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As many volunteer fire departments struggle to maintain adequate staffing, there’s still a long-standing solution available that is often overlooked. Like many of the challenges we face, the solution to inadequate staffing may require more imagination and sheer will than it ...

The organization IndependentSector.org released a document identifying the value of volunteers in America. The study indicates that the average value of a volunteer’s time was $20.85 per hour in 2009. According to the report, that number was as high as $28.52 ...

Is it just me, or does any one else smell opportunity? You say you don't have enough volunteers? Here's an idea, take those donations and invest them in a VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN!!!! As I've spoke and written of many times before, why is it that we spend the thousands and sometimes millions of dollars to support the inanimate objects of our jobs that are entirely useless without the proper quantity and quality of firefighters to operate them?

Check out this reporter’s experience as he dons a firefighter’s gear and learns about the life of a volunteer. Training shows reporter how much volunteer figherfighters deal with: http://journalstar.com/news/local/article_23a66580-50c4-11df-b21a-001cc4c03286.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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? ...

As we discussed in my netcast on recruitment and retention last night at www.firefighternetcast.com, programs like Venturing, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Brownies, Cub Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs and certainly Explorers and Junior Firefighters, etc. are all breeding grounds and a feeder system for youth development into the fire service.

"I urge all fire service leaders to develop, establish, disseminate, abide and enforce a Fire Service Code of Ethics.” Kelvin Cochran-United States Fire Administrator.

The FireRECRUITER joins FireCritic and FireDaily as their special guest on this week’s edition of Firefighter NetCast.

Who Can Afford to Volunteer? That's the question asked by Don Grogg, a commissioner for Harris County Emergency Service District No. 9 in Texas in this article titled: "Suburban Fire Districts Sound the Alarm" in the Houston Chronicle.

And while I think the author is right on the mark that prospective candidates should do their homework before signing on the dotted line, I disagree with emphasizing and entering fundraising into the conversation so early. There are too many other positive parts of our business that could be used to highlight the benefits of volunteering. Fundraising is one of those functions that some volunteers must do when they're not doing what they signed up to do -- fighting fires and providing emergency services.