Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jessica Travis on November 16, 2008 at 8:33pm

We have never really had a problem recruiting people. Bagdad is a small town and every person between the ages of 14 to 21 usually is somehow involved in the department. I would take your current members and have each of them bring a few friend with whoever brings the most and they actually stay getting some sort of prize. We do bake sales, chili suppers, car washes and usually anything we can think of to raise money and bring in new people. Maybe your advisers could cantact a local high school and see if they could set up some sort of demonstration for the students.

We really have no set format for our meetings, usually our secretary takes down basically whatever is said amd usually that can be anything a jff might wanna bring up or waht one of our advisers thinks needs to be said.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Royce Terry on November 16, 2008 at 8:57pm

Boot Drive For A Fund Raiser
And We Use A Simple Method Of Keeping Track
1.) New Business
2.) Old Business
3.) Talk About Things (Previous Fire Calls) What You Can Do To Improve Yourself And Others And Make It Better Ex.) Safety
4.) What You Did At The Meeting i.e (Training) Write It All Down Just In case Someone Higher Up Needs To See It If Something Happends

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michael Vito on November 16, 2008 at 9:38pm

based on the notes of your secretary's and based on the basic topics mentioned above (Royce as cited). You can print and distribute to the rest of members of the minutes of the meeting (if that applies). On what the last meeting was tackled... this minutes of the meeting will serve as your guide for presider / or leader of your group the progress of your task, activities that have accomplished or not. The leader can follow up if a task is pending or stalled. So basically, in this way, all the membership has a big picture on what's going on your post.

mike

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on November 20, 2008 at 10:03pm

Having a junior/explorer program is a great thing. The first thing aside from the fundamentals that these young firefighters need is structure. Having the explorers fill positions and conduct meetings/finances/fund raisers for their explorer post is a great way to get them in sync with how it's done as a senior member.

I have posted a few things on here for junior program developement and it also has had points for recruiting and retention. Check it out. It has a real good set of guidelines to follow.

http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/889755:Topic:840801

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Trevor Keninger on November 23, 2008 at 7:25pm

well our explorer post is at a stand still now. our explorer leader (a firefighter on our department) decided to take all our explorers post money and not register us! so now no fire calls no training no nothing(big building fire as i am typing, great thing to listen to and not be a part of). so now our post has to start over but hopefully it will be back in a short time. thanks for your addvice everyone!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Captain Kevin C. Ross on November 23, 2008 at 8:59pm

Hi, I think what you should do is elect a President or Chief (Captain) whatever you want to call them & a Secretary who will take minutes of your meetings, then you will be able to keep track of your meetings. These officers will be from the members of your post, not adults. You as the adult leader will be known as the post Advisor and are there to be sure that the post does not get off track, as your title says you advise the officers & members of the post. As far as meeting try having one meeting a month and two or three training sessions a month these can be just the post or in combination with the fire dept that you are associated with. I have not been an explore for many years but these are things that we used to do when I was an explorer, I think that the group will like the training part better than the meeting thats what we liked and once they start liking it more they will start telling their friends and eventually more people will join. Some other things we did was got a basic first aid course scheduled, and CPR course so everyone became trained in EMS, then we went to church picnics, boy scout camps, etc and provided first aid for these events. Keep the group active & busy & I think they will be happy. For other recruitment ideas post membership drive signs, have a Post open house night or we called them 1st nighters. Another thing we did for hose practice was washed parking lots such as church lots etc before church picnic. Fund raising have a spaghetti dinner, chli sale, a hotdog stand, you can do all of these at your firehouse, or out front of a local store, or at a church picnic, if the church picnic, county fair charges for a booth negotiate and offer to do first aid station free for free booth. I also hope that your explorers are also responding (NON EMERGENCY) no lights of any kind to actual emergency scenes to observe the firefighters at the scene, provide crowd control (NOT TRAFFIC CONTROL) and help pickup (reload hose, put tools back on the trucks, Etc.) this is a great learning experience. I hope some of this is helpful have a great day, thanks for helping to train our next generation of firefighters, stay safe! Captain Kevin C. Ross Pembroke, NY Fire Department.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by DoubleH..Harry on November 23, 2008 at 9:14pm

Hi Trevor
Currently our Explorer post is low on membership ,but our Explorers attend drills with our regular membership and participate in all activities as set out in the official regulations of the BSA/Living for Life. They are not allowed to use HRTs or climb ladders over 35' ,etc.We do use the IFSTA essentials manual as a basic training book and cover a chapter as a lesson plan.
One fund raiser that has worked VERY well for us is the Explorers make and sell reflective house number signs .They have a table at our pancake breakfasts and use sample signs set up on a mocked up mailbox post.The signs are a great way to help the department find houses and the Explorers learn how to deal with the public .Hope this helps .
Harry

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion