It’s a new year and a new opportunity to re-align our focus and our commitment to volunteer enlistment. This is the question I ask at the start of every presentation, class or simply conversations with others as passionate about the ...
Read More »Get Schooled on Recruiting High Schoolers
A recent online message from a firefighter friend prompted me to publish the recruitment insight I shared with him: Hey Tiger, I’m looking for help with our Recruitment and Retention Efforts . In the past few months we have lost ...
Read More »Recruitment Video of the Week: Perry Hi-Way VFD
This week’s recruitment video review comes from Perry Hi-Way Volunteer Hose Co. in Erie PA. While the video is very professionally done, I’m concerned with any public outreach that leads with the message that our numbers are dwindling and the reasons people ...
Read More »Coordinated Attack!
If you vent too early, oxygen is introduced and the fire can grow. Put water on the fire without proper ventilation and the trapped heat converts the water to steam and everyone’s survivability is compromised. A coordinated attack is critical ...
Read More »NVFC Receives SAFER Grant for National Firefighter Recruitment and Retention Campaign
According to an NVFC.org press release, the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) has been awarded a $2,390,479 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to implement a national volunteer firefighter recruitment ...
Read More »CRACKING THE CODE: Xbox™ Firefighters 14/04.20
In his article for Fast Company magazine titled: “4 Tips To Help Millennials Find Meaningful Work“, Adam Smiley Poswolsky makes the argument that young people want to do work with purpose: “They call us the lazy generation, the entitled generation, and ...
Read More »Is reserving a name change right maneuver for volunteer firefighters?
While I appreciate that this chief gets the SoldierFirefighter connection, he also thinks Volunteer Firefighters need a name change to put us on par with our partners in the military reserves. What do you think? http://www.firerescue1.com/volunteer/articles/1883831-How-to-rid-fire-service-of-rivalry-with-a-name-change/
Read More »Where there’s smoke…
Where there’s smoke…there’s a Delaware Volunteer Firefighter! proclaims this web site dedicated to recruiting more for their ranks. Delaware’s recruitment clearinghouse site does a great job of getting the right information in the hands of the right people by sharing scrolling ...
Read More »Orange Beach Creates Resident Firefighter Program
Orange Beach, Alabama’s Fire Department has gotten creative with a bunk-in program that leads to real career opportunities. While other FDLiveIn.com-like programs may prepare you to take a paid firefighting position in a neighboring fire department, county or state, the ...
Read More »Recruit your replacements. Train them well.
Given the national decline in experience-building fire load (aka-the work we do as firefighters), I’ve written before about the challenge of today’s fire service leaders to dig in and invest more in their firefighters than ever before to prepare them ...
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