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Recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters
I'm looking for ideas on recruitment, retention once they have joined and any recruitment materials any one may have to pass on to our department.
In today's computer generation society it seems more and more young people pay more attention to what going on with their text, cell phone, tweets or games then what going on around them. In our community all we have for fire protection is our volunteer force, not paid professional firefighter on duty ready for the call. We only have the community around us and the few brave men and woman that have chose to volunteer their time to help their next door neighbor when in need. We need more of those type of folks. The ones that feel it is more important to give then to receive. The question is how do we find this type of person?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Butcher on
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Jack, it depends on who is asking the question. If the chief asked his guys that, face to face, he would rarely get an honest answer. But if a guy that has no rank, has developed close relationships with the guys, and is trustworthy to keep thier identity secret asks the question they will tell him everything and more. After some interviews I had to shred my notes in front of guys!
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Permalink Reply by David Baxter on
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one thing that we do is go to your local high school and talk to the seniors there to see if anyone would be interested in joining. We have had success with that and some of them have gone on and made it a career.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew on
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Hand out dash lights to any applicant that successfully comes in so they can disregard all V&T Laws. /hides
Anyway, realistically, many departments are in the same boat. My department (volunteer) does pretty well, so I guess we're pretty lucky; but we do lose a LOT. In my class there was four of us; two dropped out prior to FF1, and the other is still in... but he is not the greatest example of a person in the world (he actually just got suspended for the third time since his admittance into the FD).
There are many things you can do to recruit:
-Advertising: Signs, radio broadcasts, local commercials, flyers, posters, word of mouth, etc. Heck, even walking house to house can yield some potential applicants. Many people do not even know that departments ARE volunteer.
-Ride Alongs: This can be an insurance issue, to a point. But have potential applicants ride along to emergency calls. I'd suggest putting them in the rig with Fire Police or another rig that'll be on scene, but a rig where the person riding along won't get in the way.
-Fundraisers: When you see a group of people having fun, don't you want to join that group? Fundraisers show the brighter side of the FD and it's members to the public, potentially yielding new members that are also enjoying themselves as a fundraiser. To top it off, this also generates revenue for the FD.
Now, for retention:
-Gym: Many guys, myself included, frequent the FD to use the gym. Any member in the gym at the time of the call has to go on the call. This also helps keep members in shape and brings members together in a healthy social environment.
-Coffee Rooms: Many people join the FD to socialize - the coffee room being the central hub for the aforementioned socializing. Including a small TV, a coffee machine, a vending machine, ect. can work wonders for bringing members down to their Home Away From Home. It's their escape from their daily lives - family, work, school, and other stressors. This can potentially descrease response times since a full-crew (or more) may be in-house.
-Entertainment: My generation loves entertainment. As you said, we're always on our devices, whether it be a cell phone, an iPod, a laptop, ect. Bring the entertainment to the FD. One thing my FD did to bring people in was buy a new big screen TV (which also serves its purpose for watching training DVDs) and a PS3 (for entertainment AND it serves as a BluRay Player). The Rec Room is the pinnacle of retention when it comes to bringing people down and making them want to stay. We also have a pool table, a foosball table, a bar (alcohol is locked away - but that's another issue), nice couches, darts, ect. We also allow PD to use the Rec Room for their lunches, which also creates a nice professional tie with them, too.
-"Fun" Trainings - Lets be honest - no one likes lugging hose around all of the time. Instead of stretching lines, why not switch it up and do a Heavy Rescue training or do a Flashover simulator? I, personally, see the turnout much higher for these trainings, and they're necessary, anyway.
-Other Social Events - We have parades, parties, ect. Like I said before - people came to the FD, in part, to socialize. This also strengthens the fiber of the FD by infusing tighter comradary. Go to sporting events, have holiday parties and even go to local schools to help with Fire Prevention. Anything social is good and should bring FD personnel together.
