BY JIM GRADY III
Change is never easy. Just think about the last time you changed furniture in your home and the “heart-wrenching” decisions you made. Now look at the changes made within an organization founded on volunteerism and the need to change because of service demands, changing times in general, and keeping up with the Joneses.
To have a starting point, I needed to go back in the history of the organization and define the word understand, since that would be the cornerstone for change within the department.
HISTORY
The Frankfort (IL) Fire Protection District is 120 years old and is typical of the volunteer fire departments organized by local men and women with a mission to help their neighbor. As time went on, many things within the organization remained the same; community support was in the form of fund-raising efforts and a stipend from the village governing body that covered very little.
• 1960s. The Fire Protection District was formed in the early 1960s as a consortium with neighboring departments; they created boundaries and response areas while seeking a guarantee of funding by the local residents and merchants-a fairly typical scenario.
• 1970s. The early 1970s brought some significant changes to the local fire department. With the help of TV’s “Emergency,” our department sent a number of members to EMT school so we could provide a higher level of first-aid response. We actually had an established EMS division. What a big step for our department!
The changes that have taken place over the past 30 years have once again been typical of departments in areas where growth, development, and an increased demand for service have occurred. When I joined the department 30 years ago, we ran approximately 200 calls for the year. Today, 30 years later, we are at 4,000-plus calls from three fire stations with 50 personnel responding to all types of emergencies.
• 1980s. The first indicator of the need for change was in the mid-1980s as we took on an EMS delivery role by providing paramedic service to the citizens within the community. A referendum approved our first EMS deployment, and we immediately sent a number of members to paramedic school. I also attended school. This was perhaps the toughest time of my life: I failed to prioritize my life and placed a tremendous strain on my family. To this day, I am deeply grateful for my family’s understanding.
I felt that by attending medic school, I would be able to help counsel an individual on the additional commitment to the department and the time needed for this advanced education. What transpired out of this move to EMS was a higher level of service for our EMS team. In the past, we had to wait for an ambulance to come from the private sector while we treated without transporting. This at times was frustrating because of long response times. Now, we could do immediate assessments, transport, and get the patient to the hospital faster than before.
The one issue that surfaced was additional time away-the average EMS call was about an hour. Therefore, the volunteers who left their house on a more frequent basis were away from home even longer. We also saw an increase in downtime of coverage within the district as members who signed in went home or to work, but the return response slowed greatly. This does not mean that the dedication for service was lost but that spending too much time away from home or work was not healthy.
In 1987 I was named chief and immediately took a look at our daily deployment. We added extra staffing at the part-time level to ensure deployment for fire and EMS calls. We also added a fire inspector, since development had really picked up; this was a precursor to incredible growth.
• 1990s. As we moved into the 1990s, we added several career positions to include chief, assistant chiefs of operations and support service, firefighter/paramedics, and support staff.
The expansion of staff was necessary since we were now being recognized as a “player” within the community and were invited to planning events, meetings, and gatherings. For those meetings to which we were not invited, we would show up anyway. This was the way to make sure that the local and county governing bodies knew we were serious about building, access, roadway conditions, and safety for our personnel as well as the citizens we protected.
MARKETING THE DEPARTMENT’S SERVICES
We set out on a major campaign of recognition and selling of the department’s services. The credit really goes to the fire/rescue personnel who daily delivered services, gave tours, and exemplified customer service attitudes. They constituted the marketing of the department.
We marketed ourselves by having newsletters and company inspections. Even if there were only two members with an ambulance or on the engine, we got out into the public mainstream. We sent a number of articles to our local reporters. We had the reporters visit the station and ride along so they could help us sell the department by seeing firsthand what goes on with training and response. We made sure that any personal accomplishments were recognized in the paper and at trustee meetings. I wanted the public to know that our personnel were going to school, obtaining certifications, and performing heroic deeds. All of these marketing plans were helpful, but the best one was recognition of accomplishments.
OUR DEPARTMENT TODAY
Today, we are a combination department consisting of 51 line personnel that includes career, contract, and paid on call/part time. We also have a very active Cadet/Explorer Post consisting of 21 young people who carry on the volunteer spirit of the organization.
How do we understand the need for change and realize that change is needed? Many examples jump out-such as time out the door; overall response time; staffing levels of initial response; and decline in response of volunteer/paid on call, in training attendance, and in volunteering for weekend and evening activities.
