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Recruiting volunteer FF/EMS


Resqmedic

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Although I don't have time right now, I just returned *last weekend* from a "Leadership Seminar" which is basically geared to volunteer services. It was an awesome weekend, I learned a lot, and I am excited for the next three parts of it. When I was hired "part time" here in town a few months ago I began implementing some of the things that we happened to go over last weekend to improve not only our roster, but our "culture" so it was reassuring to find that I was on the right track at least.

When I get a chance, hopefully this weekend, I will share some of it and try to get some links to the crew that is putting the training on~~

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  • 1 month later...

Well I can Break it down for you what we have going on.

Majority of Dept. Funds come From Taxes. Its a Line item in the County's Budget. All our Vollys are Paid per Call $26.00. for the first 4 hours of a call then $10.00 /hr after that. Now one thing on top of Fire service we offer is education programs and then We are Very big on our ISO rating. Lower rating means a Lower Home Insurance.

All of our members have life insurance, premiums are paid out of our FRA account.

Rural Side of things is a little different if rural gets called out its usually a controlled burn gone awry. The person who started it gets billed for our service.

On to the recruiting. Word of mouth has been our best bet. Weve gotten to the point where there is a Pride of our Dept. through our members. We interview for new members. They have a probationary period. We try to make ourselves look like a professional "Full Time" Dept. And that has helped our numbers. We train twice a month minimum!

ClutzyEMT I would be interested in looking at those links also.

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We are what is called "volunteer call" we get paid a very small amount rounded to nearest hour. Volunteer call means while on call we do not get compensated for on call time etc. However we do get paid training, classes etc. The amount given during a run is supposed to help with gas expenses, wear on car, laundering and damage to clothing due to stains etc.

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I'm with Mike. If you are paid, anything at all, you are not a volunteer--you are a paid provider. I grew up in a volunteer system that you didn't make a cent. Meals were cooked at the firehouse and generally $5/meal. A few years after I started, we started getting yearly stipends supposed to help cover travel expenses to training, etc but most of us ripped them up and tossed them in the trash. There is a real pride with volunteering.

As far as recruiting, live in programs worked for us. You can live in the firehouse rent free if you run a minimum of 3 nights a week and help keep the firehouse clean. The program had tuition help for those pursuing higher EMS training and fire training. We were in Maryland and fortunate to have numerous programs available from NFSTA, FEMA, and MFRI.

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I dont know how much some stipends are, but ours aren't enough to be considered paid.

Like the poster up a few, hourly is high, how is that volunteer? Ours stipends may cover gas and laundry.

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In North Dakota it will cost you $360,000 a year for a 24-7 BLS only staffed unit

$70k vehicles, radio's, equipment, facility, supplies and insurance

$288k in staffing costs

Usually not something a town with a population of 2000 or less can afford~~

Volunteer service here, covering a large area of about 200 square miles with a population of around the 1800 to 2000 mark. We get county subsidies as well as billing for runs. Works for us. All volunteer save one. Hard to get enough daytime help during the week. We would also like to here some recruiting ideas!

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I completely forgot about this thread (slaps her fingers)

I am not sure if they are actual "recruiting" ideas or will even help anyone else, but what we will be starting on is a "new" road with our volunteer service here in town.

A quick background, the Ambulance here in town was started in 1965 by volunteers and up until December of 2012 when we received some state money (due to the oil boom out west), it was run entirely by volunteers. I am now a "part time paid" provider and my job description includes carrying pager 3 shifts a week as well as many other duties. We do not know if we will receive more state funding so this position may well end in June of this year at which point we will go back to an "all" volunteer staff again.

The "new" road we are going to travel will be starting in April where our entire Executive Board will be changed. The volunteers on the squad have historically been the President, VP, Sec/Treasurer, etc but with the re-organization, these people will come out of the community of 780 that we serve and not out of our 'volunteer squad'. One of the soon to be adopted Bylaws states that "A Board member shall not be an active member of the squad."

Preferably, these new Board members will be well chosen, respected, and ACTIVE community members and will be selected for nomination just for that purpose~~to get the community involved with the ambulance!

I have found that while visiting with many, many members of our community who are not on the ambulance itself or living with someone "on" the ambulance, they usually have no true concept of what it actually takes to run an ambulance service nor do they realize what a 'volunteer' actually puts into being a volunteer timewise in training, re-certification, and most importantly the giving of so much of their time to keep it running. So by placing the leadership of the ambulance service back into the community, the goal is to bring the community to the ambulance.

A common phrase I heard while visiting with community members was "your ambulance"~it is not "our" ambulance I would explain to them, it is the communities ambulance....but if you think about it, when a community thinks of something as "someone elses", are they really going to get behind it and support it? Probably not.

We will also be putting into play some stronger Bylaws governing the squad members themselves. It will no longer be run like the "Good Ole Boy's Club" where if you have a pulse and a drivers license, you are welcome to join the club..... this is owing to our new "catch phrase,~~" We might be a volunteer organization in name, but we will be a professional organization in our actions.~~

Today's generation wants to see something in return for what they give. They don't function on the "warm fuzzy feeling" you get by helping someone in need and unless they feel they themselves, AND their time is valued and needed, they just don't have a lot of interest in it. But by turning away from the Good Ole Boys Club and more toward a structured and solid organization that they can see expanding and growing, we have peaked their interest and their desire to be a part of something that not just "anyone" can be a part of...

I could probably go on and on ad nauseum but I won't (unless you want to hear more) :)

And by the way, some of the people selected for our nomination committee are; a District Representative, the City Mayor, a Real Estate Broker, and another is a local farmer who has expanded his farm from 1500 acres to a multi-million dollar enterprise...what better people to get "on board"????

Edited by ClutzyEMT
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