NVFC Launches new Junior Firefighter Recruitment Video

The National Volunteer Fire Council has launched a new recruitment video aimed at attracting young people to the volunteer fire service. Funded by a grant from Tyco, the video shares testimonials from several existing junior firefighters, leveraging the power of referral from these young adults. The NVFC page that introduces the new resource also includes [...]

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 [...]

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 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 [...]

Video Killed the Recruitment Star

OK, maybe that’s not how the song goes, but I have to thank my good friend Bill Schumm over at FireGeezer.com for doing my FireRECRUITER work for me. In his February 17th Morning Lineup features (and updated on February 20th), he discusses and demonstrates the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of using video as a recruitment tool. While his perspective on [...]

Is this Our Best Approach?

This article was originally published November 29, 2009 at www.TigerSchmittendorf.com. Rather than keep creating new posts on this subject, I intend to re-publish this post as opportunity presents itself to learn from best — and not exactly our best — practices in motivating members of the public to join our ranks. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 11/13/11 – In [...]

Digital Recruitment and Retention

The world is changing rapidly and the fire service is getting caught up in the tornado effect of technology on our society. More and more fire departments are smartly using web sites, e-mail and social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter to recruit new firefighters, share life safety information and to stay connected to their community. There isn’t [...]

Lots to Tweet About

There’s been plenty to tweet about lately regarding recruitment and retention in the fire service. Some of the info shared is good news and some is bad news, regardless, it all contains lessons we can learn from. Sometimes there’s so much activity and so much being shared, that it’s tough for even someone as “connected” [...]

We’ve been waiting for you!

“We have been waiting for you!” — That’s the theme of the recruitment campaign promoted by the Depew Fire Department here in Erie County NY. Their banner at one of the busiest intersections in Western New York caught my eye today while traveling to a meeting. The slogan invokes the idea that if you’re reading [...]

Sign Up Now and Share Your Secrets!

Young Blood: Newton Abbott Captain Josh Taylor at a recent fire in Orchard Park NY. ©2011 FireRECRUITER.com Subscribe to FireRECRUITER.com before August 15, 2011 and we will email you ”Tiger’s Top 10 Commandments for Recruitment and Retention” and the “Official Recruiter’s Cheat Sheet” just for signing up. Once you’ve read my secrets, share your recruitment secrets at VolunteerMatch.org’s [...]

Satisfied with Success

I recently received this email from a fire department who found the resources at FireRECRUITER.com to be helpful to them in their recruitment and retention efforts. Perhaps it will inspire others to make a go of it and invest the time and energy into writing a SAFER grant application and in general, do something about [...]