This week my editorial is interactive, sort of like "Let's Make a Deal," except there are no jokes behind the doors. This is serious stuff! I am offering three ways to be involved with FIRE CHIEF magazine. We need your input for upcoming issues, so please respond to one, two or three of the options listed below.

Door #1: Looking for summer reading? The bookshelves in my office are heavy with books received throughout the year. We need volunteers to read a book and write a review (your reward is you get to keep the book). We'll post the reviews and let other readers send in their critiques of the books also. We're working on the details, but for now, I have almost 30 books -- fiction to testing to reference to hardbound -- that need emergency service readers to write a brief review. Deadline to request a book is 5/27/05.

Door #2: What happens when you are off-duty or finish with the weekly drill? Is it tough to take off your chief's badge when you walk in the door of your home? What's the toughest thing about being married to or living with a fire chief or top officer? We have a presentation this summer on "The Chief At Home" and need 30 to 40 spouses or partners to answer eight questions about chiefs at home. Fill out a simple, quick questionnaire, and I won't reveal or publish any names or departments. Send me an e-mail for the questions. Deadline is: 5/27/05

Door #3: Have you ever researched a product, purchased it and then realized you neglected to ask one vital question? A nearby department had an architect renovate their old fire station. As it neared completion, the captain found out their new aerial had one-inch to spare from the overhead bay door. Maybe in the design stage, they should have asked, "Will every piece of apparatus fit inside the bays?" What was the product and the vital question? Did you find out too late that the chief doesn't fit behind the wheel of the new Suburban command car? Share your lesson learned. Deadline: June 3, 2005.

Now it's your turn to write!

Janet Wilmoth, Editor