Last night during our weekly fire training we invited our neighboring departments to train with us. While in conversation with our friends the comment was made that yall sure have a lot of young people which is great. We couldnt agree more. We are blessed with a young volunteer fire department. However......that got me to thinking. We have initiate several things in our department that have allowed us to be blessed with a 100% response rate along with a 0% 2nd page rate. We have visited with other departments not only in our area but throughout the country and brought back what we think makes a successful volunteer fire department. Are we successful in Rogersville? We sure hope we are. Do we have room for improvement? Absolutely. Im posting what works for us so maybe other department can learn from us. First off we proudly wear the name VOLUNTEER in our name. The Rogersville VOLUNTEER Fire Department. Some say that you cant tell a volunteer what to do in a fire department. Really? We have rules and regulations that must be followed. If you cant follow them.......you go home. That simple. So yes......you can certainly tell a volunteer what to do when it comes to being a member of your fire department. Second......the word VOLUNTEER does not give your department the excuse not to respond to emergency calls. You have committed to helping your community in the event they call for help. Thats 100% of the time. Not 99%. Not 99.9% of the time.....but 100% of the time. Being a volunteer is different that being a member of the local Civitan Club or Kiwanis Club. If you miss a meeting with the Kiwanis Club then nothing really happens. Life goes on. However........if you miss an emergency call.......that is the LIFE of someone that is in need of help. That 911 call they just made may be their lifeline to YOU for help. We in Rogersville do not want to be (as citizens) that 5% of calls that go unanswered or have a delayed response. We found a great saying that came from Madison County. It says.....Being a VOLUNTEER is no excuse for mediocracy. How true!! Now.......here is how we work to achieve our response rate. 1. Every call is important. From grandma stubbing her toe to someone having a full blown stroke........ALL calls to 911 that are relayed to us are very IMPORTANT. We are dealing with someones life and property. 2. Each member of our department must make 30% of all trainings and calls in order to be classified as active. That doesnt mean that if someone can only give 10% then they are out. No......not at all. The 30% mark allows those members to vote in the affairs of the department. 3. We utilize the 911 Paging System to its fullest extent. We recently purchased 30 brand new pagers for our members with voice playback. 4. We have installed a dual paging system on fire department local channel that plays the 911 pages (over our channel). 5. We utilize the text paging system through 911. However.....we DO NOT rely on that as our primary source of notification. 6. We have created an email ring through YAHOO GROUPS in which we can immediately email the entire fire department at a moments notice with important announcements or have discussions. 7. Each officer is asked to stay in down at all times. This means if an officer leaves.....he or she lets the other officers know they are out of service. If it gets down to only one officer in town......then that officer STAYS. He makes sure the district is protected. 8. The Officers have a TEXT RING in which they continually talk with each other throughout the day. 9. Our department openly discusses our responses at each and every meeting. We go over our percentages and how they compare to the county. 10. The vast majority of our calls are EMS related. We require each member to at least be certified in CPR. This will allow them to respond on medical calls. The argument is sometimes given that only EMTs or PARAMEDICS should respond on EMS calls. Although we have EMTS and PARAMEDICS responding on almost 100% of our EMS calls we count those members who are proficient in CPR to respond just as needed. Those members can at least make contact with the patient, calm the family, radio to dispatch that they have located the residence and assist the ambulance crew when they arrive. You DO NOT have to be an EMT or PARAMEDIC to respond to EMS calls. There is no state law that says that is required. 11. Our department doesnt use the excuse of well I have to work in the morning so I cant go on any calls. This is what you signed up for. You answer those calls late at night or early in the morning and then you go to work the next day tired and sleepy. Thats a part of the job we signed up for. No excuses. Remember.......when someone calls for help, they dont really care if you are tired or hungry. They want you to save their life or property. 12. The final reason we are active is our leadership. It all starts at the top. Our fire chief and top officers respond to EVERY call. This can be a minor medical call to a full blown structure fire. We all go. Hopefully this will explain our success in our department. These changed didnt come over night. However, that have proven beneficial in providing the very best fire and EMS service for the citizens we serve. Our department is the oldest volunteer fire department in Lauderdale County. Great men and women have come before us. We want to keep that tradition of good patient care and customer service at the forefront of everything we do. Morris T. Lentz Assistant Chief / EMT Basic Rogersville VFD
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 04:06:20 +0000
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