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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 23, 2008 at 8:45am

Are you crazy?
You'd be asking him to give up risking his life riding a stunt motorcycle to risk his life to ride a fire truck.
Where's the bang; the grab; the bling?
I could take this guy and mold him.
But first; I'd have to figure out where to put the water drop on that motorcycle and could I get a FIRE Act grant to pay for it?
TCSS.
Art

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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on October 23, 2008 at 1:01pm

I agree with you. I am the secretary for my department. As I was updating the roster recently I realized that we don't have new members since 2003. We have NEW people that we accept as members all the time but they don't stay around long. What has happened in the last 5 yrs that keeps new members from remaining on the FD? Is it because of the time involved with no pay? Are there more interesting things to do?

I have a couple of guys in my station who when they joined as Jrs, I though "heaven help me" but they are a couple of the best fire fighters and volunteers we have. We now have 7 jr members. I am not sure all of them will stay around.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on October 23, 2008 at 3:11pm

There is no drought attitude and ethics have changed and I will say for the worse ...we have to change are way of thinking and the way we recruit this is the new challenge they are definatly risk takers and that does not play well in the fire service I have no answer for you yet but I know there are a lot of minds working on it

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Permalink Reply by Station10Capt106 on October 23, 2008 at 3:45pm

It is not just the fire service that is experiencing this. Lion's Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Church groups . . . any service organization is in the fight to gain and retain membership.

I was a member of our local Lions Club for 12 years until it folded due to lack of members. When I joined at 21 I was the youngest person in the group. The next youngest was 53! Talk about a generation gap.

Life has become so much more fast paced in the past 15-20 years. Technology has advanced giving everyone instant access to the internet and global communication. Most of my generation seem more interested in buying the newest and greatest video game console or playing in virtual online games.

Add to that the fact that there are more and more programs and events to get your children in. Little league, drama, academics, sports, arts ect. These take up the parents time as they shuttle their kids to and fro.

More and more people commute now to work and do not work in their own communities anymore. This dwindles the availability of daytime responders. Many businesses are not able to allow their employees to take off during the day to respond to fires.

I've noticed a much higher turnover rate on new members to the fire service in the past 5-6 years. Many do not understand the commitment or dedication required. They just want to run with lights & sirens, flash their fire dept badge to their friends and get the adrenalin rush. The desire to serve your community is becoming harder and harder to find.

So what are the answers to overcome this?

John

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Permalink Reply by turk182 on October 23, 2008 at 4:51pm

Right now I do not think there is and answer to getting the younger people invovled in volunteering for anything.

The minute you start telling them the training requirements the get all glassy eyed and stare off into space because they know they are not going to go or realise what in the hell have I gotten myself into?

Alot of people think when they get in the department they will be issued gear and get to ride the nice shiny fire truck and that is all they have to do. They do not like to listen and think they can do what ever they want at calls and at the station if they ask and officer if they can do something and are told no then they call the next highest officer until they get the answer they are looking for. They have no repect for the officers and none for the department and it needs to change.

I think it has alot to do with the everybody gets a "trophy generation" because now days they are not taught you can't always win and can't always get what you want. And they get away with what ever they want to because the parents are afraid to disapline the kids. When you have that to deal with it is hard to get them do do anything for free and listen to what they are being told.

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Permalink Reply by T.J. on October 24, 2008 at 7:24am

Jim your right on here and I see it all the time, dont get me wrong you get a great one here or there but not like you used too.

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