NOFF had a special year in 2024.  Aside from a total solar eclipse, multiple tornados, a fantastic IAFF Convention in Boston, and an election season that stirred up folks on all sides, NOFF was busy with a number of projects that affect our members both locally and more globally.  In the spring we held our biennial conference and elections, followed by the annual NOFF Charities Golf Outing.  We wished a happy next chapter to a few good friends over the summer who hung up their fire gear and picked up their golf clubs and pickleball rackets as they transitioned into retirement mode.  Chad Gluss from Olmsted Falls got a new heart and a lot of love from his brothers and sisters in the fire service.  In the fall we held a mental health discussion at Springvale Golf Club with speakers who specialize in helping first responders who are struggling or simply not thriving as they could be, and NOFF participated in a Frontline Warriors Self Care and Wellness Summit hosted by David Sirl at Christ Church in Columbia Station.  Throughout 2024 we followed and/or participated in (whether by endorsements or pounding the pavement) local, state representative and state senate, and congressional elections.  We testified on or followed the progress of 20-30 bills introduced at the Ohio Statehouse.  The most significant of these was certainly HB 296 for the Police and Fire Pension Equalization that passed out of the Ohio House of Representatives but stalled in the Ohio Senate just before the legislative session ended.  Even though it was the farthest a police/fire pension equalization bill has made it in Columbus, and though we look forward to working on it again this next session, its failure this time around was disappointing to our team after we worked on it alongside our brothers and sisters at the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters, who shared our goal and also spent countless hours working toward its passage.  And finally, what was one of the high points of 2024, the passage and signing of the Social Security Fairness Act, to bring fair social security payments to our retired members now and in the future, was signed into law at the beginning of January.  We were excited to participate in a meeting of Union leaders from the greater Cleveland area with Congresswoman Shontel Brown of Ohio’s 11th Congressional District and to meet with and discuss the bill with Max Miller of Ohio’s 7th before they both voted for it.  We communicated our appreciation for the support and vote for the Social Security Fairness Act when we again met with Congressman Miller after the bill became federal law.  As you can tell, it was a busy year that took a lot of work from our team to better the position of firefighters in Northern Ohio.