Different Levels of Volunteering?

We are a combined Fire/EMS volunteer department. We currently only have one level which people can volunteer:
1) They have to complete their EMT, EVOC, and general firefighting within 18 months.
2) They have to serve on an EMS squad which runs one night a week and every 5th weekend.
3) You have to do both EMS and Fire.

Right now this works fine, however, like everyone else, our membership is dwindling and daytime calls are beginning to suffer. We realize there are many people in our community we could use as a resource, but who might not be able to give but say, 10 hours a month. We want to tap this resource, but we don't want them to have the same priviledges the full members have. For instance we probably will not give them voting rights.

I would like to hear from other volunteers as to how their dept. operates with different levels of membership. Do you use a point system? What about incentives to go ALS? Any and all thoughts or hints would be appreciated!

Maybe Try diffrent classes of Membership and fill those rolls as needed....

For Example:

Class I Member -- Fully Certified Firefighter,EMT

Class II Member -- Firefighter/EMT Trainee

Class III Member -- Probationary Member -No Training

Class IV Member -- Junior Firefighter/Cadet

*** Maybe try accepting applications from people in other communities or even other states that can give 10-20 hours a month { More or Less depending on availbility } What alot of Volunteer Fire Companies do is restrict thier membership to residents only and I firmly believe this is what hurts a company with manpower problems....Perhaps even try having the Boro Workers { Trash, Leaf, Road Guys } in town certified in Firefighting and EMT and when the whistle blows they respond ...hell, thier already in town anyway usually doing nothing that can't be done after a fire call....I Know of a few towns in NJ that do this and it boosted the man-power....Some Fire Companies in Maryland for Example have Live-In Programs and Visiting Programs meaning that even if you don't live in that particular department's local or state you can still be a member or you live there during your shift....Sure there would have to be rules and regulations and maybe even attendance requirements but if more Fire Companies would open thier doors to out side residents or even guys that want to join that are active in other companies { I know some Companies in NJ that don't allow you to volunteer at more than one company } man-power may increase

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STRATFORD FIRE CO. # 1 NEW JERSEY STATE FIREMEN'S CONVENTION
OVER-ALL CHAMPIONS 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2000 !!

***The Opinions expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect those of the Department to which I am a Member ! ***

My department, also fire/rescue, has 3 different types of memberships:

1) Fire/Rescue
2) Rescue Only
3) Fire Only

Fire/Rescue, by far our most popular type of membership, requires members to be NJFF1 certified and at least a Certified First Responder with defib training (EMT is encouraged but not required).

Rescue Only is gaining popularity because you only have to find time to attend 1 hundred-plus hour training class as opposed to 2. This is fine by me since we get 10-20 times the ambulance calls that we get fire calls and we need all the help we can get, especially during the daytime. The only membership privilege not afforded to the rescue only members is they are not allowed to vote for fire officers in our elections.

Fire only is basically reserved for older members as a kind of "thank you" for all of their years of service. These members are allowed to vote on anything (including rescue officers). The only difference here is that these members are not required to make ANY ambulance calls, though they are encouraged to.

My only suggestion to you would be to consider memberships such as our "Rescue Only" which may attract members of your community that have no interest in firefighting. These people could still be useful on all calls since the ambulance still rolls to fires. Besides, you'll find that once you get them in the door they may develop an interest in firefighting and decide to go through FF1 in time. Well, good luck with it. Stay safe all.

[This message has been edited by Eng522ine (edited 05-28-2001).]

Well this is a subject that I feel is a big problem round this country. Why does he get the same privilege as I do when I do more for the company? Well I am PROUD to say that I am a member of a dept that don’t hold your level of training against you. We believe that as a volunteer company everyone has says in how to do something and majority rules. Just because your level of emergency training might be greater does not mean that you know more than those that don’t have the same type of training do. One must remember that there is a business side of running a volunteer dept and you might have a person that holds a college degree in business on your dept. But according to your rules regarding the levels of training he has no say on how to handle a business deal and you lose his/her expertise.

Don’t read more into this than what I am saying here. I am not saying give someone that is only C.P.R. Certified the office of squad captain but at the same time don’t exclude anyone from the important business decisions either.

I can understand how ya’ll are having trouble getting volunteers with the training requirements posted above it is a wonder you get any at all! We have people on the fire side that can not handle the sight of blood. You know the type the see it they pass out. Then on the other hand there are folks on the EMS side that is so scared of fire that they will not even responded for a structure fire. So to require everyone to have the training for both fire and EMS I think is a bit much.

I’m a volunteer in the CFA in Australia. We have the same problems here re day time cover, training and voting rights for members. Limiting voting rights creates more trouble because all power resides in a few.
I was a member of an urban brigade which maintained an active and a reserve register of members. The number of active members was limited by the CFA (governing body). Reserve members could not vote on either membership or finance. Active members were all the old farts (like myself now). most of the work was done by members on the reserve list.
I live several miles from the station so don't turn out as often as those that live in town next door to the station although I've been a member for 27 years. The issue of limiting voting rights to those that are active or an operational sub-committee is something that arises from time to time.
Funny how we all encounter the same problems.
cheers from oz


These views are my own personal views and not those of my brigade or the CFA.