Recruting Volunteers

[Cambridgewalk1]

I am a chief of a small volunteer squad, in a rural area. Over the last few years we have seen the old guard retiring, moving or otherwise leaving the squad with little new blood. While the available volunteer numbers has srunk, the call volume continues to rise.

We have tried recruiting through newspaper articles, open houses, word of mouth, mailers, etc. with little community input.

We recently added a couple of paid staff positions, just to keep an available crew, but given the call volume increasing paid staff is not in the cards.

I am looking for ideas, suggestions, folks who have had simular experiences, etc.

[spenac]

Heres the solution you need.

http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9332

[Chief1C]

:evil: Don't be a ******* ******* (I used *'s to be polite), Spleen.

Call Points, so many points per call; adds up, at the end of X period of time, offer them something for the points. One local company does that, points equals X dollar amount. They don't get cash, but the company will use the cash equivalent to buy them whatever they want. Good way to get like something extra, that may not be necessary. Like if a fire dept. does it, the member may save the points till there is enough to buy a Leather Helmet, which is a big deal (they even have their own national clubs). They could buy jackets, etc.. Anything really, and it would be theirs, rather than service property. Or.. Take the equiv. of the points to cash, and give them gift certificates or gift cards.

Also, maybe gas cards. Have them keep track of mileage to and from calls and on business for the crew, and give them so much per mile.

[spenac]

:evil: Don't be a ******* ******* (I used *'s to be polite), Spleen.

Did I say anything rude? No I did not. The discussion referred to had many good points to assist any volly service in the transition to paid.

Below is just one of many low volume services that various members presented as proof that any service can become paid. Paid will help in the recruitment of people.

One station only has 17 calls per year and is paramedic staffed.

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mobey wrote:

I do not listen to people who tell me they can't afford a full paid service. My home town runs a full paid service with 2 units (only 1 paid full time, other is utilized if staff are around to run it), and they have ALS (unless he is on the first car)

Anyway point is the company does 100 - 120 calls / year. That's right full time ALS supported by a mere 100 calls / year.

If there is a will there is a way!

EDIT to add this:

I am about 95% sure on these numbers: Wages in said 100 call/year town:

PCP (EMT) $19.70/hr $4.50 on call

ACP (Paramedic) 26.19/hr $4.50 on call

[Cambridgewalk1]

I really appreciate the response and suggestions. Thanks...

[Asysin2leads]

My biggest advice would be to offer incentives to volunteer. Some ideas I can offer:

Free EMT training, with stipulations. See if you can finance forgivable loans so that you 'll put someone through EMT class if they agreee to answer the pager an acceptable number of times in a given time period.

Offer free CPR courses at the volunteer building: You'll get some interested people with each class plus its cool teaching CPR.

Canvas local colleges: Many nursing and/or pre-meds like to have EMT on their resume. I'm not sure why, but they do.

See if you can finagle tax credits or paid-on-call services for responses from the town: Even if you are giving the responders $20-$30 per call, it'll help with retention, or see if perhaps the town could work out something with the responder's property tax bill each year... Start knocking off a few percent points and people will be beating down your door to volunteer... If that's even legal to do.

[spenac]

If a community can offer all those incentives they could more easily just pay the people. There is no excuse for remaining a volly service. It is time to start doing what is best for all and demand pay. Then you can donate your pay to needy charitys if you want to give something away. All of us will start seeing pay increase to a halfway liveable rate.

[spenac]

This morning I was reading about the money the NFL draft players were getting and so far I found none that refused the money. HMMMM perhaps they have a point lets not do a job unless paid for it.

[mobey]

What the town has to do is prioritize.

There has to be funds available to pay for professional EMS. How much does the town spend on christmas decos each year? And how much does it cost to maintain and install them? You gotta be realistic, how much are you looking for as far as pay goes, and how many people are you serving?

4 full time EMT's approx $120000 for wages?

OK so lets tax your total population of....... 8000(?), tax them each an extra $15/year!

I know they will be pissed about the $15 but that's too bad.