Getting and Keeping Volunteers

[WFD999]

Hi Folks. Our FD is in a small town of about 1300 people and a bedroom to a larger center. Being a small volunteer department getting and keeping members has always been a problem. We already have a open door policy and will take anyone from the ages of 18-65. Any ideas? All suggestions are welcome.

[Michael13]

i cant believe that you have trouble finding people to join. in our town we have 15 plus applications on file and no spots to fill. the last 4 were filled 3 years ago, and we havent needed anybody since. i know of 2 or 3 good friends that would love to get on, but there is no need for them. as for pulling them in, ads in the local paper, set up a booth at your local fair, go to career days at schools, go to places where you know people hang out. out main qualification for new guys is that they are able to leave work in case of day time calls. if you habe factories in town see if the employees there would be allowed to leave work to respond. we have some like that. thats all i can think of.

[WFD999]

You bet Micheal13. Done the local fair. open houses, Rodeo and so on. Small town Alberta, no industrial base, We have good responce to the medical co responder program. With only two bussiness in town. What we seem to have the worst battle with is when over half of town empties out at 07:00 going into the larger center.And people feel that they commit properly. We have even gone out into the surronding county. Picked up a couple of people that will come down. That can respond with auxillary unit. Maybe the problem is our fire prevention program is to good only having one structure fire in town in the last five years. LOL

[FireEMTGuy]

If you don't mind my asking, what town are we talking about? Feel free to message me the answer if you do not want to display it openly.

[Michael13]

we are in a small town in south western ontario along the 401 highway. population 1200.

[Mongoose]

Hello WFD999, I'm the DFC of Queen Charlotte City Vol. Fire Department. We are a community of about 1000 happy souls.

In answer to your question we have always been able to maintain a healthy roster of firefighters and a few more on the aux. list to fill open spaces when they come up. The way we do it is by getting our friends involved/aquaintences involved. Tell your people to talk it up to friends of theirs that may be good roster fits.

As far as keeping your people that should be the easy part, fire halls are a fun place to be if run properly. Make training fun always be complimentary to your crews when they do something right and keep morale high at all times. Make your fire hall a place where the guys like to hang out. We're always going down to the hall for one thing or another because it's comforable and social there.

Good luck Brother!
Mongoose