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Well, hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Professional Volunteer podcast. This is episode number two. That's right 002 and my name is Brian Soller and I am your host. I want to start off today by thanking everyone that tuned into our first episode. And I gotta tell you, for somebody who has listened to podcasts for a while, um, looking at the numbers is really, really cool and, you know, by industry standards or to those podcasts that have been on the air for quite some time my little numbers are are well, they're they're little. But but for me to sit there and just kind of watch Episode one and see where people were tuning in from really, really cool to see. So as of today and I'm recording this on Wednesday morning, early Wednesday morning, the 28th of February, we had in a week 55 downloads of the podcast, which I am super thrilled about. And what is really cool is where those world those listeners came from actually printed it out today just just to kind of share that info and give some shout outs to those of you listening from around the world. Actually, um, the majority of our downloads were right here in the U. S. Which is what I expected. But I actually had a couple from Australia, which I think is really cool that Ah, somebody's tuning in from Australia. Toe. Listen to me. Talk about volunteerism and the fire service. So Middletown, New York tops the list. Have lots of lots of friends down in Middletown. So I I appreciate all of you, Um, Liberty narrows Berg. These are all New York New York area towns. Manhattan, Toms River, New Jersey, Newburgh, New York. Um Anderson, South Carolina. Homewood, Illinois. Chicago, Illinois, Buffalo, New York. Nashville, Tennessee. Springfield, Mass. Arizona. North Glen, Colorado. York, Pennsylvania. Um, North Amityville, New York. Cooper City, Florida Um Wisconsin, Tennessee, Vermont, New Hampshire and back to New Jersey and the state of Washington. So if you're if you're tuning in and I just, um, named your city Fay, thank you. Appreciate each and every one of you from wherever you are. And please check us out on social media and make sure you, you know, you say hello. Um, tell us where you're from. So next time, maybe I could give you a personal shout out. So let's dive into episode number two. I threw a social media pull out there last week regarding potential topics for this week, and I gave the choice of the stupid things that we do versus recruitment and retention in the fire service and recruitment and retention in the fire Service won out over the stupid things we do not buy a lot, so ah, that episode will be coming up soon. But today we're gonna focus on recruitment and retention in the fire Service. And I know in my home state here in New York this this is a hot topic. It's a hot topic amongst the fire service. It's a month. It's a hot topics amongst E. M s, especially volunteer E M s. Um, there are state agencies like the State Chiefs, um, Fireman's Association of the State of New York, all the way up to officer fire prevention and control in Homeland Security there that are looking to address the lack of volunteers and why we're having that problem. So I did a Facebook live probably a year and 1/2 maybe two years ago on this topic and let me start by by saying, I think that we absolutely have a lack of volunteers, and I think some of the reason that we have a lack of volunteers we're we're not gonna be able to control. But what we can control is how we recruit new volunteers. And once we've recruited them, how we hold on to them and I think that is the big question. Once we get him in the door, how do we hold on to him? So let's look at this lack of volunteers, uhm from the beginning. So I think we can all agree that a the today's fire service is not like the fire service 30 years ago, even 20 years ago, when I joined the Volunteer Fire Service, the majority of the volunteers were, um, men. Um, I would probably say white men, okay. And very few females, very few minorities, and most people looking back to then most people worked one job, okay. And I think if we look at the diversity of the fire service in the last 20 to 30 years, which is a good thing, so now we have people from all races, all ethnicities, all genders, right um, but what we also have that's a That's a major problem for us today is the fact that how many people do you know that actually work? One job I know. Speaking for myself, I have I have never worked one job, Um, my full time job I have been at for over 30 years, but in that 30 years, I have always had let's call it a side hustle. I've done lots of different things over the years, but I've always had multiple multiple jobs and at times probably three or four at the same time. Plus volunteering, which my my volunteerism has never has never really dipped. Um, I've always enjoyed it. I've always kind of treated it as a job, and I understand that a lot of people, especially in today's day and age, don't do that. All right, they consider themselves just a volunteer, and we talked about that a little bit last week. We could probably dive into that as a complete episode, a TTE some point in the future. So multiple jobs versus one job? Definitely, definitely a problem. Um, training requirements. Now here's Here's a big one. I'm sure many of you have heard the phrase that the training requirements are killing the volunteer Fire Service. Now we're not going to dive super deep into that cause I talked a little bit about it in Episode one, but that, to me, is a cop out that the training requirements are killing the volunteer Fire Service. Because what you're essentially saying is that we don't wanna have well trained firefighters. We need volunteers, but we don't care if they're well trained or not. We just need people to fill the seats and to show up when the alarm sounds. And that, my friends, is a very dangerous mix. So to say the training requirements are killing the volunteer Fire Service, I