Monticello, NY – While at a Fire Districts Association of Sullivan County meeting, Kauneonga Lake Fire District Commissioner Jill Holland asked a simple question that has no simple answer: what can be done to help get new members into local volunteer fire departments?
“Recruitment and retention are a problem here in Sullivan County, as well as across the nation,” acknowledged Sullivan County Fire Coordinator John Hauschild, himself a longtime Jeffersonville FD volunteer. “As Fire Coordinator, I quickly jumped in with some of my ideas, offering assistance from the Sullivan County Bureau of Fire. Jill, myself and Public Safety Commissioner Rick Sauer met and gathered information about what we would like to see in a survey about Countywide recruitment and retention – with an eye toward mounting an initiative to encourage signing up.”
Holland created the survey, which was then distributed through the Bureau of Fire to the County’s fire chiefs and fire district commissioners. They were told that the data gathered from the survey would be used to form an action plan for the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters in Sullivan County.
“We had excellent responses, with 36 out of 40 fire chiefs and 17 out of 36 commissioners participating,” Hauschild said.
Some of the more interesting results:
- Sullivan West Central School District is covered by 20 different fire departments, while Monticello features 15 departments offering coverage, followed by Fallsburg at 10, and so forth. Schools will be one of the target areas to recruit new members.
- 67% of the fire departments do not have a formal recruitment program in place, though some do host open houses, put up signs, use social media, and engage by word of mouth and Recruit NY.
- 98% of the departments are interested in participating in a Countywide recruitment and retention project.
“A task force will be formed by the Bureau of Fire to review all the results of the survey, provide workshops and put together programs to recruit new members,” affirmed Hauschild. “We have also been in contact with EMS Coordinator Alex Rau to include our volunteer corps, as recruitment is just as much a problem for them.”