Safer

[MarionMedic]

We have a small department, with declining numbers, and are in need of "motivation" for members and new recruits.

I am about to begin our SAFER request.

We have several ideas, but aren't sure what would look best for our application.

We are a Town VFD, train and respond with County, and we are not paid.

The ideas we have so far are:

Pay per call.
$10 per call for 5 firefighters based on average number of calls.
Might have trouble continuing the program after performance period.

Performance based "awards" for personnel.
Gifts, awards, incentives for those who participate and respond.
Gift cards, "door prizes" at meetings, etc....
We also are working on our Town to try a Water Bill relief program for our members.

Any ideas you guys want to share would be helpful.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

SAFER doesn't cover POC in the traditional sense. It has to be done based on the department's definition of 'minimum activity' to remain an active member of the VFD. Normally 25% of calls, meetings, trainings, etc. Make it above that mark, get paid for all points in that 6 or 12 month period. Some have done increasing amounts for increasing levels, like adding $1 for each 5% above minimum level.

R&R is about what will motivate your own people, that's the biggest thing to remember. Some toss in college scholarships for members or members' kids thinking it sounds good but no one is in the right age range. Or retirement benefits/pensions when no one cares about the long-term when they are having trouble responding because they can't afford to burn the gas going to the station instead of work. Best thing you can do is make a list and run a survey on it after breaking it into parts like per call/training based, longevity based/LOSAP, and then other perks like scholarships, trips to FDIC/Firehouse Expo events for training above and beyond what the department can do. Everyone is motivated for different reasons to have joined in the first place, motivating them to do more is a different animal sometimes and the easiest way to figure out what will work is to ask. Everything except for equipment and salaries/POC for all levels of participation is eligible. And programmable LED signs for in front of the station seem to be getting nixed too. Otherwise it's all fair game.