, can the person get the points for both? I don't see why not - if the person attends the meeting while fulfilling the required hours for a stand-by, I don't see an issue (same could be said about taking an online training course during a sleep-in or stand-by). If you have this scenario, it would be good to run that by the local attorney.

The next point system category is Elected or Appointed Positions. Here is the text of the statute:

You will notice a parenthetical "see definition", which is:

The statute says "completion of a one year term." Given the language that comes after that initial sentence, it seems that the intention is that a firefighter must complete the full term in order to receive the points. That would appear to be the "most correct" answer, as I like to put it. However, we have seen many point systems that provide a certain number of points per month, one of which we know was audited by the State. The State did not comment on that part of the point system, but it also didn't "bless" that approach either. 

The language after the initial sentence was added to the statute effective September 1, 1995. So some point systems adopted prior to that date may not have this language. The bill text that can be found on the State's website does not include a text memo to explain why this amendment was necessary. So I am not 100% certain why this is here. I was able to find in Village law language about officers being appointed in April, so perhaps then the term would start in May. I did not do an exhaustive search on this issue, so may need to re-visit it in the future. Regardless, I believe the point is that if a special exception had to be made to award the full year of points for an office that started in May, that the intention is that the full year must be served to be awarded the officer points.

So should a point system be designed to pro-rate officer points between two people? This is something that comes up often - someone must resign mid-year and another person takes up the position. Based on what was said above, it would seem the most correct answer based on the literal reading of the statute is that neither would receive the points. That just seems unreasonable. So if your past practice has been to pro-rate points between these two individuals, it is critical that your point system includes that written procedure. That seems like a reasonable approach.

Awarding points to a delegate is another tricky issue, since it isn't clear what a "firefighter's convention" is exactly. We spent a lot of time covering that in another post, which you can read here:

In the audit of the Luzerne-Hadley Fire District, the State auditor wrote in the report that "the District must specify each position the the total number of credits [sic] that members can earn for each position." So it seems reasonable that a point system can be adopted so that different offices receive different point values - but make sure those offices and point values are specified.

Recently the there have been two State audit reports that have commented on the definition of an elected or appointed position, and if certain positions meet that definition. Recently in the audit of the Jamesport Fire District, the audit report criticizes the District for granting 10 points to former chiefs. The report indicates that a former chief does not meet the definition of an elected or appointed position in the statute. In the audit of the Village of Southampton LOSAP, the Village was criticized for awarding points to committee members under this category. The report stated that in their view, committee membership does not meet the definition of an elected or appointed position as defined in the statute.

In view of these two audits, it is important to review your point system to ensure the officers match the definition in the statute. Since the definition is fairly broad - it says points can be awarded to department or company officers - it would be important to ensure the office is in the department or company by-laws as an actual office that is held.

Today we will look at the third Point System category in the statute - Sleep-in and Stand-by. Here is the text of the statute:

First thing is to note that this is just one category that includes two activities with a maximum of 20 points. We have reviewed some point systems that break this into two categories, giving 20 points for sleep-ins and 20 points for stand-bys. This should not be done - it is just one category with a maximum of 20 points.

Since there are two different activities in this one category, we'll break this into two parts.

Sleep In
There is no clarification on what a "full night" is. We recommend that you put some kind of parameter on it, by defining the hours. For example, 10 PM to 6 AM. Something to that effect.

In the audit of the Gardiner Fire District, the report included the following comment: "Participants were not required to be present at the firehouse to earn
points for this activity, but instead could be on stand-by overnight at their homes. District officials told us that participants sign up for a tour-of-duty for the overnight period, but the officials could not provide documentation to support the tours served."  One of the issues raised in this audit was that the Fire District included a "Tour of Duty" category, which is not allowed under the firefighter statute (Article 11-A of the General Municipal Law). This comment was in response to that, and the report used the word "stand-by" in the comments. But the context of the comment was in a 6 or 12-hour tour-of-duty, more like a "sleep-in".

Although the report does not specifically state that a sleep-in (or stand-by) must occur at the firehouse (or just not at home), the implication is certainly there. Any LOSAP sponsor should be careful about allowing sleep-ins (or stand-bys) at home - it is essential that good controls are in place to prevent abuse. But we cannot find any legal opinion or court ruling that would prevent a sponsor from allowing an at-home stand-by.

Stand-by
At least here there is a brief definition - must last four hours, covered by VFBL, and doesn't fall under one of the other categories. Most fire departments are accustomed to a stand-by for a storm, or at another firehouse during an installation dinner , or perhaps at a sporting event. The key is to ensure the activity lasts at least four hours. If it doesn't, then it would be considered a Miscellaneous point.

Besides the information in the Gardiner audit, there has not been a lot of guidance from the State on this category, in either a formal legal opinion or an audit report.