Recruitment (volunteer)

[Adler9116]

Are there departments out there that are actively recruiting volunteers? If so what are you doing and is it working?

Mike

[Bones42]

Are there departments out there that are NOT actively recruiting volunteers?

Beginning of December, we put a sign up that said "No Joke, we need FF's". It must have been a slow week in NJ for news because 3 local papers had pictures/articles on the front page and NJNews12 even came and did a story on it. We've had 10 applications handed out since and are interviewing 5 prospective members tonight.

Can't say any of the State's recruitment/retension plans have had squat to do with it as they don't know about them, and let's face it LOSAP just doesn't appear to be worth it. Let's talk property tax breaks or water/sewer breaks and that might get people interested.

[Bones42]

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[Fyrechicken]

Getting new members is hard enough, But keeping the ones you have is getting even harder. We just pulled seven members turnout gear due to the fact they could not meet the min. amount of training for the year 2004 and that was 10 company training drills when the total held for the year was over 4 times that. This has been a hard time with all the required training put on the members, But would you like a full roster of half trained members or a half roster of fully trained members?

[FFTide]

I just recently finished my NJFFI class at Middlesex Co. and shuold graduate sometime in late January or Frebruary. I cannot imagine going through the 50 days (read 17 weeks) of classes and outdoor physically demanding training to just hang it up. I'm in this for good. Sometimes I wish for more action to use the skills I have now, but I know that will come.

I told the guys in the fire house, to give you an sense of my house, 15 members I'm the second youngest at 26, average age is somewhere in the high 30's or low 40's, I said if I was not single or had such a good job (hours and pay) I would not have been able to commit to those 17 weeks of training.

However, after going through FFI I do not feel there is anything that could have been omited. Maybe lessen the Haz Mat to just awareness and have Ops as a optional maybe. But there was just enough class work to just enough outdoor work to give me the bare essentials.

Jeff

[Adler9116]

We have a sign out in front also. We are a small dept. covering two towns. The coverage is primarily very rich people who do not have the time for their own families. Even the guys on our dept all work out of town. It's very frustrating!!!

We have about 13 active members and half are over the age of 50.


Mike

[Maverick9110E]

our dept doesnt really actively recruit but they do take new ones when they come in like myself, so far we have i think 4 junior members and now 60 senior members in an all vollie dept. but id say about 35-40 are active. which is pretty good our town is a decent size but we have 2 companies im not sure how many ppl are on the 2nd company but they have a pretty decent membership i think. were lucky in this town. btw its Jefferson Township Company 1.

[DougVelting]

My department Cassville volunteer fire, in jackson nj covers 65 square miles by ourselves, and we just recently got a recruitment drive going. we bring applications with us to every event and fundraiser we do. we have our "prospective" packet available online, and are working to get it into the high school guidance office.

We brought in 8 new guys last year and 4 just got out of fire 1. If you need help check out what we have at
www.cassvillefire.org or
www.fireexec.com
The second site i just started for executive officers having problems like this. when we find a solution to a problem, i try to post it there along with any forms or documents we use for it. Check it out, also a lot of great ideas for fund raisers on the site.

[Maverick9110E]

nice website man! all i have to say is: you have one seirously badass tanker!!! that thing is fuggin awsome, but it seems wierd to have a 8500 gallon tank but only a 650gpm pump? but really nice set of apparatus you got there!

[DougVelting]

Well thank you, thats why shes named the rolling river because of the shear volume she carries. believe it or not that 650gpm manages to keep up with anything we throw at it because its a high volume pump. Shes going out for a repiping and refurbing later on this year so it should look pretty doll'd up when we get it back.

[AsstEngineer292]

Hey Doug, you may know some members from my station, maybe,maybe not me,my father and 2 other members have sweaters from your company, not sure if you know/remember us but were Station 292 Lebanon Lakes Woodland Twsp NJ

[DougVelting]

Sorry, cant say that i do recall anyone from your station off hand, possibly one of the other guys? where did you get the sweaters a wetdown we had recently? anyhow, Nice to 'meet' ya

[FIRE1426]

WE SEND OUT LETTERS TO ALL OF OUR RESIDENTS

[career1962]

My department Cassville volunteer fire, in jackson nj covers 65 square miles by ourselves, and we just recently got a recruitment drive going. we bring applications with us to every event and fundraiser we do. we have our "prospective" packet available online, and are working to get it into the high school guidance office.

We brought in 8 new guys last year and 4 just got out of fire 1. If you need help check out what we have at
www.cassvillefire.org or
www.fireexec.com
The second site i just started for executive officers having problems like this. when we find a solution to a problem, i try to post it there along with any forms or documents we use for it. Check it out, also a lot of great ideas for fund raisers on the site.

Really !!! Cassville is 65 sq miles - so that would mean that the other 3 fire districts in town are all sqeezed in the remaining 35 sq miles. why don't you take over the whole town there buddy- get it right before you post it