I have just returned from the 117th Annual Memorial Service for our Cumberland Valley Volunteer Fireman’s Association (CVVFA). We bid farewell to 17 members who passed away during the past year. As he always does, Chaplain Charlie Barnhart paid his respects to those who faithfully gave of themselves to support our organization. As always, my mind was working overtime in an effort to put together a few words with which to express my thoughts about my longtime work with the CVVFA.
It was during the first reading from the Bible that my thoughts began to bubble. He did a reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes: “To everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven; a time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up.”
At that moment, a question popped into my noggin. What then was the purpose that we were there to handle? We were honoring those who went on before us. We were remembering their decades of dedicated service. But what else is there?
My friends let me suggest that it is as easy as stating that the future is at hand. You cannot deny this and you cannot hide from it. Each day as we get up we are forced to stare the future right in the face. Let me suggest that we must ponder how to ensure that the good works which we have done in the areas of highway responder safety and reputation management.
The next question is simple indeed. Who is in the bullpen warming up to get into the game? As I looked around the church at the members in attendance one thing was plain and clear, ours is an organization populated by people who have been in our business for a long, long time.
Every one of us has a span of life which leads from our birth to our death. Many refer to this as the dash between the dates. So too is it with each of our organization’s members. However, without recruiting and retaining new members I will guarantee that the CVVFA will wither and die.
We need to be moving towards what the people in the fire service are now coming to call "succession planning." The leaders of our organizations must seek out and train their replacements. The same is true at every level of an organization. It is critical for us to identify those folks out in the fire service world who might be candidates to join us in our efforts. And I am not just speaking of the leadership level. We need to create a pool of workers who can help us perform our critical highway safety efforts.
Where are these folks? How can we find them? As we paused to honor our deceased members, I began to wonder how long we could carry on without an infusion of new blood. We must be able to sell our products to the fire, EMS, police, and towing worlds. We must be able to state our case plainly and clearly.
We must be able to share what it is we do and why we do it. We must advertise and we must proselytize. We must be able to preach the gospel of what it is we do and why we do it. If we cannot define what it is we do, then we are in trouble. I would ask you to pay attention to what I am saying because it applies to your fire department.
Face it, my friends, people are no longer beating our doors down to join our fire departments. The same holds true with our ancillary organizations such as county fire associations, relief associations, and exempt organizations. Many people do not understand why such groups exist. We need to be able to explain the ramifications of not having such groups to perform their duties.
Here are some thoughts:
- Relief associations provide financial resources to our members with financial problems.
- Relief associations and exempt associations provide death benefits to members of the fire service.
- State and county fireman’s associations lobby politicians in their quest to gain support for the needs and requirements of fire personnel.
- Local fire chief’s associations and fireman’s associations help to guard and guide the members of the fire service. They also work to create better operational relationships.
- Groups such as the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Fireman’s Association provide specialized services to user groups across the country and around the world.
We cannot leave anything to chance. We cannot hope that people will suddenly find us and join with us. Whether it is the CVVFA or the Adelphia Fire Company in New Jersey, we need to reach out and find people who are willing to join us and are capable of performing the tasks required of them.
Let me strongly suggest that we need to adopt these very thoughts and use them as we seek to recruit new members. Let me also suggest that a great way to commemorate and remember each member we honored at the memorial service is to find their replacement. So there you have my thoughts about the annual memorial service. There you have today’s Gospel According to Harry.
