Posts Categorized: Featured
Going to the Show! See You in Indy.
I hope to see all of my loyal followers (both of them) at FDIC in a few short weeks. I'll be presenting "From the X-Box to the Box Alarm" on Thursday-April 22, 2010 at 10:30am in Room 127-128. There's room for 308 of my closest, most personal friend…
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Listen Up: Recruitment Radio
This was the second installment of "Sound Magazine" that focused on volunteer recruitment and more are planned for the future.
It offered me the opportunity to talk about being a kid who "ran to the curb" whenever I heard a fire siren and all of the great things that come with being a volunteer firefighter.
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Make It Personal
The following article is a reprint from the June-2009 edition of Fire-Rescue magazine. It is also a companion piece to my blog titled: Clean the Litterbox.
I recently attended a seminar on preparation for line-of-duty deaths and firefighter funerals. If you've ever read one of my blogs here or at FirefighterNation.com, you know that I have very strong feelings about firefighter deaths.
But, for the first time, the subject really hit home with me. While it's important to plan that stuff, if we really think about it, doesn't the need for proper funeral planning only further acknowledge our acceptance of failure in protecting our own from the risks we face?
Too often we focus more time, energy and attention on those types of activities instead of the things
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Dig In.
Dig in.
“Early on in my fire service career, we responded to a report of a tractor-trailer rolled over on a nearby state highway. We arrived on scene and found a truck lying on its passenger side. The wheels were facing the roadway and the top of the cab was on the shoulder of the road. The truck driver was being treated as walking wounded. It seemed like a relatively benign accident.
As we approached the curb side we realized that this was no ordinary call. It
Read More »Fortune Tellers
Fortune Tellers:
In my last blog titled “Dig In.” I talked about the importance of story telling in the fire service and how it serves as a means of sharing experiences, traditions and values from generation to generation. In this article I try to tell a story, and in that story, I hope you can find a lesson to share for generations to come.
Almost every firefighter I meet speaks of how they always knew, from the time they
Read More »Albion FD Says: You Have to Want It!
"You Have to Want It!" is the message that Albion Volunteer Firefighters and EMTs are sending to their community in a new effort to challenge more citizens to become part of their local volunteer emergency response team.
Thanks to a four-year $134,500 grant from the US Department of Homeland Security specifically for the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters, the all-volunteer fire department will have the funding to develop recruitment efforts and marketing materials with the help of Tiger Schmittendorf, who also helped them write and secure the grant.
"The reality is that firefighting isn't for everyone, but volunteering can be. We offer flexible memberships for non-emergency personnel to join our Support Team," says Rocky Sidari, the fire department's deputy chief.
"Volunteering
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From X-Box to the Box Alarm
As I travel around the country talking with other firefighters, a commonly recurring theme of our chat is the future of the volunteer fire service.
The conversation always comes around to the topic of today's firefighters and the next generation of firefighters. Some "more experienced" firefighters (notice I didn't use the term older) share that they don't understand the "kids" coming into the fire service today.
The veterans don't think today's recruits share the same values as those who are currently leading us. And they certainly don't have the same appreciation for the traditions and discipline of the fire service. Community service is not in their blood as it is in ours. Or at least that's their complaint.
The first question I
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There’s at least Four Cs in NBFC
Earlier today I had the pleasure of joining lots of other folks who participating in the dedication of a new fire station for the North Boston Volunteer Fire Company in the Town of Boston, NY.
As I was sitting here remembering the ground breaking ceremony they held last fall, I was reminded of how proud I am to be associated with their fire company.
Many times when we discuss incident management, training and collaboration in emergency services --- we refer to the Three Cs of: Coordination, Communications and Cooperation. For a small rural fire department, the North Boston Volunteer Fire Company (the NBFC) is far ahead of the curve when it comes to the Three Cs.
Those three Cs have become the hallmark
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Clean the Litterbox
This blog is a companion piece to my article titled "Make it Personal" in the June edition of Fire-Rescue Magazine.
