Be a hero, save lives, join LVAC!

Great job by the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps (LVAC)  in producing this professional video demonstrating their capabilities and dedication to the community, just in time to celebrate their 60th anniversary of service to the Town of Lancaster and Village of Depew NY.

With lots of images of their hard-working team, radio traffic voice overs and realistic looking mocked up emergency scenes, the video matches their clean and professional website in doing it right in motivating citizens to get involved and volunteer with this active emergency services agency.

Check out their video and visit: www.lancasterambulance.org.

Loudon County VA Hiring

Loudoun County VA has posted a paid Firefighter/EMT recruitment  to their website at: www.loudoun.gov.

FIREFIGHTER/EMT

Recruitment #13-F136-322

Date Opened:

12/18/2012 8:00:00 AM

Closing Date:

1/2/2013 5:00:00 PM

Hiring Range:

$40,925

Department:

FIRE & RESCUE SERVICE

Job Type: Open and Competitive

Full/Part-Time: Full-Time

Eligible For: Full Benefits

Schedule: Varies

Reg/Temp: Regular

“VetNet” To Help Military Veterans Re-Enter Civilian Life

Sgt. Don Keuck is a Citizen-Soldier-Firefighter with the Doyle Hose Co. 1 Volunteer Fire Company in Cheektowaga NY and the NY National Guard

As we’ve shared before, recruiting veterans into the volunteer fire service can be a great solution to our staffing challenges.

They might just be the perfect candidate as we don’t have to teach them discipline, respect, honor, loyalty, chain-of-command or teamwork. In return we offer the camaraderie, adrenaline rush, teamwork and sense of value that they miss from active duty.

Check out this article at our sister site and think about the “VetNet” we could create in the Volunteer Fire Service. There’s an army of volunteers out there just waiting to be asked. Recruiting a Soldier|Firefighter may be the perfect fit for your volunteer fire department.

Read: “VetNet” To Help Military Veterans Re-Enter Civilian Life

My Bologna Has a First Name

Grabbing and keeping the public’s attention for the purpose of promoting a product, service or a cause has become a billion dollar business.

As fire and emergency medical services struggle to find or maintain its identity in this generation of flux, what can we learn from the advertising and marketing industry that will help us build our brand?

A recent web-surfing adventure randomly brought me back to this commercial I remember from when I was a kid:

That jingle first hit the TV screen in 1973 but all I need to hear is the start of the theme music, and I can’t help but break into song. Now that’s a lasting marketing message.

When you market your fire department for the purpose of gaining financial support, recruiting new volunteers or simply building company and community pride — do you have a theme, jingle, motto, or tagline that makes your message memorable? Is it integrated into all of your community education, relations and recruitment efforts?

Burning Question: Is a Co-Op Campaign Right for You?

Has your fire department ever considered conducting a co-op advertising and marketing program for recruiting new volunteers, promoting fire and life safety or just generally good public relations?

Maybe you should. Think of the benefits of partnering with a local business, corporation or even another community group or non-profit organization. Cost sharing is the most obvious outcome but there are several underlying themes that could benefit both parties in the partnership.

A recent article in Fast Company Magazine got me thinking once again about what the fire service can learn from other industries and disciplines — both good and bad.

While the article titled “3 Ways to Win in a Brutal Economy” focused on retail businesses, it certainly offered great suggestions that we can apply to our service-driven business.

DHS Announces Veterans Hiring Program

In an effort to increase the number of military placed back in the workplace after active service, the US Department of Homeland Security has announced it’s latest initiative as part of the SAFER grant program for recruitment, retention and hiring.

FireRECRUITER.com previously shared our thoughts about the opportunity to not only hire veterans into paid fire departments, but also the huge opportunity to recruit them into the volunteer fire service as a means of offering them a step-down and reintegration process that few other outlets offer.

Time to get SAFER!

The application period for the US DHS SAFER grant program for the recruitment, retention and hiring of firefighters opened today: July 16, 2012.

Applications are due by August 10. “SAFER grants provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations in order to help them increase the number of trained, front-line firefighters in their communities,” according to this article on the National Volunteer Fire Council’s website.

The FireRECRUITER has been extremely successful in assisting fire departments and county-based fire service organizations in securing significant SAFER funding when acting as a clearinghouse on behalf of the volunteer fire service in their region.

GX Magazine Catches on to the Soldier-Firefighter Connection

As they often do, the most recent edition of the National Guard’s GX Magazine featured my favorite kind of two-hatter: Those who wear both a soldier’s helmet and a fire helmet.

The featured Guardsman is Specialist Rob Fox – a Soldier in the California Army National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and firefighter with the San Diego Fire Department.

Read the rest of the story at: SoldierFirefighter.com

Bond of Brothers

I recently had the privilege of writing a feature article for Fire-Rescue Magazine outlining the importance of “Making the Citizen-Soldier-Firefighter Connection.”

What started out as a vision for a successful joint recruitment project has morphed into a passion to connect firefighters and soldiers of all stripes.

Based on the concept that we’re looking for the same people — and we are the same people, I created a joint recruitment project between our county’s volunteer fire service and the NY National Guard.

Are You Ready to RecruitNY?

SHARED COURTESY OF FASNY and Nell Killoran, Senior Editor, The Volunteer Firefighter [www.FASNY.com and www.abcideabased.com] Images created or modified by FireRECRUITER.com

Erie County is supporting their 94 volunteer fire departments in their VolunteerNY efforts by offering free design and marketing assistance

Recruiting and retaining manpower is one of the greatest challenges, if not the greatest challenge, we face in the volunteer fire service.

To help address this issue, FASNY created and launched the Recruit NY campaign last April in 2011. Hopefully this rings a bell for you and your department was able to draw in some great new recruits from the event. If your department did not participate last year, this is your year to get involved.

As you may or may not remember, the campaign’s objective was primarily to implement a statewide recruitment initiative during National Volunteer Week in April 2011. This new approach saw FASNY, the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs, Association of Fire Districts of New York State, Volunteer Fire Police Association of the State of New York and County Fire Coordinators Association of the State of New York all join forces to assist fire departments in expanding their recruitment efforts. This was a first-of-its-kind type of effort and a very successful one, at that.