Welcome!!

I'm Steve Perry, a newly retired paramedic, who feels like the dog that caught the car--OK, I'm here, NOW WHAT??

Like many of you I was active in my IAFF Union Local and Department--It wasn't my identity, I didn't think...Or was it?

To be honest, I cried my eyes out leaving the firehouse the morning after my last shift after nearly forty years in EMS.

I miss the people... Let's face it, it's more of an "adult daycare," LOL... Maybe it was the full-nights' sleep or realizing for the first time in my life, I found myself with nowhere to be and no one to be accountable to other than my retired wife!

Within a few days, I found myself asking "Where does everyone go??"

What if there was a space where we could bring the best parts of convention to members retired and active?? Where members at-large are the speakers, vendors, and contributors... Discussion forums, people helping people--have a side-hustle or looking for advice, golf, hockey, or softball tournaments, vacation rentals... A virtual hospitality room and beanery wrapped into one!!

We spend a career working, living, and growing together...It's more than a Sister or Brotherhood, it's a family... Albeit somewhat dysfunctional, but a family all the same--We share in each other's victories and defeats of life.

The Retirement Shift is our reward, a shift pattern with no pattern. A calendar where all days have the same color assigned... No drills, classes, alarms, or interrupted meals... It can be as busy or quiet as you like...It can be lonely...

We now have a place to drop-in, see what's up?? Network, connect, and have an online community of like-minded war-torn knuckleheads that "get it."

My favorite part of the day was morning tie-in, on either end...'Best part of a seminar or convention were the activities and hospitality room... Where real connections were made... We were all different in our own way, but came together when the bell hit or lobbied "on the Hill" TOGETHER.

Welcome to R-Shift United!

Have a look around--I'm new at this and open to suggestions and let's see where this goes!