Fire operations is what saves lives and property, allowing the putting of wet stuff on red stuff, but fire administration is what keeps the department running smoothly. Fire administration is important, and a burden on Fire Chiefs. Recruit a volunteer administrator and you’ll thank yourself.
Volunteer fire department administrators (paid or volunteer) are invaluable contributors to Volunteer Fire Departments. They help with everything from keeping the lights on, to keeping incident, member & apparatus records organized, and much much much more. VFDs with administrators just do better.
Fire administration keeps the department running …
Unfortunately some (perhaps many) VFDs do not have administrators or administrative support, and the administrative workload often falls on the Chief, to the detriment of the Chief and the VFD.
If you cannot afford to hire a part-time administrator, seek a volunteer. Somebody who wants to help their community, but is unable to respond as a volunteer firefighter. It might take a bit of work, but there are such civic-minded community members. It is worth the effort.
Chief + Paper = Overload!
Many departments seek assistance from their extended fire family. Firefighter family members, from spouses to children or parents. The extended fire family knows the department culture, knows the membership, knows the district and know fire terminology. That said, family are already sharing in the firefighter load, so maybe they are overutilized already.
If not the fire family, then wider. Look to your community. Many people want to help the fire department, but are not up for running into a burning building. Ask your firefighters to ask their friends and family, to keep an eye out for candidates. Post and ask around the community.
Maybe seek a few volunteers, allow them to work together and share the load, and make it fun together. Working as a team can mean less work on each volunteer, and hence it is easier to recruit for each position.
Be creative with what works for your community! Experiment and keep tweaking until you have the right solution. (Do not settle if you first efforts do not work out.)
Retired firefighters can be a valuable help. Often they are missing the fire department action, and would value helping the department out. Empowering retired firefighters with access to reports allows them to continue to contribute to the department, without putting more workload on your responder resources.
Retirees, especially those with access to a radio, can even help fill out reports while the incident occurring.
Junior firefighters are often underutilized and are eager to help their department. They might be more technically comfortable than more seasoned firefighters, and they can and will learn software systems. Assigning junior firefighters to administration might be counter-intuitive, but administering reports is a great way for them to learn more about their department, recognize SOPs from reading narratives, and generally learn “fire”.
When you are already overloaded, it is additional work to recruit help, yet it is worth the effort. Reach out to the fire community to look for recruits, place a recruitment flier at the local coffee-shop or churches, or local stores. Post on social media, on your department Facebook page, on any newsletter.
Engage your fire department members in recruitment. Define the volunteer position, and keep working to fill it. Post it, share it, advertise it. Let it be known how folks can help their fire department.
Be creative, and don’t give up. It might take a while, but if you keep focused you will attract attention. If you get multiple candidates, either interview them and select, or try them all out.
Recruiting an administrator is short term pain, but the benefit to the department is long term gain. Volunteer fire is for the community, and it a community endeavor. Engage more people, and share the load.
Recruiting your administrator, onboarding your administrator and training your administrator are going to take time ... but on the other side, everything is better, much better ...
Responserack Fire RMS allows you to support administrators working from wherever they want, whenever they want. Volunteer administrators can help your volunteer fire department thrive, and Responserack allows you to engage them anywhere, even remotely. A local resource might be able to help with the mail, but be creative and consider whatever help you can entice.
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