The result of these changes has been traced back to “family overload” and trying to be in too many places at the same time. We experienced a level of outside-the-department involvement by our membership that included sports events with their children, the spouse’s going back to work, job demands for longer hours, and a number of our members going back to school-thus cutting into training nights and call response.
The changes we experienced cut into the heart of the firefighters association, as less time was available for fund-raising events and attending meetings. Attendance went to very low numbers.
We saw an increase in out-the-door response times as we still waited for individuals to respond from home to assist with staffing equipment. There were times when we would roll out with one or two members on a truck or a firefighter driving a support vehicle out while mutual-aid companies responded with fire equipment.
Training became more difficult as we attempted to enforce a higher number of hours of attendance as more mandates rolled out. We rotated training, offering day, night, and weekend classes, putting a higher demand on our training officers and instructors. We also saw a shift as our on-duty crew trained during the day and then attended the same or equivalent drill at night.
Perhaps the biggest concern was a noticeable change in attitude and relationships. In many cases, this was unavoidable; but I, along with my fellow officers, addressed this on a daily basis. First was an assurance of the continued need for our volunteer/paid on-call responders to keep responding. We needed them for second and third calls as well as a backup for our commitment to mutual aid for surrounding departments.
How did we make it through these changing and exciting times? By keeping a sense of humor and a sense of respect for our fellow firefighters and using a commonsense approach to the notion that change is needed as well as inevitable.
In the 1990s, we realized that as we grew, the need for funding was going to be at the heart of the change agent. Our new plan, therefore, was centered on the following that remained as our cornerstone as we pursued an increase in our allowable taxable amount: on-duty personnel, safety of our personnel, reduction of turnout time, efficiency on the emergency scene, and enhanced training/education that includes a mentoring program for firefighters and fire officers.
Once the referendum passed, we added personnel and opened up Station #3, providing two extra fire-rescue personnel on duty. This was done by expanding our part-time program and adding contract personnel. The next step was to look at longevity of personnel. We initiated a testing process for full-time district employees who would be our future leaders and help set the pace for our future. We did that to include promotions for fire officers. We have looked at our response times and held our on-duty personnel to a higher standard of response. Our training has become more detailed and was expanded to include a training team that delivers programs to all shifts. We are working on a redefined program for our part-time staff.
Credit must be given to our friends at the federal level. We applied for grants under state and federal programs, including the FIRE Act. We have been fairly successful. We have applied for a SAFER grant to bring additional personnel onboard. If successful, that will match up perfectly with our hiring plan as we continue to grow and expand with requests for services.
Throughout this journey, I kept in mind those members who started out as volunteers, and I maintained my commitment to them to have them grow with us as support staff or active members of the part-time paid on-call program. I learned in the private sector that losing an employee was a company loss. Loss of experience and training time equals a total loss in investment. From time to time, it may be necessary to let an employee go, but it’s not the same as losing an employee because of family or career obligations, especially if the employee has some technical expertise that can assist the organization.
When we were a volunteer department and then a paid on-call department, we used traditional incentives to reward our members-shirts, jackets, small fire department memorabilia items, for example. When we went to monetary incentives, we used the point system based on response and training attendance. Eventually, this system dwindled, and we went to a part-time pay scale for all activities that include training and on-duty responses. We still have a separate pay scale for paid on-call response in addition to our callback response for our career members.
Today, we, like many departments, still continue to struggle with the changing times, the changing scenery, and the community’s request for services.
Our foundation is on solid ground because of the personnel who have made a commitment to our department and who have stayed with us over the past 30 years, bringing to the table their experiences and examples of leadership.
Over the next few years, we will see more changes within the community and the department, but my goal is to remember who we are and where we came from. That is the message delivered within the mentoring program-knowing the history of the fire service and the history of our department.
Now in 2006 our mission is defining the next generation of our department and setting forth new traditions built on a rich history of volunteerism, professional attitude, and commitment to community service.
Change is inevitable, but like a ship built for the sea, we in the fire department are built for action and response, so sitting dockside will not work. Together, we will go out and take on the needs of the community and of our brothers and sisters. ■
■ JIM GRADY III is chief and a 30-year veteran of the Frankfort (IL) Fire Protection District. He is a certified fire officer III and a chief fire officer designee and has a master’s degree in public administration. He is past president of the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association and has been a presenter for IAFC-VCOS, state associations, and Stay Low. He will be a presenter at FDIC 2006.
