How Many Ex Officers

How many of you in vol. dept have 10 ex cheifs 15 ex capts. and 30 ex lt. all trying to tell you what to do at a scene. Here in my dept. damn near everyone is a ex something and they all want to be the boss. I have even had them try to override the officers we have now. I understand that experiance counts alot in this bussiness im not new to this. Just trying to get some insight of how many go thru this also.

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Permalink Reply by Mick Shelley on April 28, 2009 at 9:58am

Very well put Trainer

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Permalink Reply by Jason McDonald on April 30, 2009 at 9:20am

I agree with you and yes, a department needs a chain of command and also an SOP that is published and distributed and actually read by the whole team. The SOP would have the answer to many questions and concerns.

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Permalink Reply by FETC on April 30, 2009 at 9:36am

Fire Bear,

When I was a volunteer we decided to change from the situation you are currently in to something more stable with continuity. We changed from the annual voting (good buddy) process to an official promotional hiring process, by creating job descriptions, minimum qualifications, on the job time served experience, 3 step testing with a written test, assessment center, and chief(s) interview with a scoring system for each step. Each step is worth 33.333% of your overall score. Best man wins and then you only change officers when a position becomes available through attrition or promotion.

Works in career departments. Rotating officers annually is non-condusive to having any sort of command and leadership continuity. As you state, everyone who has previously held a position feels they would do this differently and often freelance orders on the side. This is not only dangerous but terrible for morale. Plus add-in the internal clicks that will follow a guy forever.... and we have division amongst the brotherhood.

In my opinion not everyone deserves or is qualified to be an officer anyway.

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Permalink Reply by FIRE BEAR on April 30, 2009 at 11:34am

i want to thank you for all the input in this me comeing from a carrer dept to a vollie is a big change and i was just wondering if i was alone i guess im not lol i think one of the problums is with there helmet plaques all the exs. say ex lt or ex capt and we are supposed to call all the ex cheifs cheif now that is confuseing as hell to us new guys they say here once a cheif always a cheif i dont agree with that myself but being new i have no say so yet big YET but all the input is greatly appreciated

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Permalink Reply by John F. Woodard, Sr. on April 30, 2009 at 1:18pm

Fire Bear:

In response to your reply about a Chief always a Chief. I come from the old school and I will give that designation when we are in a social type function. If we were on the fireground and this person was involved they were just another firefighter doing their job. As far as the helmet shield I think this only confuses the newer member. Maybe let them put in on their plates for the car but for firefighting purposes if you are not in that rank you should not wear it. Do these ex officers wear white coats if they were Chiefs on the fire ground?

It comes down to this for me once a Chief always a Chief just remember where you are.

Just my 2 cents from an yes EX Deputy Chief

Take care be safe