think, is an unfair argument Now. I think there's ways to address the training requirements. Um, not everybody that walks into a volunteer firehouse and decides to join the company is cut out to be an interior firefighter. So if they're not going to be an interior firefighter, that ah could possibly or should make the training requirements a little bit easier for them now, somebody that comes in and wants to be an interior firefighter, absolutely. They've got to go through the firefighter one program and that pretty much, um, is the same nationally. What New York has done over the last couple of years, I think, is a good move and again, with my entire life in New York, friends with a lot of people outside the state. So I am familiar with some other state systems. But this is what I've known for my entire career, and I've seen the progression of the what used to be the essentials of Fireman Ship program and is now the national standard of the Firefighter one. Now what New York did a couple years ago, which I personally think was a very good move and helpful. Um, for those of us not looking to overwhelm a new volunteer is they split the firefighter one program into a couple of deliveries. So the first portion of your delivery is what's called basic exterior fire fighting operations. That's your all your scene support tasks, right? Um, how to stretch a hose line? How to throw a ladder, how to change out in that c b A. But not where one how to properly put your gear on all those scenes support type tasks, then When you're finished with that delivery and successfully completed, you could move on to S C B A slash interior firefighting operations. And the two of those courses combined gives you your, um, firefighter, one certificate. What I like about this is somebody that comes in the door that we don't really know. Um and they're not really sure what they want to do. They get signed up during the probationary period, they go out and they take this beef, Oh, classes, basic exterior class. And they decide if this is for them. They might decide during that delivery that day. I don't want to go any further in. Being an interior firefighter is not my thing, or it's not right for me at this time. Or maybe I'm not physically capable of handling that part of the training regimen or they decide that they're going to move on. But this is done in in two parts. So usually it's easier for people to set aside a separate chunks of their life rather than going through an entire firefighter. One delivery, which is over 100 hours of training. So I think that is that's a helpful step is a break up in the training requirements. Now, let's look it in house requirements for A for a new member. All right, What are they? How stringent are your your requirements for a probationary member? And I think this should vary or needs to vary by department, Um, by the expectations of the department by how busy the department is. Okay. Obviously we want members showing up, because if they don't show up, then we don't know what they're capable of. Um, they might not be properly trained when the when the alarm sounds. If they haven't been around and they're not working with, um the other members of the department, these air, these air definitely all issues. But are we making the requirements so stringent that that mother, Father, um, high school student college student can't meet the requirements of the department? You know, if we're running 2000 calls a year and we're saying that a probationary member needs to make 30% of those calls, that's a huge number, right? If we're saying that they have to be at 75% of the drills while the intent while we all know what the intent is, are we are we putting too much of a requirement on these people? And is that why we're losing them? So we need to find that healthy mix between what works for us as a as an organization, what works for the officers? So they're comfortable with the capabilities of the firefighter and what works with that new volunteers life outside of the volunteer firehouse. We also need to look at our How do we grab these people in the beginning, right? So topic is recruitment and retention. So recruitment. I know there's lots of organizations out there that when somebody walks in the door, for whatever reason, maybe they have a friend that belongs to the organization. Maybe they saw a commercial on television. Maybe they were watching something on television. Who knows something in their brain, Um, sparked them toe reach out to the local volunteer fire department about becoming a member. What do we do when that happens? How do we grab onto them? How do we make sure that they keep coming around or at least come around to the point where they can decide if this is if this is the right life choice for them or not now. I know there's places out there that if I were to walk into the fire station today and say, Hey, I just I moved into town six months ago. Um, I've been watching your fire department operate on social media or I have a friend that's involved and I'd like to become a member. There's lots of organizations out there that will hand somebody an application. Tell them to bring it back in X number of days and we'll call you when we're ready to interview you. Okay? And that's the process. Maybe you if, let's say it's these tests, it's the end of March. Let's say I picked up on application today. I brought it back, usually goes off in front of a company meeting. All right, so it goes in front of the March company meeting. Then maybe it goes to the April company meeting where they do an interview, and then maybe they vote on the member. Or maybe they bring them in automatically as a probationary member. What could potentially happen in that two months? If that is the Onley communication that that person has is when they pick up that application and when they drop that application off. People lose interest. People lose interest quickly, and that might not be our fault. You know, maybe maybe there it's not a good time