Recruiting volunteer FF/EMS

[Arctickat]

The MVA skit option still stands

Indeed it does, our annual P.A.R.T.Y. program is a huge success.

[Resqmedic]

Patton how do you frame a MVA skit? Do you put in a open house, or is it piggybacked on the high school events? We have no school so that wouldn't be an option, and we missed the fire safety month, but we could always do it whenever I guess.

As for a controlled burn, well they are nice and legal here, so report away, I promise to show up and not write myself a ticket. I had never considered using one as a promotional objective, great idea, I do happen to have a couple buildings we are considering for future RIT/FF survival classes. So that is very doable.

And Dennis, I'm just going to plagiarize the "Our families Our town", that is perfect. Thank you all very much for the imput.

[Guest ~~~]

Around where I live it's always been at the high schools for the students. The moral of the event is to keep away from any distracted and erratic driving. For a recruiting event I wouldn't advertise it as a recruiting event, people may feel obligated to sign up for the department and decide not to show up. I would frame it as a open house with a MVA rescue demonstration along with free snacks. Somewhere in the fire bay ( or garage, or whatever you call where you keep your trucks ) or outside of the station set up a visible booth that people can see where they can get more information and applications to join. Make a lesson out of the demonstration like how they do at high schools. Hopefully the demonstration was enough motivation for them to at least pick up an application, if not they all learned a valuable lesson.

[bmerritt77]

It might be helpful to know a little bit more about your situation. How many runs in a week? What's the population size of your territory?

[Resqmedic]

Well we are a modest Fire/EMS department, although we had a record year this year of 160 runs! Up 30 runs from last year, We have around 2000 people in a mostly farming and freelance pharmaceutical production. Our department is around 7 people strong a his time, mostly kids under 25 in college.

[island emt]

We have around 2000 people in a mostly farming and freelance pharmaceutical production.

Gotta love those farm raised pharmaceuticals.

[bmerritt77]

You should consider a billing/subscription program if you do not already have one. I did billing and managed a subscription program a few years ago. There are many variables involved in calculating the potential amount of revenue generated, but you can estimate about $250 per trip. 160 trips=$40k into your budget. Many small squads use the extra income for equipment or per-trip stipends to the volunteers. That definitely helps with recruiting. There is less time spent on fundraising. People contribute money (pay for subscription) because they are potentially getting something in return. The programs are often structured so that patients never get sent to collections, so their credit would never be damaged by an EMS trip. Whether you agree with billing for volunteer work or not is probably been discussed ad nauseum in this forum, and is probably a discussion better suited for another post. However, you asked for suggestions to help with recruiting. Having a squad that generates revenue absolutely improves recruiting. I am no longer in the billing business so there's no attempt to solicit on my part. But if you have questions, I'm always happy to give free advice. That's how I try to help.

[YoungEMT95]

If your state allows it, start up a junior program to try and get high school aged kids involved with their parents.

[spenac]

Easy solution is become a paid department.

[island emt]

Easy solution is become a paid department.

It's an easy solution if the tax base can support a full time paid service based on a record 160 calls. If you figure a "normal year average of 150 calls.

Small town of 2000 population in a rural environment::: probably not going to happen

full time coverage would cost around 250k with a possible 75-90 k in revenue from billing. Awful big tax increase to make up the difference.