Posts Categorized: Rr Toolkits
@FireRECRUITER: Rise to the challenge
An article recently posted to FirefighterNation.com outlines the challenges faced by volunteer fire departments in Pennsylvania in recruiting and retaining their members. Although these types of articles are becoming all too frequent, this one in particu…
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Impact of the Digital Age on 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 …
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@FireRECRUITER: Recruiting in a Gray Area
My helmet is off to the folks in the Syosset NY Fire Department for recognizing 40+ aged recruits as a viable part of the solutions to our recruitment and retention challenges.
Age is Nothing But a Number at Syosset Fire Dept.
Joining later in life is…
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FireRECRUITER: The Art of Speed-Recruiting
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.
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@FireRECRUITER: 10 Step Guide to Volunteering
I feel that overall, the guide offers valuable insight into the world of volunteer firefighting and any effort to draw attention to the opportunities available to serve your community — are good efforts.
The guide outlines 10 individual tips for preparing to join our ranks.
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@FireRECRUITER: SAFER App Period Extended
In order for all potential applicants to have sufficient time to consider this revised policy guidance, DHS will extend the 2009 SAFER application period. The new application deadline will be 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, Friday, January 15, 2010.
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It’s Time to get SAFER!
Are you SAFER than you were last year?
That is, did you submit a grant application under the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response” program for recruitment and retention?
If you didn’t, you missed out on a great opportunity to better your fire department, or in our case, the entire volunteer fire service in our region.
Here’s the good news. You get another chance. DHS just announced that the application period for the 2009 SAFER grants opens November 16, 2009.
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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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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
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.
Doyle sets out on new adventure to recruit volunteers
This billboard for Doyle Hose Co. #1 in Cheektowaga NY was designed by Tiger Schmittendorf
Part 3: Rockland County
This article is one in a series of toolkits focusing on recruitment, retention, fire service marketing and leadership.
Earlier in our discussion of the clearinghouse approach to recruitment and retention, I outlined my theory that there are three levels of recruitment activities I’ve identified as “The Clearinghouse”; “T&E: Training and Education”; and lastly the “Trench Work.”
In discussing the clearinghouse concept, I stated my feelings that the role and responsibility of building awareness as to the need for volunteers falls on regional, state
Read More »Part 2: Samples of Success
This article is one in a series of toolkits focusing on recruitment, retention, fire service marketing and leadership.
In Part 1 of our discussion of the clearinghouse approach to recruitment and retention, I outlined my theory that there are three levels of recruitment activities, three distinct angles of attack, if you will. I identified them as “The Clearinghouse”; “T&E: Training and Education”; and lastly the “Trench Work.”
In discussing the clearinghouse concept
Read More »Part 1: What’s a Clearinghouse?
In previous articles, I’ve attempted to present the fire service with real tools to use in improving their membership process and documentation including annual reports, prospective member guides and the interview process.
Recently, I’ve been working with a group of some 30 fire service leaders to offer solutions to the recruitment and retention challenges of their county’s fire service.
As part of that process, I’ve developed a three-tiered model to address what I call “recruitment and retention
Read More »Death Toll
Here's a hot topic that might set off some fireworks. Who knows, it might even incite a reader to leave a comment.
This is something very near and dear to me and something I feel very strongly about. I've wanted to write about this for a long time and a recent conversation with a friend prompted me to pick tonight to write it. And, now that I have the forum to do so, here goes.
I'll be involved in at least two fire service funerals this week, and hopefully not a third but it's quite possible. In my role as Deputy Fire Coordinator, I've honestly probably attended perhaps hundreds of such Read More »