for them in their life. Maybe they know they re thought their initial decision to go down and pick up an application. But what can we do to try to grab onto them and bring them in before they're even a member? One thing that I have seen and I think works really, really well, is grab onto them immediately, not physically grab onto them, but but grab onto them immediately when they come in. And they asked for that application. First of all, the person handing out that application needs to. It needs to be proud of The organization. Needs toe show how proud they are of the organization. They need to be a good spokesperson for your organization. You don't want somebody come in for an application and have somebody handed a packet of paper and say, Do you really want this? You think they're going to come back after that? Probably not so a The person that they're talking to needs to be knowledgeable. Um needs to grab their attention, you know, needs to have a good, happy conversation with that person and then invite him back. That's the big thing that we miss here. Everyone is. Invite him back. So if it's a two month process to become a member, invite them to come around for the next two months and that that right there can do wonders for that person that's considering becoming a member. Hey, handing the application say, Hey, wasn't get me. Get this back to me as soon as possible, explained to them the process. You know it's going to go to the membership once, and it's going to come back to the membership a second time to bring you in as a probationary member. But, you know, we have a drill every Monday night at seven o'clock. Um, you can't partake in the drill. You can't put your hands on, but you're more than welcome to come back. Watch what we do. Meet the membership, Um, get to know a few people and see how we operate right there. That statement you're you're showing that you want them right, and then you're giving them the opportunity to come back to join you and actually see what you do. And it may not always work, but for the most part, 90% of the time that person is going to be hooked, especially if the culture in your organization is positive and people are friendly and they like being there. And we can talk about culture of our organization in another episode and that that could that could probably be an episode in itself. So grabbing onto those grabbing onto those new members in the beginning, making them feel welcome, you know, volunteer, fire and volunteer E M s. They're both big recruitment is an issue in both Volunteer E. M s is a completely different animal, and I've had people ask me to speak on that as well. I haven't been involved in volunteer E m s since the early nineties. I've been any empty since then, but I put my primary focus on the fire service, and I think the big big difference between volunteer fire and volunteer E. M s is the the the time factor. And when I say the time factor, I'm not talking about training. Um, I'm not talking about time dedicated to the organization. I'm talking about the time per call because we all know in the volunteer fire service, um, structure fires air down. We're doing more motor vehicle accidents were doing Maur first response Medical. We're doing more smells and bells, but we know those smells and bells calls can depending where we are Take minutes, right. We can respond to a call, maybe be back in service and 30 minutes depending on what the call is and where it was. And that might be a heart high part of our call volume. Voluntary amass depending on where you are in your community, there are no short runs. Generally, it's usually gonna take at least an hour out of your day, if not more. And I think that's a big problem. On the E. M s side of volunteerism is the amount of time that it takes out of somebody's day to actually run those calls. You know, bottom line here, folks is we're living in a different world and, yes, volunteer volunteerism is down. Volunteerism is down in many organizations not just fired AM assets down and civic organizations. Um, but what we do too grab somebody's attention and keep them engaged with us is a huge, huge part of how we correct that, Um, lack of volunteerism. I think when we talk about retention, one thing that I haven't brought up is things like low SAT programs, retirement programs, paper call. I don't know much about up paper call or that type of a system. I do know about retirement programs commonly referred to as low sap length of service awards programs. I do not believe that those are recruitment tools. I do not think a 18 year old kid that's decides toe want to get involved in the Fire Service is thinking about the $600 or $800 a month that he or she may get after 2020 years of service when they're 65 years old. I do not think it's a big recruitment tool. I do, however, think it is a great retention tool for those of us that have been around a number of years that are thinking about what we're going to do when we retire. So I do believe that the length of service awards programs do definitely help for for retention, um, you know, one more point that out that I'll bring up here is and I mentioned it before is the culture of our organization. I can say that in my organization right now, we're riding a wave in 2000 and 19. If there was one or two months where we did not take in a new member or new members, um, that was a lot. I I think we brought in new members. Um, just about every month of 2019 on, we started off 2020 the same way. Um, now, why are we riding that wave right now? I think it's a combination of things. Um, we have a great culture. We have a great group of volunteers that, um, appreciate one another. And I think that's a huge, huge part of our of our culture and our organizations that we appreciate one another that we understand the fact that we are gonna have differences of opinions. We are gonna have arguments, but we never allow those arguments to get personal. And when the argument is over, we walk away, we shake