Is this Our Best Approach?

This article was originally published November 29, 2009 at www.TigerSchmittendorf.com. Rather than keep creating new posts on this subject, I intend to re-publish this post as opportunity presents itself to learn from best — and not exactly our best — practices in motivating members of the public to join our ranks.

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11/13/11 – In this week’s installment of “Is this our best approach?” we look at a news clip covering the recruitment and retention challenges of the Fremont County Volunteer Fire Service in Kinnear, Wyoming. The piece starts out with good intentions as a firefighter describes why he volunteers and how he and the community mutually benefit. Unfortunately, like so many other videos and news articles on the subject, this video wraps up with another firefighter or officer outlining all the reasons people aren’t volunteering today.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWgDSFSfQpAfeature=player_embedded]

Now I’m not blaming the fire department here as the news reporter didn’t help them much in sending the right message, but Marketing 101 tells us to stay focused on the positive virtues of our product or service and avoid the downside. As I stated in “Can you rise to the challenge?” — Too often, we hand a prospective candidate all of the reasons and excuses why they wouldn’t join on a silver platter. I’m sorry but, where are we missing the boat?

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From www.tigerschmittendorf.com:

http://tigerschmittendorf.com/2009/10/29/is-this-our-best-approach/

Get into the discussion here or at FirefighterNation.com.