TEAM Training for Volunteers

By PATRICK ARMSTRONG

As a training officer or training facilitator in your volunteer department, are you facing declining attendance, a lack of interest in weekly practice sessions, difficulty getting everyone involved in a session, or difficulty managing small or large numbers of volunteers? Are new members feeling left out or overlooked?

I can assure you that the challenges go on, but don’t be alarmed; you’re not alone! I’ve had many chances to speak and share ideas with firefighters from my local area to as far away as South Africa, and the stories are all the same. So, if the challenges of being a volunteer training officer or facilitator are the same, what can you do to overcome them?

All officers and firefighters can use TEAM training as a model to provide the department with a formal and informal way of creating a mentor program and, at the same time, address the challenges outlined above.

Your first major hurdle to overcome is getting volunteer firefighters to come through the door for a given session. The easiest way to have people attend is for them to know that what they are attending is relevant to what they will do on the fireground. Cross training is important in the volunteer fire service, but if you have members who only operate apparatus, they won’t have the interest in attending if they know they’ll be standing around watching a group of members do self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) work. And, crews practicing SCBA won’t be interested in watching the operators pull levers and move water. Both are equally important practice topics, but there are times to do them together and times to do them separately and in different groups.

Dividing your volunteers into training companies is an excellent way to keep everyone working on relevant tasks, keep them interested in attending, and have them continually concentrate on topics to keep them proficient. In many volunteer departments, the varying number of personnel and training levels can limit having dedicated engine, truck, and rescue companies when responding to alarms. But during training, having people in companies makes perfect sense and promotes teamwork. Creating an organizational structure within your training program will help with all the previously listed challenges as well as address things like “division of labor,” which makes sure no one person in your department is completely overwhelmed with organizing an in-depth training program, which is common in volunteer departments. This also addresses “unity of command” so that members within your training program always have someone to report to or ask questions of, and “span of control” so that any given training session has proper supervision for safety and assessment and ensures that groups are not so large that too many people are standing around for extended periods of time. This is a major deterrent for members when they decide to attend practice sessions; they know most of the time will be spent not participating.

These companies can be of varying size; you can have as many companies as you need to manage the number of members in your department. Following is one example of a simple breakdown of your department.

ALPHA Company. It consists of new members with little to no experience who need to consistently concentrate on the basics of firefighting. An excellent example of this group includes junior or new officers. Let the junior/new officers plan and deliver the training. Simply following a basic firefighter program as accepted by your authority having jurisdiction can make planning and ideas very easy. Within your organizational structure, these officers report their plans directly to the department training officer so he can pair together similar sessions between companies if required. You have not only provided specific basic training for new firefighters but have also given leadership and training responsibility to the junior/new officers in managing this group. When people feel involved in an activity, their interest can only increase regardless of whether they are the new probationary firefighter or the new department officer. Also when junior/new officers know they are responsible to provide training to new members, it encourages them to remain current on firefighting tactics, which improves the efficiency of your department.

BRAVO Company. Any member who is an engineer or apparatus operator needs to practice operating the vehicles in your station. However, they don’t necessarily need 20 firefighters standing around watching. As a group, these firefighters know the area in which they need practice-areas on which they haven’t worked in a while-so allow your operators to guide their own practice sessions. The training officer remains informed of their plans so he can coordinate when other companies require apparatus for their drills. For example, if the firefighters are doing a rope-and-knots practice evening, BRAVO Company knows it can do drafting practice at a local site or set up portable tanks at the station and run the tanker/tender shuttle. In this two-hour weekly practice session, your department members can be significantly involved while covering two important topic areas.

CHARLIE/DELTA Company (and so on). Depending on the size of your fire department membership, you can add as many companies as you require. CHARLIE (and up) companies are your general firefighter population. Volunteer departments assign these firefighters different names such as “SCBA firefighters,” “Interior firefighters,” and so on. These are the senior/experienced firefighters who do the bulk of your frontline operations. Great oversight for these groups is your department senior officers. These officers bring their knowledge and experience to the training program to help these firefighters grow into the department’s future leaders. These companies concentrate not only on the basics but also on the more advanced operations outlined in your department’s mission statement such as vehicle extrication, medical response, technical rescue, and so on. Departments that host weekly practice sessions should break down into training companies to give ample time to keeping members proficient in these skills between standard recertification classes.

SUPPORT Company. Within the volunteer fire department is a unique group of senior firefighters you can’t and shouldn’t ignore. These true veteran members may not ride the trucks anymore, but they are still deeply dedicated to the fire service and their fire department, and within a training company structure they will have a place to feel involved. These firefighters are assigned to the Support Company to do just that: continue to support the department. These members don’t need to be practicing SCBA, operating apparatus, or cutting vehicles apart, but they are more than capable to help wash units on a practice night and clean/maintain equipment. They are excellent assets to maintain unit inventory checkbooks; fill SCBA bottles during the session; and add their experiences to a given session on what worked really well on the fireground in years past and, more importantly, what didn’t. These members are of immense value to your department, so it is important to keep them involved.

Within this training company structure, employ a TEAM training mentality, which can be a formal or an informal mentoring program. TEAM stands for the following:

• Try.
• Evolve.
• Advance.
• Motivate.

TRY

Every member of your volunteer department should be encouraged to try a skill or task-new or old-at least once. Trying a skill will build self-confidence, give that member a sense of accomplishment, and may even help him overcome a fear. The fire service is very intimidating, so encouraging another member of your department to try can make a profound impact.

EVOLVE

Once a member has tried something new, his interest will spike. He will never forget the first time he used a power saw to cut a roof, even if it was just during a training session. Or, perhaps it was when he overcame a fear of heights when he climbed a ladder. Flood members with all the knowledge and resources you can. This is recruitment and retention at its finest. Your firefighters will gain a sense of self-worth and will want to continue to evolve as firefighters. This is how you help build firefighters who want to stay in your department.

ADVANCE

These are your firefighters in CHARLIE (and up) Company. They have gained the basic knowledge required to stay safe on the fireground, can work in a team on a task, and can understand their roles within your department. Now, keep them moving forward by having them learn new skills and leadership techniques. This is how you truly shape the future of your department. This is the group of firefighters your senior leadership team should groom. The volunteer fire service is hugely family-based, so think of it that way. If you are a leader in your department, act as if you are grooming your department’s firefighters to be the leaders of your children. Give them the right tools to do it.

MOTIVATE

Once you have taken the basic programs, tried the skills, and evolved and advanced into a proficient respected firefighter or department leader, you only have one final step: motivating others to do the same. This can be as simple as standing at the back of a group and offering to raise a ground ladder with a brand new member on a drill night or as detailed as allowing a new officer to manage a scene while you stand back and act as safety net. Motivation is a simple way to help improve morale and interest within your department.

Training should be a safe and fun time for volunteers. Approach it as if your department has not responded to many emergency calls lately. In a well-organized training program, deployed through the training company division, you can create any call you want; these “calls” focus on the learning experience, not the stressors of the actual scene. Ensuring that the right people are involved in your volunteer training program, employing the TEAM training model, and keeping skills relevant to what firefighters do when the tones go off will help you overcome common training/practice session challenges within your volunteer department.

PATRICK ARMSTRONG is a deputy chief/training officer for the Kingston Fire Department in Nova Scotia, Canada. He is also the training program manager for the Annapolis County Fire Service Association and an advanced care paramedic for the Province of Nova Scotia.