Recruitment

[kylech1999]

Does anyone go into the local high schools to do any recruitment?

[LaFireEducator]

Yes.

We set up a booth at their career day in conjunction with one other department.

[arionbarry]

yes. The organization goes to local high schools but it selects very few candidate.

[cafslover]

I think its a good idea but youll run into a few problems with high schoolers in general

1) Are they old enough?
2) Can they drive?
3) Can they focus on school and the fire dept at the same time and maintain the grades?
4) Are they physically capable of doing what you need them to do?
5) Do sports take up most of their time?
6) The biggest problem in my area, is you can have them for a year or so but then they are off to college. You spend more time telling them what to do and by the time they are ready to figure things out on their own they are gone, so you essentially don't see the return of the training you gave them.

[LaFireEducator]

I think its a good idea but youll run into a few problems with high schoolers in general

1) Are they old enough?

They can volunteer with us at age 16. We allow age 15 if they have a
parent that is on the department.
2) Can they drive?

If they are not old enough to drive or do not have a license, a
responsible adult must sign an agreement to transport them, at a
minimum to drills and training.

3) Can they focus on school and the fire dept at the same time and maintain the grades?

They must submit their report cards every quarter and maintain a C in
every grade. if they fall below that, they are academic suspension until
the grades come up.

4) Are they physically capable of doing what you need them to do?

We evaluate them during the initial training process for the physical ability
to perform tasks normally assigned to juniors.

5) Do sports take up most of their time?

6) The biggest problem in my area, is you can have them for a year or so but then they are off to college. You spend more time telling them what to do and by the time they are ready to figure things out on their own they are gone, so you essentially don't see the return of the training you gave them.

That last item can be an issue and varies from area to area. In our situation, the biggest problem isn't them going to college but getting jobs as career members and moving out of the district. However, it's still worth the effort as we likely get 2-3 years of adult service out of them before they move on.

[voyager9]

I think its a good idea but youll run into a few problems with high schoolers in general

1) Are they old enough?
2) Can they drive?
3) Can they focus on school and the fire dept at the same time and maintain the grades?
4) Are they physically capable of doing what you need them to do?
5) Do sports take up most of their time?
6) The biggest problem in my area, is you can have them for a year or so but then they are off to college. You spend more time telling them what to do and by the time they are ready to figure things out on their own they are gone, so you essentially don't see the return of the training you gave them.

We run a Explorer (14-15) and Junior (16-17) program. While we don't actively recruit in the highschools there is pretty good word-of-mouth from existing members that brings in quite a few new recruits. In general driving..etc isn't a problem since they're not expected to run home-response calls and in most cases an adult can drop them off for their training nights. We've also seen that participation in the program can help them focus on grades. As LA said, we also require a certain GPA. I've had several parents come up to me and mention how the FD has help their child with respect, motivation, and discipline..

As you mention, the biggest problem with the program is that by the time they can go to FF1 and become interior firefighters (18) most of them are off to college. Still, many of them come back during breaks. Some join other departments near where they are going to school. Some even move back to the area after they graduate. Many of them look for careers in the Emergency Services and get hired down the road. While not necessarily helpful to our department, there is a certain amount of pride knowing that.

[LaFireEducator]

Just to give you a perspective on how successful our junior program has been ....

Our current Deputy Chief, Assistant Chief and 4 of our 7 Captains started out as juniors.The Assistant Chief is also a Captain with a neighboring career department.

We have placed at least 10 juniors as full-time firefighters with the neighboring full-time departments or the combo fire districts.

[Lump532]

Just to give you a perspective on how successful our junior program has been ....

Our current Deputy Chief, Assistant Chief and 4 of our 7 Captains started out as juniors.The Assistant Chief is also a Captain with a neighboring career department.

We have placed at least 10 juniors as full-time firefighters with the neighboring full-time departments or the combo fire districts.

We have been toying with the idea at my department since my experience at my hometown department has been similar.

Are you doing an Explorer program or doing your own thing? Would you be willing/able to share some of your rules, bylaws, SOPs, etc?

[LaFireEducator]

We have been toying with the idea at my department since my experience at my hometown department has been similar.

Are you doing an Explorer program or doing your own thing? Would you be willing/able to share some of your rules, bylaws, SOPs, etc?

It's a department based junior program.

Shoot me an e-mail at bcallahan@bpfd1.org and we'll talk about what we do.

[kevinAnd]

I would like to like say good job to all the recruits.. i would just to comment that every local recruits should have a monthly meeting and updates here in Oregon and we can also be physically healthy.