I was reading a not so tongue-in-cheek blog on FirefighterNation.com written by my good friend Art Goodrich titled: “Ordering From the Risk Menu” and it reminded me of a Saturday I spent recently, full of fire service activities.
I started the day by attending a heavy dose of an 8-hour seminar focusing on preparation for a Line of Duty Death. If you’ve ever read one of my blogs, you know I’m very passionate
Schmittendorf Secures $500k for Erie County Chiefs to Conduct R&R
Erie County Fire Chiefs Awarded $500k Recruitment Grant
- Offer Opportunities for You to Get Involved
The Erie County Fire Chiefs Mutual Aid Organization, in collaboration
with the Erie County Division of Fire Safety, are pleased to announce
that t…
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Join the Conversation
Joining on the heels of the recent well-attended presentation for Suffolk County, fire departments in three more New York State Counties have recently signed up for Tiger Schmittendorf's "Leadership in the Firehouse" seminar series.
Tiger's flagship presentation is a comprehensive review of the Recruitment and Retention Rescue vs. Recovery discussion. The highly interactive presentation engages the participants in a conversation to discover the root causes of the challenges we face, why we face them and what we can do about them; together.
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Now It’s Your Turn.
Last fall I wrote about doing the right thing by getting involved in an organization of firefighters known as Hancock Hope, formed for the sole purpose of helping other firefighters and fire departments in need.
I talked about the struggles of a very rural volunteer fire department in Oneida, Kentucky and of the goodwill of the Newstead NY Volunteer Fire Company who donated a used fire engine to them. It was a team effort with a lot
Read More »Suffolk Selects Schmittendorf for Scholarship Seminar
Tiger Schmittendorf will be the keynote presenter for the Suffolk County Fire Chiefs Council's Scholarship Seminar on Friday - March 27, 2009.
Tiger's "Leadership in the Firehouse" seminar will be held in the Berkner Hall auditorium of Brookhaven National Labs in Brookhaven (Long Island) NY.
The association's 1st Vice President Chief Anthony LaFerrera first heard of Tiger Schmittendorf from his presentation at the FASNY Legislative Conference in October-2008.
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3407
Continental Flight 3407 crashed into a home in Clarence Center around 10:20pm on Thursday-February 12, 2009 - killing 50 people and changing the lives of thousands more, including mine.
I responded in the first wave of emergency services personnel sent to help restore order to the chaos that the crash created.
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Night at the Museum
OK. I admit it.
It was a day at the museum but hey, nobody ever made a movie with the catchy title: "Day at the Museum."
Regardless, we had a great day recently when we visited the Buffalo Fire Historical Museum on William St. near Ogden St. on the city's eastern border with the Town of Cheektowaga.
I was there once before, a very long time ago, but had forgotten just how rich the museum is with placeholders of our heritage. And the best part was, I went with friends.
I dragged along my best friend Chief Denny Allen, my 21-year old niece Christina who is a new firefighter with neighboring Lake Erie Beach; and Kyle, the 9-year old son of another best friend - Chief John Latimore. I'll tell you about
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Keeping People
Got any bright ideas?
Here's a link to a FirefighterNation discussion started by a firefighter struggling to maintain the membership in his volunteer fire department.
"In my group we have people that come and don't show up for 6 months; people who quit due to other members ill behavior and misconduct - and people who stay and do as they are told.
What do we do to keep members and to have the members come back?"
Join the Recruiters Group on FFN and chime in on the chat: Keeping People
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Please CO-operate. It’s a matter of life and death.
This morning's Buffalo News headline featured the photo of a bright, beautiful 16-year old girl with a promising future, her life snuffed out by a silent killer yesterday.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is colorless and odorless. It strikes with symptoms that could easily be mistaken for the flu. Small doses accumulated over time can be as dangerous as a prolonged exposure. Left undetected, there is potential for harm and death in almost every household in America.
Carbon Monoxide is a normal by-product of combustion. Natural gas fired appliances (stoves, boilers, hot water tanks, furnaces, etc.) give off carbon monoxide. So do wood burning stoves and fireplaces. However, under normal operating conditions and with sufficient ventilation, the CO does not accummulate to levels that
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