Also, always have discretion and leniency. I've seen some officers that would ban someone at the drop of a hat without a second thought just to make a name for themselves. Make sure those in power always have an open mind AND are also professional in their position. Officers should socialize with FD personnel, but they should put an end to gossip - something I've seen in the past. We're meant to be a brotherhood (and sisterhood), not a Drama Club.
Best of luck.
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Permalink Reply by Wade Seely on
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strippers, money, and booze........... just joking (taking a page from college football recruiters)
I think that everyone has covered some good points, but one I would like to mention for retention of members is to not forget the spouse and family. Volunteer FD's take a lot of time and commitment that will take people away from their families. As a department you can try to get families involved as much as possible and show that you as a department value the sacrifices that they have made. Not only will this help retain members, but it may help some members personal lives, becasue I know some that would probably choose the FD over the other, but if their other half feels included it may not lead to difficulties in the first place.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Foisy on
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well bud in this dane age its hard to tell who is real and who is not go by ur best judgement watch ur members and see how they conduct them selves in and out of the department then u will be able to see the people who are worth serving your comunity and surrounding areas every one diseves a chance but we are here to provide to serve and protect so u look like a smart man u will do great with staffing ur station with careing intellgent and morraly good ethicle people have a great night be safe to all and god bless
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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The one thing I can remember in my own fire company and others in our county most of them were made up of members of families. Fathers, brothers, cousins....... Then the Ladies Aux made up of mothers, daughters..... There was a story where during World War 2 where the Ladies Aux had to man the fire engine while the men were away at war. That changed in years to come where both men and ladies man fire and rescue apparatus together and the Aux will also have both too.
Right now my dept needs people in our Aux because we need people to run BINGO but we also need people to run fire and rescue calls.
I found one problem of retention in my dept is when you have to force people or threaten people with suspenion or have something with held from them to do fund raising that they will walk out and go somewhere else or just quit all together and not deal with the fire dept.
One thing is to have a leader of the dept that will force people out because of the way they handle themselves in the station or on the fireground or feel they are a threat to the leader's position. We lost a good amount of members to that plus people having to leave because of their job or having to leave the area. Others have left because of rumors or actions of other members without talking to the dept's leaders.
We have also lost people because of changes in county fire dept operations. One example would be that when dispatched that the assigned apparatus to a call is the only apparatus that can go on the call from your station and other stations. The rest of the apparatus will sit unless you call communications and tell them there is another crew to man the rest. You maybe dispatched or wait for another call so other stations won't have to fill in at your station.
Another thing is that we didn't have more trained drivers because there was no one to train them in our volunteer members because they were gone.
Most calls now are handled by a crew of on duty county career personnel unless a volunteer member ask to ride with them or handle all ems calls on the ambulance.
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Permalink Reply by Walter Karl Powitzky, Jr. on
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Jerry, The thing that my Emergency Service District setup this year after the our counties Fire Chiefs went to them to help keep and attract new members. They present a plan that is setup by the State of Texas and ran by the state . This was a retirement plan with plus they provide LODD benefits,Accidently death Benefits and others. this has help keep many from leaving and Theya sre also doing a 10 year Buy Back which means members that join the plan this year and have many years in the fire service in our county(9 Departments).So if you have as many as 10 years they will put money in the plan as if you started 10 years ago. We are also being more public if you will by inviting people to join us a t one our meetings,tour the station and particapate in more community events. We also have our own in house Trainning programs that are reported to the state which count towards the FF Cert.
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Permalink Reply by Charles Walker on
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Our department doesn't have a problem with retention, but it is the recruitment we cannot get. I've talked to the officers about doing a big recruiting push, with no progress or answer. We have people who are on but never show up unless they are called on the phone. ( and they have pagers ). There are some of us who would like to see them gone and some younger fresher blood come in but cannot get officers to say anything to them. Our cheif is an awesome leader but has no imput or help from the other officers. what can or should i do? cause everyone seems to be stuck in the past, ( the way it used to be ) mind frame.
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