Draft Choices

Volunteer fire departments, whether they realize it or not, compete for recruits. Sometimes with other volunteer fire departments but most often with a busy home life, other community organizations, volunteering opportunities and a wide array of social activities.

What if our recruits, like in college recruiting, were in competition with other recruits wanting to be selected by our fire departments? Would we see more or less candidates? More or less qualified? Or are they already in competition with each other?

More importantly, what can we learn from college athletic recruiters like the NCSA who set up this registry for potential recruits? Do you use language like: “SEIZE the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – and change your life” to describe the benefits of joining your volunteer fire department?

The Jury is Out on Criminal Background Checks

What you should and can ask an applicant about their criminal history is a smokey issue. What you can legally do with the information you receive can obscur your visibility even more.

As happens pretty frequently, I had a fire chief call recently to ask for some advice on what has become a bit of an arresting matter in his volunteer fire department.

It appears that a prospective candidate for membership was being honest when they checked off the little box on their fire department application that asks whether or not they’ve been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor offense. Essentially, they were being honest about being dishonest — now that’s what I call irony.

What to do? Deny the application. Case closed. Simple as that. Right?

NVFC: Quantity of Volunteers is Down

According to this report released at NVFC.org, there were 44,000 fewer volunteer firefighters in 2010 compared to 2009, a reduction of 5.4 percent, according to the U.S. Fire Department Profile Through 2010, an annual report that was recently issued by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The loss of volunteers is primarily coming in communities with populations of 2,500 or fewer, which were protected by 377,550 firefighters in 2010 compared with 408,550 in 2009, a drop of approximately 7.6 percent.

[Read the balance of the article here.]

Without reading the entire study, one could wonder whether or not those numbers are a bad thing or just a truer reflection of the real number of volunteers directly involved in firefighting, not just total number of active and inactive members of volunteer fire departments. If you read on in the NVFC article you’ll learn that while the total numbers are going down, the average age of those left behind is going up. That’s a real issue we need to address immediately and constantly.

Digital Recruitment and Retention

Burlington Township (NJ) Firefighter Matt Stahlnecker checks his mobile device while returning from a run on Rescue 30. Photo by: Tiger Schmittendorf

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 much you can’t do with a mobile device today that took a super-computer to do less than 30 years ago.

And while we’re making strides in keeping our folks safer on the incident scene, there’s probably few bigger challenges today than to keep your folks out of trouble on social networks and the Internet. Sometimes ‘retention’ in the fire service devolves to preventing our people from doing stupid stuff.

I recently had the opportunity to facilitate a conversation titled: “From the Xbox to the Box Alarm” with a large group of fire instructors  for the University of Kansas Fire and Rescue Institute wherein we discussed today’s and tomorrow’s generation of firefighters. The conversation focused not only on the challenges in understanding, motivating, training and leading this unique cadre of individuals, but also enlightened the participants as to the tremendous potential they possess for moving our fire service forward.

And, naturally, you can’t have a conversation about today’s generation of firefighters without discussing the importance of technology and the impact of social networking.

I had the daunting task of following a presentation by Curt Varone, an accomplished

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!”

Score One for Run-to-the-Curb type Kids: Opening Doors

As reported by Fire-Rescue Magazine on FirefighterNation.com, the International Association of Fire Chiefs Volunteer and Combination Officers Section has released their Silver Ribbon Report titled: “Opening New Doors: Guidelines and Best Practices for a Successful Youth Fire Service Program.”

While I haven’t had the chance to read the entire 52-page report cover-to-cover, I can tell you that it’s comprehensive in scope and a well organized resource for anyone involved in creating or maintaining a fire department sponsored youth program. It holds something for everyone including chief officers, youth leaders, fire department administration, parents, support liaisons and the youth themselves.

REVIEW: 10 Step Guide to Volunteering

I stumbled across a guide to becoming a volunteer firefighter while reviewing a list of web resources from FireCritic.com and found it to be very interesting.

First, inasmuch as the guide was created for potential volunteer candidates, I thought it interesting that the site FireLink.com was connected to Monster.com — the familiar job search engine. That’s not to say that it’s a bad thing, I just found it to be somewhat interesting.

Next, I found it interesting that the author, or at least, co-author of the 10-Step program was a two-year veteran of the volunteer fire service. While I appreciate his fresh insight, I also felt his perspective was somewhat limited as outlined in my next point of interest.

VFDs Get Creative About Recruiting

This article from the Post Star in Northern New York State outlines some of the creative steps their fire departments are taking to attract new members.

I applaud their efforts to diversify their membership, both in age and in function. Fire Explorers, Junior Firefighters, and FireCorps members are a great way to expand your work force.

X-Box Firefighters

I wrote a magazine article for FASNY’s The Volunteer Firefighter titled: “From the X-Box to the Box Alarm” that addresses today’s generation of firefighters and firefighter candidates.

Given recent news articles and discussions, I think it’s relevant to revisit and discuss the future of the fire service here:

http://tigerschmittendorf.com/2009/06/21/from-x-box-to-the-box-alarm/

Download the Reprint of: From X-Box to the Box Alarm from www.tigerschmittendorf.com.

PA Dips in the Fountain of Youth for Recruits

Here’s a link to a news story on FirefighterNation.com about some volunteer fire departments in Pennsylvania who are teaming up to reach out to local high school students for new recruits.

Managed, trained and nurtured properly, Explorers and Junior Firefighters can be the lifeblood of a volunteer fire company. Admittedly, there are pros and cons to this approach.

Nontheless, this is a great story of a fire department taking necessary steps to ensure the survival and success of their volunteer fire service.

Agree or disagree, my helmet is off to them for doing whatever it takes to keep their service going. And I especially like the fact that they’re teaming up to do it.

http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/pennsylvania-volunteer?commentId=889755%3AComment%3A4415263

Read it. Digest it. Discuss it here or discuss it there.

Stay safe. Train often.