You don’t have to be in the volunteer fire service to be aware that there is a serious problem when it comes to recruiting members. It seems like every day there are news stories highlighting the plunging membership rolls in America’s volunteer fire departments. It’s a serious problem, and there is a lot of time, energy, and money being put into the recruitment effort. Perhaps an even bigger factor in the staffing shortage is the challenge of keeping new members after we successfully get them on board.
I recently presented a class focusing on the problem of members leaving their volunteer fire department. I did quite a bit of research and found that department leadership has an impact on both recruitment and retention. Now certainly, there are some things that are out of the department leaders’ personal control when it comes to losing members. For example, they can’t prevent a member from relocating due to employment opportunities. But there are many things that are under the leader’s control that can help to bring in new members and keep the ones they have. Read More…