Volunteer Non-Operational Firefighter Committees and Firefighting Jobs (Firefighting and Public Service)

Developing stronger local firefighting capacity is beneficial and leads to property and lives being saved. Sometimes I think about ways to improve firefighting and that can have an impact on local communities. Much of the nation is struggling with recruiting firefighters. This difficulty is occurring at a time when budgets are being constrained, regulations are rising, and global events/natural events are becoming fiercer putting additional stress on current structures. One might consider non-operational volunteer positions as an avenue of expanding the workflow and capacity of departments

Non-Operational Volunteer Positions

The survey Non-operational meaning they don't actually fight fires but engage in support.  indicates that 29% of people have interest in volunteer firefighting (higher than I thought.), appeals highly to 18-34 year olds, and 40 % of people indicated that they would volunteer non-operationally (SalterMitchell Inc., 2015). 

Of particular interest is the categories such as fundraising, safety, prevention, education, new volunteers, recruitment, etc. that are considered non-operational. An idea to ponder. If there is a relatively high interest rate in volunteering, limited gear, but still plenty of room for administrative work and activities such as fund raising then it would make sense in some cases to create non-operational volunteer positions. 

 Such positions are supportive in nature and help raise money, awareness, education outreach (i.e. schools, businesses, etc.) update equipment, etc. thereby strengthening the department, furthering the department's missions, reducing costs, and improving compliance. Many of the duties in fire departments are administrative heavy and that would allow operational firefighters to focus more on training as well as other aspects of the job. Local functionality improves. 

 Consider that you need to fund raise for a new project and you have a team of business volunteers or others that can help create funding opportunities. You may have people who check the equipment, complete the inventory, maintain equipment (i.e. local mechanic that can fix little things. i.e. better light, connect a wire, fix smaller items so it doesn't need to go to a shop, etc.) You should sort of get my point on how all of these things can really help.

Firefighter Jobs:

A local job I found. Someone might want to moonlight this if possible. LinkedIn Open Fire Equipment Representative 

National Testing Center

A lot of military service jobs on USA Jobs Firefighter

Indeed Firefighter Job Search

SalterMitchell Inc. (2015) Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment and Retention Formative Research Results. https://www.nvfc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NVFC_Formative-Research_2015_Report_v1f.pdf