SPAAMFAA quietly turned “40” this year, with nary a sign of any kind of mid-life crisis. Robert N. Potter of Cicero, N.Y. succeeded Mae Martin as SPAAMFAA’S National President.

The Catskill Chapter hosted the 1998 Winter Convention in Middletown, N.Y. A broken leg sidelined President Bob Potter at home. The Catskill Fire Cats’ ambitious tour schedule included visits to the FDNY Apparatus Shops in New York City, the FDNY Training Academy on Randalls Island and the United States Military Academy at West Point. In June, CNY Chapter members manned a SPAAMFAA information booth at the New York State Fire Chiefs Expo in its home town of Syracuse, and the Great Lakes Chapter staged its first Frankenmuth Muster in this small Bavarian-themed city some 90 miles north of Detroit. The hyper-active Virginia Chapter participated in no fewer than 157 events this year.

The Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter hosted the 1998 Summer Convention & Muster in Trevose, Pa. in mid-September. The Gibson Road gang’s educational tour program included a day trip to nearby Philadelphia and the superb Philadelphia Fire Department Historical Museum.