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.

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?

Different Views on Generational Differences

A young firefighter checks his mobile device while returning from a run

A recent e-mail blast from Fire Chief Magazine included a video interview with a training officer in a combination fire department in Texas where he shared his views on the impact of generational differences in the fire service.

While I agree with most of his viewpoints, his comment that today’s generation are only focused on “the here and now” contradicts what other researchers have found. As mentioned in my article “From the Xbox to the Box Alarm,” Dr. Renee Downey-Hart  indicates that this generation is actually just the opposite, that they are very “future focused” as she describes in her research here.

Read more about the impact of what I’ve dubbed the “Xbox Generation” and discuss it here.

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 insight for marketing your local junior firefighter program: http://juniors.nvfc.org//itemDetails.php?itemid=24

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 why we face the recruitment and retention challenges we do are certainly part of puzzle, the value of his commentary lies in the subliminal call to action that we need to be more creative in creating the solutions.

Certainly, a recruitment video with appropriate visuals and a good, solid message can be effective, but FireGeezer proposes that we need to do something about our culture, our society, to inspire and perpetuate volunteerism. I couldn’t agree more.

However, I feel that before we can tackle the 300 pound elephant of societal viewpoints, we should first look inward at our own culture. No longer can we afford to act as a “secret society” — shunning those who don’t necessarily fit our traditonal demographic or the model of what a firefighter “used to be.” While we must certainly strive towards those who can embrace or already share our value system, reality is that those people come in different shapes and sizes, colors and backgrounds too.

“Day in the Life” Shows Service, Sacrifice

This great video from the Pontiac Michigan Fire Department depicts a day in the life of their firefighters, from leaving the house and their family in the morning to returning hours later to their loved ones.

Tastefully done, I think it’s one of the best videos I’ve seen that demonstrates the service of America’s firefighters and recognizes our families who make real sacrifices on our behalf so that we can do what we love to do. I’m not sure of its origin or if it was created just for the video but the voice-over is superb and includes a great motivational message, apparently intended for this fire department that is going through some its darkest times facing the deepest cuts possible. We wish only the best for them in their fight to save their ability to protect their community.

Check it out and let the FireRECRUITER know what you think and be sure to share your fire department recruitment and promotional videos and resources.

Funk or Junk? Rockland’s Bravest

The FireRECRUITER’s helmet is off to my good friend and fellow recruiter Frank Hutton and Rockland County’s Creative Approach to the Fire Service Committee for putting forth a great effort in addressing recruitment and retention in their region.

With the help of a SAFER grant from the US Department of Homeland Security, they’ve produced a web site with cool videos for all age groups. B1O1.org features a music video and lots of great content in focusing on challenging prospective volunteers to “Be One of the Ones.”

And they’ve integrated collateral materials to support the web campaign including tent cards, brochures, kiosk, radio and outdoor advertising; and a complete package approach with a program folder wrapper.

Roll With It!

 

In honor of EMS Week-2010, I thought I’d promote the (dare I say) sexiest video I’ve ever seen come to volunteer recruitment and retention.

Created in 2005 by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, “Roll With It!” was designed to capture the excitement of prospective EMS personnel as a pre-emptive strike against a growing manpower shortage in their state.

It worked, as “Roll With It!” brought in thousands of new EMTs statewide.

“Roll With It!” is a part music video, part movie trailer — full-on high energy – high impact web site for the recruitment of fire and EMS personnel.

Congratulations and thanks to all EMS personnel around the world for what you do every day.

Celebrate EMS Week in style: “Roll With It!”

Reporter Takes Test Drive of Firefighter Training

Check out this reporter’s experience as he dons a firefighter’s gear and learns about the life of a volunteer.

Training shows reporter how much volunteer figherfighters deal with: http://journalstar.com/news/local/article_23a66580-50c4-11df-b21a-001cc4c03286.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

VIDEO FILE: Erie County Boot Camp

With this entry, I’d like to start a new post to review some videos that provide insight into the fire service and others that are created to motivate citizens to join our ranks. Stop back often as we’ll try to regularly feature and review different videos.

12/08/09 – I’ll start at home with this link to our Boot Camp video developed by WKBW-TV (Channel 7 in Buffalo NY) which describes the 10-day intensive training that we offer every summer at the Erie County Fire Academy. This full length feature was first shown at the graduation ceremony for Boot Camp Class of 2006 during which it was filmed by WKBW Photographer Chris Couell and narrated by Pete Kenworthy, their news anchor who joined the Hamburg Volunteer Fire Department and was embedded in the class as a student.