Training for Competency
Most state and federal training regulations require that your members show competence in their firefighting skills but don't define how to measure that competency. If someone goes to 100 calls and uses their equipment appropriately, does that count as competence? If a member goes to 100 hours of training, does that prove competence? What about basic versus advanced competency? There are a lot of questions around assuring competency, but the answers will shape your training program.
Volunteers Gain Most From Grant Programs
I often visit the forums of VolunteerFD.org and FireRescue1.com to see what other departments and members are thinking — and a post entitled "grant program is unfair to volunteer fire depts" has caught my eye. The author believes that the current program is unfair to volunteers and should be replaced with a lottery. While I'm not sure about a lottery grant process, I decided to research if his points were valid and what could be done.
Value of a Volunteer
In these trying times, both economically and now socially with the "swine flu," it has become apparent that we need to both value our volunteers and know their value to us. To this end, I found a rather interesting statistic from the Independent Sector: the 2008 estimate for the value of a volunteer hour is $20.25 per hour.
Sponsor a Firefighter
Volunteer departments are at the mercy of the community they serve and often the businesses within it. Maintaining a working relationship with your local employers is crucial to ensuring daytime response — and one option may be to set up a "sponsor a firefighter program." Sponsorship options can include time off, promotion of volunteerism and even cash donations.
Training for Competency
Most state and federal training regulations require that your members show competence in their firefighting skills but don't define how to measure that competency. If someone goes to 100 calls and uses their equipment appropriately, does that count as competence? If a member goes to 100 hours of training, does that prove competence? What about basic versus advanced competency? There are a lot of questions around assuring competency, but the answers will shape your training program.
