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Comment by Luke Summers on February 28, 2009 at 5:47am

To add a few more things. Im not saying i dont respect the ones who have many years of experience, because i do. I just wish they could see some of the possibilities us younger members have. Just a note i have been on for 5 years. almost half of the dept of 45 now has 5 years or less.

Comment by Luke Summers on February 28, 2009 at 5:41am

We have alot of that going on right now to. Its no fun at all, like you said we are supposed to be a family that can count on each other. I have no doubt they would still pull my butt out of a fire, however even getting on a truck to respond to said fire is hard. I really try to stay out of it as much as possible. Ours to has alot to do with the older members. 1.not wanting to participate in trainings because they know all. The one that angers me the most is something the chief and other "old timers" say alot. "we dont have to do that because we have done our time" Im sorry but arent they supposed to be the ones passing things on to us (younger generation). The other big issue with me that again the chief brings up alot is respect to our veteran members. He goes on to say we have to give them respect but they dont have to give us any in return. I was raised you have to give respect in order to earn it. Us younger members can never bring up a new idea or firefighting tactic that we read and learn about, in fact its almost like a sin to bring anything new to the table. If you do....they may say ok we will consider it. It never goes any farther than that. I could go on for hours, the chief and other officers keep asking why moral is so low, if they took a look in the mirror or observed from our point of view they would have the answer. For now us younger ones are just laying low, responding to calls. I just wish something would happen to open some of their eyes.

Comment by Dustin J. Millis on February 13, 2009 at 4:09am

I know what you are talking about Angie... When I first got on my dept. we had a group of officers that consisted of whoever had been on the dept. the longest. Now before the oldtimers reading this get pissed, I'm not saying that 25 years of experience and dedication to the dept. doesnt mean anything, trust me; I respected MOST of those guys for the time that they had served. I say most of them because a few of them had nothing but bad intentions. They thought of the dept. as a social club and were perfectly content to maintain the attitude that they had kept since the 1970's.

January of 2008 comes around and we elect a new chief (the old chief retired) our new chief is only 29 years old and even though he had more training then most of our officers put together, the older guys had a huge problem with his age. As the months went on with this new chief, we slowly lost our older members. Most of them just silently crossed their names off the roster and left their gear hanging where it was (with the cobwebs still on it) and just stopped showing off. One guy was man enough to come to a business meeting and announce in front of everyone that he was retiring from the dept.

With the old officers gone, new ones came in, these were also mostly younger guys but who had served their time on the dept. and had the proper training. Almost overnight, the dept. started changing. It would take me alot of space to list all the changes that were made (however they were all changes that were needed) but I will give you a few examples... Two older apparatus were replaced and another command vehicle was added, the station went under a remodel and was brought up to code, new training schedules were implemented to not only meet but exceed state standards, we voted on our first female firefighter EVER on the dept. (something the old officers would never have allowed), an auxilary was started for wives and gf's who wanted to help serve. I could keep going but there has been so many changes that I forgot some of them. LOL

I know there are people that are going to read this that say we changed things just for the sake of change with is the farthest from the truth. Everything that we have done NEEDED to be done. The changes that were made not only brought our dept. into the current century lol but improved morale for everyone. We constantly had guys fighting about whatever they could and a fistfight was not an uncommon occurence just a few years before I got on. Things still aren't perfect and they probably never will be... there will always be the few guys who argue just for the sake of arguing but things are definatly getting better!!!!

Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on February 12, 2009 at 2:28pm

Good ole boys; they're a sinister bunch.
I broke up a ring of them several years ago. I didn't have a computer then, so it took a little longer.
You spoke in general terms about your GOBs.
Here is what they were doing to my department.
The chief at the time was the leader of the GOBs. Rumor had it that the chief would take your soul if you looked him in the eyes. But, once he had you, did things like (1) Not show the younger ones ANYTHING, but criticize EVERYTHING (2) Avoid answering questions by complaining that it wasn't important (3) Miss meetings and training, but wanted a say in all that went on (4) Belittle, berate and befuddle anyone wanting to train or take classes (5) Make every effort to embarrass someone for a mistake, even though they didn't know the right way, either (6) Were content with the way things were and saw no reason to change (7) Monopolized the upper ranks of the department (8) Drank heavily, but only with other GOBs (9) Cherry picked calls or would sign in at the time of the call and then LEAVE and finally (10) Thought that applying for grants was a waste of time, even though THEY weren't the ones doing the paperwork.
How did we beat the cycle? Beat them at their own game. First; we took over in the ranks and from there, it was easy. THen, we went after the trustees.
Things are really sweet now. I can go into more detail, but I would rather do it in an email.
My point is that it can be fixed.
We did it.
TCSS.
Art