VOLUNTEERS CORNER | By CRAIG R. MACONAGHY JR.
As I sat in an Indiana Convention Center meeting room at FDIC International 2023 listening to Tom Merrill, accomplished author, presenter, volunteer chief, and fire district commissioner, present his classroom session “The Professional Volunteer Fire Department,” I began to think and wonder, “What can I do better as an assistant chief to make my firefighters more professional and more dedicated to our community?” As company officers, this should be a question that plagues all our minds.
- What Is the Culture of Your Fire Department?
- Being an Officer in a Volunteer Fire Department
- Hitting the Reset Button and Redefining the Culture in the Volunteer Firehouse
- Volunteer Fire Department Leadership: The Nine Keys to Success
Later that week, while in New Haven (CT) Chief John Alston’s classroom session “What’s on Your Mind? The Incident Commander Mindset,” it came to me: I can only force myself to change, with the intent that my actions will inspire change in my membership. The attitude and presence of the leadership inside the fire company directly correlates to the performance of its members.
Leading by Example
The first step is to lead by example. The little things you do are what your firefighters see. For instance, take a few extra minutes each day to shave. If you have a rig assigned for your use, take it to the car wash once or twice a week or, even better, wash it at the station. Step up and do apparatus checks if your crew is lacking. Take the extra five seconds to change out of your pajama pants for that 3 a.m. run to help someone’s grandma off the floor. Sit down on the tailboard or around the apparatus room table with your members and see “what’s going on” in your company. Be the positive influence that your company needs. Absent or apathetic chiefs can make or break a company.
Societal Changes
Our society has changed. There was a time in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, and possibly even early ’90s in western New York when we had waiting lists to join most suburban volunteer fire departments. People were just about knocking down the doors to become members and serve their community. Today, some companies need to resort to bunk-in, squad, or service hours-based programs just to keep their minimum number of members.
For the record, I am not opposed to any of these programs, especially if it means we are able to adequately serve our residents in an effective manner. I am fortunate to be in a district where we have not yet needed to make moves in this direction. However, it may become a necessity within the next three to five years if we do not make changes.
Changing the Culture
The culture inside our companies needs to change. The old days of “We’ve been here 50 years before you; we’ll be here 50 years after you leave” has never been less relevant. Attitudes like this are a cancer on the volunteer fire service and part of our problem with retention.
Tiger Schmittendorf wrote in an article, “People join volunteer fire/EMS organizations in search of three primary objectives: being valued, a sense of belonging, and to make an impact.” When any of these objectives are denied (or, as he puts it, “violated”), our members become disenfranchised and start to hang back; move on to other companies/departments/districts; or, worse, leave the service in general. The “50 years” attitude leads to a denial of both being valued and the sense of belonging.
As company officers, it is our job to support our members in fulfilling these objectives. A few simple words to our members, in the correct tone, can make a world of difference: “Hey, you did a great on that call,” “Thanks for coming out,” or “You’re doing a great job.” These may seem like throwaway comments, but when said in a positive, meaningful manner, they will help reinforce all three of the objectives for which members join. It does not need to be “sunshine and rainbows” at all times with every member, but failing to correct deficiencies in performance or behavior can have a detrimental effect on the remainder of your membership.
As company officers, we are also responsible not only to our community but to our firefighters, company, and fire service history. With that in mind, I am no stranger to the disciplinary system of the companies of which I have been a member, spending four months suspended out of the past 18 years. These suspensions did not come from poor performance or failing to meet standards but from not taking a second to think before opening my mouth. As I have matured as a person, I have also grown as a leader, which not only benefits myself but the community I swore an oath to protect.
It is commonplace in stations across the country—paid and volunteer—for firefighters to sit around the kitchen table, on the tailboard, or at any other gathering place in the station and complain about leadership; it is kind of our thing. Whether it is paid members complaining about their working conditions, equipment, contract, and elected officials or volunteers complaining about their elected officers, equipment, board of directors, or commissioners, it is important for officers to acknowledge their complaints but also to avoid adding fuel to the fire. Although you may agree with every word they say, it is important to shy away from the discord. Firefighters complain; it’s what we do. If you’re not hearing your crew complain about leadership at some level, there’s a good chance you might be part of the problem.
Let’s face it—we’re not getting any younger. The longer we’re in the volunteer service, the more we see why our more “seasoned” or “senior” members always seem so grumpy; they’ve already been through just about everything you’re going through. Although teaching some of the tactics from the “old days” may be a bit brash for dealing with the youth of today, talk to those seasoned members. You can learn from them how things were handled in the past and then build on it.
