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?

Walking the Walk and Living it up like a Live-in!

Photo Courtesy of http://www.RaisingLaddersPhotography.com

I’m so intrigued by firehouse live-in programs that later this week, the FireRECRUITER is traveling to Hyattsville MD — home to one of the longest standing and most successful bunk in programs in the fire service — and home to the X-Box Firefighters who created FDLiveIn.com. And to get a better understanding and appreciation for the program, I’ll be bunking in the station Friday night and they’ve arranged a tour of several live-in fire stations for Saturday.

The Difference Between Flush and Flushing

Having just completed a week-long National Fire Academy course in Advanced Safety Operations & Management, I was thinking of the correlation between safety — and recruitment — and retention. One could argue that the connections are both direct and significant.

If your fire department has a reputation for conducting operations safely and effectively — your audience: prospective candidates, stakeholders and the general public will have a positive impression about your organization. This is especially true when it comes to the often overlooked safety subject of health and wellness.

How well do you really take care of your members so that you minimize the risk of them not returning to their families at the end of a run. Isn’t that our most basic obligation to those who serve? I’m not referring to just physical care and safety SOGs, etc.

Recruitment Goes Statewide in NY

Congratulations to the members of FASNY’s Recruitment and Retention Committee for being proactive and planning a statewide recruitment effort for April 9 and 10, 2011.

They’re promoting the simple concept of each volunteer fire department hosting an open house that weekend and have backed it up with the marketing and planning tools to make your local efforts successful.

From sample press releases to web banners and everything in between, they’ve thought of it all and posted it to a single resource center at www.recruitny.org. I know we’ll be promoting it and encouraging FD participation in our county and I hope you will too, even if you don’t live in New York.

Check out the site and the resources and get ready to open your firehouse to hopefully what is a long line of prospective members of your volunteer fire department.

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!”

The Art of Speed-Recruiting

Doyle Hose Co. 1 Fire-Recruiters Brian Sas, Colton Marinelli and Don Keuck engage students during career day at their local high school.

If you had just 30 seconds to convince someone why they should join your volunteer fire department, what would you say? 

What would your message be? Do you have a standard sales pitch that you use for just such occasions? Can you even say hello in 30 seconds? 

I recently had the opportunity to coach and practice some speed-recruiting exercises with the Doyle Hose Co. 1 in Cheektowaga NY. They had been invited to be a part of career day at the local high school in their response area and they invited me to join them. 

Live Netcast: Recruitment Challenges and Solutions

Join the FireRECRUITER live via the Internet on Wednesday-March 10, 2010 at 8pm ET at FirefighterNetcast.com for a conversation discussing the challenges of today’s fire service in recruiting and retaining volunteers.

Click www.tigerschmittendorf.com for all the details.

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.