News

The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) teamed up with Firehouse.com to record a podcast on two of the biggest challenges facing volunteer fire departments – retention and recruitment. The podcast is available this week as part of Radio@Firehouse.com’s lineup of broadcasts for fire and emergency professionals, online at www.radiofirehouse.com. You can also access the podcast from the NVFC web site and from iTunes.

 

Over the last three decades, the ranks of the volunteer fire service have declined by 7%, yet volunteers comprise 72% of firefighters in the U.S. In 2007, the U.S. Fire Administration and the NVFC released a comprehensive guide that examined the obstacles to successful retention and recruitment efforts as well as the solutions to these obstacles. In the podcast, Dr. William Jenaway moderates a discussion into the key findings of this study as well as the overriding concept of leadership when it comes to the issues of retention and recruitment.

 

Several fire service leaders and experts join Jenaway in the podcast to provide insight and advice to departments facing retention and recruitment challenges. Philip C. Stittleburg, Chairman of the NVFC and Wisconsin Director; Jack Carriger, Second Vice Chairman of the NVFC and Oregon Director; and E. James Monihan, past Chairman of the NVFC and current Delaware Director, discuss some of the best practices they are seeing in their states to address the retention and recruitment challenges as well as how leadership plays an important factor in the solution.

 

Listen to the podcast. Download a copy of the USFA/NVFC guide Retention and Recruitment for the Volunteer Emergency Services: Challenges and Solutions (Second Edition) or order a hard copy from the U.S. Fire Administration’s Publication Center.