Social Media
Changes in society dictate changes in tactics. The advent of social media has been both a blessing and a hindrance. For example, I met my wife through social media because of a social media platform profile picture of me in the officer’s seat of my company’s 1984 Pierce Arrow engine.
In my early days with the volunteer fire service, there were no social media policies. Now, we have social media groups whose main purpose seems to be disparaging others; these groups seems to scour the Internet looking to see who they can belittle. This is in addition to the chiefs, directors, commissioners, and so on who enforce social media policies that are either so stringent that they don’t allow the membership to share or acknowledge that they are even members or are so loosely written that they can pick and choose what they accuse people of.
Personally, I find social media to be a phenomenal tool for not only sharing the accomplishments of your membership and company but also for recruitment and keeping the public up to date with how tax dollars are being spent. Company pages should not be used to take a political stand or share questionable “memes.”
That being said, our role as company officers is to guide our members’ social media use and behavior outside the station and control how it reflects on the company. The meme postings, T-shirts, and vehicle stickers displaying phrases such as “Firefighters do it in the dark,” “Find ‘em hot and leave ‘em wet,” “Big Johnson Fire Department,” and so on project a negative perception of firefighters in the community. That negative perception then carries on to the company and the entire service in general. Although we have been seeing less of this merchandise at trade shows, it is still out there, and it still has the same negative impact we want to avoid.
In his September 2019 Editor’s Opinion in Fire Engineering, “Anti-Social Media vs. The Table,” Chief (Ret.) Bobby Halton wrote, “The kitchen table is now an electronic table; some days, when we are having a bad hair day, we go off. There should be an electronic table elder who flashes a ‘raised eyebrow,’ warning when we post a really knucklehead post, and who gives us the chance to count to 10 and delete it.” To the benefit of our firefighters, we as company officers need to be that “electronic table elder” that Halton mentioned. When you hear a member say or see him post something that paints the company in a negative light, pull him aside and, in a few words and with that correct tone, let him know what he is saying. There’s no need to yell (unless it’s absolutely warranted), and it is unnecessary and unwarranted to be the “Facebook police.” However, keeping an eye on what your members post allows you to keep up on what is going on with your membership.
I have a few members who are constantly in “Facebook jail” because of the questionable material they post to social media daily. However, these members have been smart enough to distance their electronic selves from their community servant selves and keep electronic knowledge of their membership status nonexistent.
Bad T-Shirts
Regarding questionable T-shirts, a few years back, at a statewide drill team competition, I saw a T-shirt showing a rendering of a foundation reading: “[Local Fire Department] – Saving Cellars Since 1932.” I was dumbfounded. It doesn’t exactly project a sense of confidence in the abilities of you or your company, does it? I am all for having a good time and making jokes but, call me old fashioned, I don’t believe that broadcasting “We save cellars” is a great public image, nor is it something to which to aspire. I understand the importance of the fire department simply showing up at someone’s hour of need, but a bunch of unkempt members hopping off the rig wearing stained shirts that say, “We’re here, but we’re probably not going to make a good stop on this fire, since we’re proud of saving basements,” is not going to provide the same level of comfort as well-groomed, fit firefighters ready to go to work with Halton’s “Duty. Honor. Country.” emblazoned on the back of their clean shirts.
As company officers, it is our job to fight the “good fight,” to keep our membership active, and to change our companies’ culture to keep up with the needs not only of our area of responsibility but of our members. Without changing our culture to fit the modern world, the dwindling membership numbers will cause us, the great American volunteer fire service, to falter and fail. If our volunteer fire service falters and fails, we’re all going to have a lot more time to spend on the golf course, and the citizens we serve are going to pay the price not only in taxes but in lives and property as well.
References
Schmittendorf T. Avoiding the Perils of the Volunteer Fire/EMS Retention Cliff. Retrieved on 3/25/2023. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/avoiding-perils-volunteer-fireems-retention-cliff-tiger-schmittendorf/?trackingId=oeFkqk2TQ4qpkF6Y%2BaUI%2FA%3D%3D.
Halton B. “Anti-Social Media vs The Table.” Fire Engineering, Vol 172, Issue 9.
CRAIG R. MACONAGHY JR. is an 18-year western New York state volunteer fire service veteran and an assistant chief with the Doyle Fire District #1 in Cheektowaga, New York, where he is also employed full time as a fire inspector. Maconaghy spent nine years in the Depew (NY) Fire Department as well as nine years at Doyle (NY) Hose Company #2.
