South Carolina State Firefighters’
Association
EACH ONE, REACH ONE
Volunteer Firefighter
Recruitment and Retention
Challenges & Expectations
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How do you attract new volunteers?
How do you keep the members that you have?
Where would you like to be?
Successes?
What doesn’t work?
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Observations and Insights
Youth programs work!
FD role awareness is low
Media alone won’t make it happen
Enough Volunteers, Wrong Mix
Community outreach is the biggest
opportunity and weakest area
Professional firefighters are not
professional recruiters
Recruitment & Retention are
tightly linked
The Five Key Strategies
Revitalize a Sense of Purpose
Be Approachable & Inclusive
Compete for Discretionary Time
Assure Incentives Meet
Individual
Needs
Adapt Training to Fit Volunteers
The 9 “M’s” of Recruitment
• Mindset
• Map
• Meet
• Mentor
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The 9 “M’s”- continued
• Momentum
• Messenger
• Medium
• Message
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The 9 “M’s”- continued
• These 8 add up to make up the campaign
• The final “M” is……
• Measure
• We must determine if what we are doing is
effective
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The Strategy
The Plan
Implement
• Strategic Leadership
– Provide ongoing direction for the overall recruiting and retention
effort for South Carolina.
• Support and Reinforce the
Each One, Reach One program
– Sustain and grow the initial enthusiasm and accomplishments
achieved through the Pilot Project
• Expand the Five Core Recruitment and Retention
Strategies
– Develop a statewide network of skilled recruiters and leaders who
collaborate to solve recruitment and retention problems at the
local, regional and state level.
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