hands, and when the alarm goes off, we all come together and do our job. So the culture of the organization and how the organization operates, and how the organization treats its members is a tremendous part of retention and recruitment. People do not want to join a organization with low morale, and you can feel low morale generally as soon as you walk into a building. All right, we also worked very hard. Thio promote ourselves on social media. I know there's a lot of organizations that do that and do it very, very well, and I think social media is a huge tool for volunteerism. We need the highlight, what we're doing when we're doing it, how we're doing it, who are members are appreciate. Our members show appreciation towards our members. Highlight the high points in their lives, not just the organization's, um, and people see that, and they and they will gravitate towards you. They will want to become a part of that, and that that is a is a big thing that that weaken D'oh, um, use the power of social media to our benefit, to bring people to bring new people in right and to to show them what's going on prior to them, even picking up an application. Um, the other thing is, you know what are we doing? What are we doing during our training? Evolutions. Um, are we keeping people engaged? Do we have? Do we have the ability to keep people engaged and and this this is dependent on the budgetary restrictions of your department? But do do we have the nice things? Do we have the nice toys? OK, and I understand that we that can't be It can't be a make or break because, you know, based on you can't pick up in organization and just move it someplace else for a for a larger budget. But do we have the things that that keep people engaged? They keep them coming to drill nights. Um, are we actually training on our drill nights and not wasting our people's time? You know, people we said in the very beginning of the episode that people are working multiple jobs, they have families. Um, they're going to school. They don't have time to be wasted. So if your drill night is every Monday night every Thursday night, whatever it may be, and every week they show up and nothing is planned or washing the trucks again or we're sweeping the floors and we're not engaging them. We're not training them. We're not using the brand new equipment that just came in the week prior or the month prior. They're quickly going to lose interest, and they're either not gonna come around or they're just gonna quit. So again, engagement, morale, Um, making people feel welcome. These are all things that I think can help everybody when it comes to recruitment and retention. So I'm in about 25 minutes or so. At this point, I I I had said that I was going to keep these podcasts it like the the 3rd 30 minute range. Um, again, I want to thank everybody for tuning in. Um, hey, just the numbers are just so cool to me to see where everybody's listening from. And I hope you reach out to me on social media and introduce yourself and say hello and and and I love feedback. I'm not perfect at this. I don't expect every episode to be perfect. Um, I'm learning as I go. And I thank all my my fellow firefighting friends that are out there that have been doing these podcasts for a long time. And I'm taking tips from you and your success and what you're doing. And I appreciate all of you. I got a big, ah, little announcement to make. So episode number three will be my first interview episode. I'm gonna bring a guest on. I'm excited to do that. And, um, I'm bringing on John from Jersey Shore emergency training. John and I met via social media. Um, he's down in, um, New Jersey, and he is a longtime firefighter dispatcher, fire instructor past chief, Um, speaks quite a bit on professional volunteers, so obviously, he and I hit it off based on the common topic. And, um, I'm really looking forward to having him on the show. So that's gonna be coming up. Probably an episode number three. We're gonna be hooking up in the next day or so to record that. So I'm excited about that. If you're paying attention to us on social media, we are taking little bits of our message, all right, And trying to highlight things that are wrong in the fire service, right in the volunteer fire Service. And our first attempted that is our pros say no to command jeans, stickers, and ah, they're actually expect them to be showing up at my front door. Hopefully today, um, I am going to be selling those. We are gonna be selling them, um, $5 a sticker, and you can check it out on social to get information on howto had a purchase. Them, um, with that being said, $1 from every sticker purchased is getting donated to next rung. So hopefully we can sellout.  I've ordered on this first run of stickers because I wanted out donate a dollar from each sticker to next rung. Um, and they, um, bring attention to, um, mental awareness in the fire service, so make sure you follow those guys over next rung, they're doing cool things. Um, I've been, um, watching them for quite some time, and you can sign up to be, ah, monthly donor with them, and I would definitely definitely reach, reach out, check it out. Do what you can to help support their cause. So that's the deal, guys. I appreciate everybody for tuning in once again. Please connect with us on social media on Instagram @professionalvolunteer and  Facebook @professionalvolunteer. The website is now up, and that is www.professionalvolunteerfirefighter.com.   So you've got Professional Volunteer on instagram and facebook and professionalvolunteerfirefighter.com on the Web and you can always reach out to me personally @chiefsoller on all platforms, and I look forward to talking to you. Please drop me some feedback on the show. Tell me what you think I would love to hear from you love to connect and, you know, most of all I want I want to see who's listening. So, um, have a great day. Stay safe out there. And don't forget a paycheck does not make you a professional. How you approach the job does.