We had a number of nominations for Employee of the 1st Quarter that it was impossible to narrow it down to just one, so we decided to do something a little different and pick TWO employees of the 1st Quarter.

First up is FF Colin Dyck at Calgary International Airport.  Colin was nominated by Deputy Fire Chief Brett Gerein and Captain Chad Harper for the exemplary leadership he has shown in their Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) department.

Gerein’s crew has taken on the task to oversee all Department Training, and this is the reason he is recommending Colin’s name for the Employee of 1st Quarter.  Training involves the creation and expansion of their training portfolio, reviewing and providing feedback from crew training assignments, audit department training, creating training templates on Emergency Reporting, assign crew training assignments every month, and most recently transitioning the department to paperless training.  In the 1st Qtr this year, Colin has contributed immensely in all of these tasks and is a big reason why the Department Training runs more efficiently.  He has been a driving force along with the crew for our overall success.  Colin has taken the lead as he was given this immense task.  His computer skills and knowledge with Excel has given him all the necessary tools to create forms and documents.  He has helped create an entire new Training Portfolio for the department which is now well versed, organized and overall more efficient.  He reviews crew training assignments with care, thoroughness, and provides constructive feedback to make these presentations better for everyone.  Calgary recently transitioned their department to Paperless training, all department training reports are now saved digitally with digital signatures, Colin was a major contributor with this initiative.  Gerein’s crew would not be where we currently are with training if it wasn’t for Colin’s contributions over these past months.

Colin joined the Calgary team in March 2019 and has had perfect attendance in those two years.  He has exemplified professionalism, hard work, initiative each and every shift and continues to be a leader in our department.  In the two years Colin has assumed the position of a Fire Fighter, his affable nature, clear insight and guiding vision has garnered the respect and admiration from his peers and Officers.

In these difficult and forever changing times, the depth of challenges, Colin has always remained positive and leads by example.  He does not shy away from the tough times and faces them head on.  Gerein cannot express within the limits of this short description all of the attributes that Colin possesses to qualify for nomination for Employee of the Quarter.  Rest assured that the list would be too exhaustive.  If he had to distill the description to its core, it would include those tangibles: leadership, decisiveness, and responsibility.  However of greater importance would be the list of intangibles that make up the fabric of a true leader: respect, humility, commitment, dedication, humor, honesty, integrity, transparency, hard work and resiliency.