different city volunteering

[ecto]

Hay i was just wondering if you have to live in city where you volunteer. Say I want to volunteer in a city an hour from where i live.

[tree68]

Yes, no, and maybe, and not necessarily in that order.

Residency requirements vary from you have to live there to it doesn't matter where you live, as long as you do the requisite number of hours of in-station shifts.

Probably the key is going to be whether the department you're interested in uses home response or requires members to do shifts at the station.

Another factor will be any residency requirements the department or municipality may have.

The ultimate answer is to contact the department you're interested in joining and ask them.

[Leeland]

Find out from the department you're interested in and they'll give you the full details. As for where I'm at, you can live anywhere, but there some requirements that have to be met such as training.

[BoxAlarm187]

As the posters have already said, you need to check with the department that you want to join. I have been a member of a department in the late 90's that I lived 30 minutes from, and again in 2008 with another department that was an hour away from.

My "main" VFD requires members to live within 20 minutes of the station.

[ecto]

thanks for the replies, I'll talk to the station.

[jam24u]

Some departments have a limit to the number of members they can have on their roster.

If you are going to be ending up as a member of three departments, can you devote equal time to all three when it comes to things like, maintaing the department, training, parades, etc.

Some departments frown on dual memberships because they have experienced a problem with the way a different department trains and handles a procedure than the way they do. So much so that they require their members not attend other departments training so their membership is trained to handle a situation their particualr way, and not influenced by a different one.

We have members who are as much as 15 miles away.

[hwoods]

We have no limits on membership, and I'd like to have another 40 people join. Next, No, we do not care where you live, we currently have members from Five STATES. In fact, at our last Company Meeting, we voted a new member in who currently lives in Rhode Island..........

[voyager9]

We have no limits on membership, and I'd like to have another 40 people join.

Sign me up!

[CaptOldTimer]

Sign me up to Harve. I can clean out the stables.

[hwoods]

Sign me up to Harve. I can clean out the stables.

If I could draw on these boards for Draft picks, I'd have one helluva Crew!!........

[FWDbuff]

We have no limits on membership, and I'd like to have another 40 people join. Next, No, we do not care where you live, we currently have members from Five STATES. In fact, at our last Company Meeting, we voted a new member in who currently lives in Rhode Island..........

I would join, but I want to ride on firetrucks!

[ecto]

I'm looking at a few stations that are career/volunteer. So hopefully I can get a permanent job after a few years. Here's hoping.

[FuturePrimitive]

Every department has their own rules, at least in NYS. My dept you have to live in the town to join. You can however move out of town after you join if you're within 1 mile (I think its one, might be more) of the town line or if you work full time in town.

[Wbensm]

Not to hijack the thread but how does that work for you guys living so far away from a dept? Are you working in 1 town and volunteering but living in another and volunteering there as well? I would think on some calls that by the time you made it to the station, the trucks would be on the way back to the station. I know with my dept you have to live with in 8 min to be on the dept so living in a different state or up to an hr away just surprises me I guess.

[Eng34FF]

Not to hijack the thread but how does that work for you guys living so far away from a dept? Are you working in 1 town and volunteering but living in another and volunteering there as well? I would think on some calls that by the time you made it to the station, the trucks would be on the way back to the station. I know with my dept you have to live with in 8 min to be on the dept so living in a different state or up to an hr away just surprises me I guess.

We have a few that live a distance from the station. Most of the time they dedicate a period of time and stay at the station. We have one guy who lives in Virginia and comes up to run with us for about 1 week a month. In the case of some of the larger departments, specifically in PG county, there is no home response so you stay at the station for a period of time and run whatever comes in.

[slackjawedyokel]

Like Leeland and Box alarm said - go talk to the departments directly --- I know that is quiet a concept in this day and age --- but try it sometime.