South Dakota Fire Instructors Conference

Ignite your passion for firefighting at the South Dakota Fire Instructors Conference, taking place January 10-11, 2026, at the Highland Conference Center, Mitchell, SD.

Conference Speakers Topics:

The Functional Fire Company

"Chief Thompson combines his decades of experience and years of observation with today's leadership skills and provides a path for the successful fire department to follow. The Functional Fire Company will take you step by step from being an ordinary fire department to one that defines excellence." - Risk Lasky, Fire Chief (ret.) Texas

Training Basics & Essentials

This program focuses on company level training basics and essentials. We will focus on zero cost drills that have proven effective at the company level. In addition, we will discuss the training season concept, making training personal, mentoring, and the training process for skill acquisition. Finally, the presentation will talk about the need for performance standards and a proven method for developing performance standards.

About Chief Scott Thompson

Chief Thompson joined the volunteer fire service in 1981. He began his paid career in Plano, TX in 1986. Over the course of his career, he has worked with several progressive fire service organizations. Chief Thompson is passionate about suburban fire operations and positioning firefighters and fire companies for success and survival. He has a Bachelors of Science in Emergency Administration and Disaster Planning and is a certified public manager (CPM). Thompson has been a hands-on, workshop, and classroom presenter at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) since 2002. In additional to writing The Functional Fire Company: Positioning Small Groups for Success and Survival, he has written numerous published articles. Thompson is currently the fire chief in The Colony, Texas Fire Department and he owns and operates Functional Fire Company LLC and fireserviceleadership.com. Thompson has two sons in the fire service.

REMINDER: Dues must be paid by January 15th to be eligible for the insurance coverage.

PLEASE PAY DUES PRIOR TO REGISTERING FOR THE CONFERENCE - If you did not get a dues notice send your name/contact information to Rick Gustad @ SCDir@sdfirefighters.org and we will get that straightened out.

If you wish to attend the Conference on January 9th-11th, those that are current PAID members of the Instructors Society will be able to register for the Conference at NO-COST. Non-Members will also be able to register for the conference, as its open to anyone in the fire service. This allows us to easily separate membership billing and conference registration. It is vital that you pre-register for the conference as that information is also what's used to send Certificates and it also allows us to better calculate quantity of refreshments needed for the Venue.

If you are NOT attending the conference there is no need to register for the conference - THIS IS A CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS YEARS. You just need to pay the invoice that was sent for your South Dakota Society of Fire Service Instructors Membership Dues

Pre-Registration will also help prevent the large backlog of people at the registration desk the morning of the conference. If you have PRE-REGISTERED and PRE-PAID you do NOT need to stop at the registration desk.

Thank you for supporting your South Dakota Society of Fire Service Instructors.

Stay Healthy. Stay safe.

Justin Adams

South Dakota Society of Fire Service Instructors - Secretary