January 9, 2023

First, I would like to thank all of the MSFA member departments for their patience as the MSFA
leadership worked through the very important initiative to update the name of the Association to
be more inclusive of our membership.

As you all know, I appointed a Name Change Taskforce last year to look into this initiative and
what we would need to address in order to be successful.

Taskforce Chair Teresa Crisman and her team worked diligently to prepare last year’s voting and
although we faced some challenges and the change did not move forward, the team decided to
send out a survey to the voting delegation to get a real–time opinion on the proposed change.
As a result of the survey, the majority of the membership that participated in the survey stated
that they favored a change that would reflect the make–up of the membership that the MSFA is
charged to represent. As such, the following two names received the most favorable
recommendations:

–The Maryland State Firefighter’s Association
–The Maryland State Fire/EMS Association

It has also been indicated that the majority of the membership felt it important to keep the
“MSFA” acronym so in the case of either of these two names being approved, the MSFA
acronym and logo would remain what it is today.

Over the course of the coming weeks, I look forward to open discussions on the proposal of these
two names and moving them forward to be voted on in June at our annual convention.

Respectfully submitted,
Benjamin W. Kurtz, President
Maryland State Firemen’s Association