{"id":70465,"date":"2016-06-30T16:31:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T20:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=70465"},"modified":"2016-06-30T16:31:22","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T20:31:22","slug":"county-oem-launches-volunteer-fireems-recruitment-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=70465","title":{"rendered":"County OEM Launches Volunteer Fire\/EMS Recruitment Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"County<\/a>When asked what his or her biggest challenge is, every volunteer fire or EMS leader will answer, “getting more quality volunteers.” The challenges for these volunteer service leaders are:\u00a0 1) they lack the time to prepare and execute recruitment and retention activities; 2) they lack the materials and supplies for the recruitment and retention processes; and 3) they don\u2019t always capitalize on the best practice recruitment and retention methods available.\u00a0\u00a0 A recently acquired grant will allow Madison County to address each of these issues.<\/p>\n

Madison County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has launched a volunteer Fire & EMS Recruitment effort.\u00a0\u00a0 The OEM was successful in receiving a competitive grant from the State Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.\u00a0\u00a0 According to Ted Halpin, Director of Emergency Management this $24,000 grant supports this effort in the following manner:<\/p>\n

This grant will support our 22 volunteer fire departments in their recruitment and retention activities. This grant will serve to help volunteer departments be better able to execute recruitment and retention efforts by assisting them with:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sharing the best practice elements of recruitment and retention<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 understanding the mindset of prospective volunteers<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in framing their recruitment message<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the preparation needed for successful recruitment<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the materials needed for recruitment<\/p>\n

6)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 preparing their mentors to new members<\/p>\n

7)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the advertisement of applicants to their department<\/p>\n

According to Dave VanNamee, the project\u2019s Coordinator, this grant will also help volunteer departments prepare, design, and create materials needed for successful recruitment.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe have designed and purchased recruitment supplies to help our volunteer departments in their recruitment activities.\u00a0\u00a0 We are excited and honored to be able to assist these outstanding volunteer organizations in their recruitment efforts\u201d.<\/p>\n

VanNamee stated that in addition to working with the volunteer fire departments directly, we will be at the upcoming County Fair in Brookfield, the Fireman\u2019s Fair in DeRuyter, and hopefully in each of the high schools in the County this Fall, delivering our recruitment message.<\/p>\n

The website www.MadCoHeroes.com<\/a> has been developed to aid in this project.\u00a0\u00a0 The website acts as a service for people interested about becoming a volunteer firefighter or EMT.\u00a0 According to VanNamee, \u201cthere are plenty of opportunities for volunteers to serve.\u00a0 Volunteer agencies need interior firefighters, exterior firefighters, medical personnel, and fire\/police members.\u00a0 Not everyone is looking to do the interior firefighting job, but many people want to serve their community.\u00a0\u00a0 This program can help these people achieve this goal\u201d.<\/p>\n

More information can be secured by going to the www.MadCoHeroes.com<\/a> website or by mailing EM@madisoncounty.ny.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ted Halpin, Jr., MPA, CEM, director of Emergency Management,\u00a0Madison County<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When asked what his or her biggest challenge is, every volunteer fire or EMS leader will answer, “getting more quality volunteers.” The challenges for these volunteer service leaders are:\u00a0 1) they lack the time to prepare and execute recruitment and retention activities; 2) they lack the materials and supplies for the recruitment and retention processes; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}