VFDs Get Creative About Recruiting

Allowing interested candidates to specialize as fire police or pump operators is a great way to spread the work load. As the article says, not everyone needs to be the person running into the burning building as all the sane people are running out.

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SURVEY SAYS? FD Youth Programs

There's apparently a heated debate going on at FirefighterNation.com as to whether recruiting high school students to join the volunteer fire service, in whatever capacity, is a good idea.

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X-Box Firefighters

I wrote a magazine article for FASNY’s The Volunteer Firefighter titled: “From the X-Box to the Box Alarm” that addresses today’s generation of firefighters and firefighter candidates. Given recent news articles and discussions, I think it’s relevant to revisit and ...

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PA Dips in the Fountain of Youth for Recruits

Here’s a link to a news story on FirefighterNation.com about some volunteer fire departments in Pennsylvania who are teaming up to reach out to local high school students for new recruits. Managed, trained and nurtured properly, Explorers and Junior Firefighters can be ...

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VIDEO FILE: Erie County Boot Camp

I'll start at home with this link to our Boot Camp video developed by WKBW-TV (Channel 7 in Buffalo NY) which describes the 10-day intensive training that we offer every summer at the Erie County Fire Academy. This full length feature was first shown at the graduation ceremony for Boot Camp Class of 2006 during which it was filmed by WKBW Photographer Chris Couell and narrated by Pete Kenworthy, their news anchor who joined the Hamburg Volunteer Fire Department and was embedded in the class as a student.

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THINKING OUTSIDE THE FIREBOX: Engaging Generation Y

MediaPost - a completely non-fire related web site - offers blogs and newsletters for marketing your ideas and opportunities to Hispanics, young kids, teens, Moms and even old kids - the Boomer generation. I bet if we really opened our minds and hearts, we could learn a lot from these outside resources and apply it to benefit virtually every part of our business. Imagine that!

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NEW TOOLKIT: Prospective Member Guide

The purpose of the Prospective Member Guide is to give the candidate a clear and fair understanding of what they're getting into. If it helps them realize it's not for them - it has done it's job and it only cost you a few pennies worth of paper.

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