This article is one in a series of toolkits focusing on recruitment, retention and fire service marketing.

Download R&R Toolkit-Prospective Member Guide-FASNY.pdf

What kind of documentation did you receive when you joined your fire department? Was it even put on paper? Was it thorough, clear, and concise? Did it answer all of your questions about what would be expected of you or did it leave you wondering with information unclear?

Was the information well organized and presented or was it scribbled on a bar napkin over a couple of “pops” at the firehouse.

Other than the application, was there any documentation at all? Or did you just have to rely on what they told you during your interview with the membership committee or on what the existing members told you? Did you really know what you were in for?

If prepared and distributed properly, a “Prospective Member Guide” can be an effective recruitment tool for several reasons.

The primary purpose of the Prospective Member Guide should be just what the title says: guide the prospect towards membership in your organization. Provide them with core information about your fire department that they need to make an effective decision about whether or not joining is right for them.

A typical outline of a prospect guide could include (but not limited to) the following elements:

A letter from the fire chief – The chief is in charge and should set the tone for the membership – even before they’re members. This is an important piece and requires extensive thought to be effective as an inviting and no-nonsense introductory letter.

Why volunteer? – A discussion about the different reasons why people join your department. Quickly answer: “What’s in it for me?”

About Us – A brief history and introduction to your organization.

Organization – An outline of how your department is organized, both for operations and administration. Maybe include an org chart!

Response – How does your department respond? Many volunteer fire departments respond differently than career departments. Answer the questions of who goes where and who does what?

Mission Statement – “Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is…” They can’t fulfill the mission if they don’t know what it is.

Vision – A simple statement of where your organization is headed.

Opportunities – What opportunities exist for them to utilize their time and talents? Where would they best fit into your organization?

Benefits – Everyone’s in it for something. What do you have to offer? What’s your competitive edge?

Expectations – You’ve told them all the exciting and fun stuff, what’s the reality of it all? Be clear in your expectations.

The Process – Detail the steps necessary to becoming a member. Where are we now?

Contacts – Make sure they know who to get a hold of if they’re still interested in joining or if they have questions after reviewing the guide.

While you want to avoid being long winded in creating your guide, it’s important to realize that the document can benefit you in many ways. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity, but by thoroughly documenting everything, it can save a lot of time repeating the same information to multiple candidates. And, it provides them with a comprehensive look at your organization.

The documentation can also help in what I call the “pre-weeding” process. If the information in the guide tells the prospect that becoming a volunteer firefighter is not for them – the guide has served its purpose. Conversely, if the guide excites and motivates the fence sitter to get off their backside and join your organization – it has also done its job.

The prospective member guide is both a marketing tool and a snapshot of the realities of being involved in volunteer emergency services.

Just going through the process of creating your guide can identify opportunities for change within your organization. It may show you that your three-month processing period is unreasonable to most prospects. You may be losing them before you even get them to the door.

It may make you recognize that your membership process is too complex and needs streamlining. A rapid application process may be in order.

Or, you may realize that your fire department is a pretty cool place to belong and that you have a lot of great benefits to offer. It did for us.

Here’s how we use this sales tool. Anyone that inquires about joining our organization is handed, mailed or e-mailed the document. It can also be downloaded from our fire company web site: www.ecvfc.org.

But, before we send it, we make sure that we have a simple set of contact information documented about the prospect. We use a recruitment inquiry form to collect this info. It’s stapled right to the front of the prospective member guide so it’s easy to complete and tear off.

This information is then forwarded to our membership committee for follow-up. We call this a sales lead because isn’t that what we’re trying to accomplish – aren’t we trying to sell the features and benefits of our volunteering opportunities to the prospect?

This is an important step because, if you give away the guide and don’t capture the prospect’s contact info, you can’t follow-up. If you don’t follow-up, you won’t seal the deal.

If the discussion progresses, the prospect is then given a membership application. Once completed, the prospect meets briefly with a membership committee representative to verify the application is complete and answer any initial questions.

The various parts of the application are then divided and delegated to the appropriate parties within and outside of our organization for follow-through to be completed by a preset target date – usually just prior to the next month’s membership meeting where the prospect will be voted on.

During this time, the membership coordinator maintains accountability on a process flowchart and ensures that the other key benchmarks are completed, which we’ll discuss in another toolkit.

The prospective member guide is not a new idea and not one that we can take total credit for. But we’re pleased with the way our initial offering turned out. Download it from my Firefighter Nation web site www.firefighternation.com/profile/tiger5 and leave me a comment to let us know what you think.

If you have something to share, I may even send you the original Microsoft Word document so you don’t have to re-create the wheel yourself. If you do use the information, all we ask is that you give credit where credit is due.

For a sample guide, you can refer to the “A Breed Apart” series distributed by Emergency Resources, Inc. “A Breed Apart” is a comprehensive guide written by Chief Jack Snook, a well-respected author in the arena of R&R (Recruitment and Retention). The program is broken into six different modules – each dealing with a specific R&R challenge and/or solution. Although it was written in 1987, its principles remain clear and effective today.

Or, download a copy of the report titled: “Recruitment and Retention in the Volunteer Fire Service – Problems and Solutions” printed in 1998 and updated in 2006. It’s available FREE from US Fire Administration’s web site: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-310.pdf and contains tons of great ideas.

Until next time…

Stay safe. Train often.

Download Prospective Member Guide.pdf