Facing the reality of diverging leadership styles – and evolving your leadership style with the times I remember my first day in the firehouse. Fresh out of the recruit school, I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and scared as hell. I enjoyed, for the most part, the excitement of learning a new high-powered set of skills, like […]
Embracing the Future of the Fire Service
I am discouraged as anyone when I hear stories of departments falling apart. But it is time to face the fact that the way things were done in 1979 doesn’t work in 2020. Gone are the days of being able to hang out at the fire department and drink beer or ride on a brush […]
Unfamiliar Avenues: Engaging future Volunteers
It will take a unique mix of leadership, external communications and technological solutions to reverse the downward trend in volunteerism Ask a group of volunteers why they join the fire department, and their responses will be immeasurably varied. Personally, I joined the fire department out a sense of boredom. A sense of boredom stemming from […]
Unfamiliar Avenues: Engaging future Volunteers
Ask a group of volunteers why they join the fire department, and their responses will be immeasurably varied. Personally, I joined the fire department out a sense of boredom. A sense of boredom stemming from stagnation in my professional growth combined with a growing need for variation in my daily routine. I conducted no research, […]
NM Chief talks Commitment, the Future of Volunteering
In 2014, I sat in on a session at the Fire-Rescue International conference in Dallas. With only a year of experience as an associate editor for FireRescue1 under my belt, my then-editor wanted me to be exposed to as many sessions I could attend in a day. The only catch: He didn’t want me to […]