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Class: Shaping Your Volunteer Fire Department to Fit Today's Expectations

Is your Volunteer fire department struggling to maintain relevance in our changing society? Does your current service delivery model meet the needs and expectations of your community? Are you struggling to recruit, train, and retain members? Each day, it seems that the news feeds contain a story about a volunteer department closing its doors, in financial trouble, or even worse legal trouble. There seems to be a nationwide panic about the critical shortage of volunteers. Does it have to be this way? In this class, we will: examine how industry and societal trends impact today's volunteer fire service, take a hard look at the way we've always done it, as well as share and develop alternative ways to recruit, market, lead, train, and manage our departments and members.

Class: Views From The Other Side Of The Desk
Leading in any organization is a challenge. Leading all career, all-volunteer, or combination staff adds its own unique challenges to mix. Realizing that not all members have the same motivations and that generally speaking, firefighters cannot stand change or the way things are, you may quickly find yourself struggling to tread water in the leadership world. This program will examine those things that you wish someone would have told you before taking a leadership role in your department as well as some of the things you need to know if you are looking to lead down the road. As we come up through the ranks it is common to have questions about rules, procedures, and tactics. This is not a bad thing, as it is necessary to question things to improve them or realize they are fine the way they are. However, as we climb the rungs of the leadership ladder, we often find that the view will change and that things look very different from the other side of the desk.