An article recently posted to FirefighterNation.com outlines the challenges faced by volunteer fire departments in Pennsylvania in recruiting and retaining their members. Although these types of articles are becoming all too frequent, this one in particular is better than most in that it focuses on the positives of being a volunteer firefighter — not all the negatives. I’ve cited many examples of what not to say if you’re actually looking to solve your R&R challenges in a previous post titled “Is this our best approach?” Too often, it seems that we hand a prospective candidate all of the reasons and excuses why they wouldn’t join on a silver platter.

I have to tip my helmet to the volunteer fire service in Pennsylvania who is no stranger to these challenges — or to innovative solutions to those challenges. I’ve previously mentioned them in “PA VFDs Dip Into Fountain of Youth” for potential solutions as well as I’ve applauded their efforts in the successful recruitment campaign: “Roll with It!” — the sexiest thing to come to volunteer recruitment I’ve ever seen. It rivals the GoArmy.com and NationalGuard.com campaigns.

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I am often reluctant to write about commercial business ventures in my blogs and other platforms as I am sensitive to the trusted relationship between a writer and their readers, and leary about self-promotion. Thus I have delayed writing this post for quite some time.

It wasn’t until I came to the realization that this is not about me or what I’m involved in as much as it is about you – my readers, followers and the fire service at large – that I felt the timing was right for sharing this exciting news.

Earlier this year I was invited by my long time and good friends Dave Iannone and Chris Hebert to share in their vision for tipping the traditional training program on its head. Dave and Chris have a knack for surrounding themselves with inspired people and a solid reputation for bringing innovative and successful solutions to the fire service community, so it wasn’t much of a tough sell for me to join them and the other members of their team at the table.

The conversations were very indepth and engaging, even sparring at points, but all with a common goal in mind: to bring a new and exciting approach to providing training for firefighters and first responders. As I looked around the room, I saw a tremendous amount of passion and caring for getting this right.

It wasn’t long before I was hooked and signed on as chief of training, charged with driving the direction of the educational content of their new conference concept.

So what’s this new idea, this next best thing? It’s called Go>Forward Fire and I will introduce it from three different perspectives. For everyone involved, it’s an exciting new venture in firefighter and leadership training from the same industry leaders who created FirefighterNation, FireEMS Blogs, and the original Firehouse.com.

From a fire service perspective, Go>Forward Fire offers “a conference in a box” solution to fire departments, training associations and related organizations looking for the opportunity to bring a national level conference to their neighborhood. Partnering with local fire service organizations, we work with you to tailor the content and agenda to your local needs and then bring top notch presenters and instructors to your region. Oh yeah, and we handle the logistics and marketing too.

All we ask is that you help spread the word and provide your honest input before, during and after the conference. What you get in return is the caliber of training you would normally pay big bucks and have to travel significant distances for and we bring it all to you in an affordable way so as to maximize the return on your training investment.

For conference participants, Go>Forward Fire is not your typical instructor-student interaction. These are not one-time events – but the start of an ongoing conversation and a life-long series of knowledge and experience exchanges. By engaging both the student and the instructor before, during and after each training event, Go>Forward Fire expands the relationship between the student and the instructor like never before with meaningful social and professional connections in a truly immersive learning environment.

While that may sound like a marketing pitch (It is. I wrote it.), as a Go>Forward Fire student, I assure you that you’ll enjoy an unprecedented level of access to some of the most experienced and emerging talent in the fire service. Once a G>FF participant – always a G>FF participant as far as we’re concerned.

This isn’t about how many PowerPoint slides we can glaze your cornea with or how many pounds of handouts we send you home with – it’s about the conversation. As I say in the disclaimers shared at the beginning of each of my presentations, I don’t care if we never leave the first slide as long as you’re satisfied with the direction your training goes in. It’s all about you.

As an instructor, joining our teaching team means that you’ll benefit from the opportunity to link to your students and other instructors in not only an integrated and intimate classroom setting, but also on the training ground, during meet-ups, through blogs, articles, videos, podcasts, commentary, webcasts, online learning and a growing list of social media connections all under one training network.

I’ve spoken and participated at more than a few conferences in my career. This is not your typical fly-in, do your stand-up routine and fly-out kind of gig. Not only do we offer more interaction, we insist on it. Teaching with us is not for everyone – only the most engaged and engaging.

This is the sharing opportunity you’ve been waiting for. The opening to truly coach and mentor the future of the fire service. The chance to have a deep and lasting impact on our emergency services community.  This is an innovative 360° approach to training our replacements and future leaders.

While the term may have already become cliché in the fire service, our overall goal is to be the kitchen table of conferences – not the kitchen sink. Our teaching team is comprised of many of the familiar names you know and plenty of names you’re going to want to get to know.

Accomplished fire service leaders like Chiefs Alan Brunacini, Tim Sendelbach, Chris Naum, Ed Hadfield, Dennis Rubin and Rich Gasaway; and up and coming instructors like Lt. Matthew McDowell from Bluffton Twp. South Carolina, Lt. Chris Sterricker from Suburban Chicago, Lt. Paul Hasenmeier from Huron Twp. Ohio and Training Officer John Shafer from Greencastle, Indiana will provide their keen insight to every firefighter, officer and chief participating. Their national presence will be balanced with local talent like St. Louis Fire Department Captain Nick Morgan and Chiefs Tony Correia and Ed Kensler from New Jersey and Chief Greg Jakubowski from Bucks County PA.

We’re very excited that several familiar bloggers will step away from their keyboards long enough to share their experiences in person, including Dave Statter from Statter911.com, John Mitchell – editor of FireDaily.com, Mike Ward, co-editor of FireGeezer.com, Jason Hoevelmann of FirefightersEnemy.com and Mick Mayers, author of FirehouseZen.com. You know that their conversational style of writing will translate well into the classroom conversation.

Something I’m most proud of is our following through on my vision of strengthening the connection between the fire service and the military. Marine Corps Sergeant and Volunteer Firefighter Jason Ferris will provide a keynote address titled: “It’s not a mission statement – it’s a calling” drawing on the common values our two institutions share. Furthermore, we’ll be donating $5 from each conference package purchased to the support the important work of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

Making the team rock-solid are Brotherhood Instructors providing the intense hands-on components of each conference. Curt and Nate DeMarse, Andrew Brassard, Kevin Legacy, Chris Collier and their team of seasoned veterans from volunteer, career and combination departments across the United States and Canada will relate their vast and relevant experiences in a way that every firefighter can understand, regardless of the type of system or community they work in.

And, if you’ve ever been part of a good training experience, you know that some of the greatest value you take away from it is in the informal networking that takes place between classes. With Go>Forward Fire, those connections start inside and extend well beyond the classroom and on the training ground, not just during the breaks.

As our tag line says, Go>Forward Fire is the evolution of firefighter and leadership training, breaking down the barriers of the traditional classroom environment, creating long-lasting conversations and relationships that will undoubtedly make a difference in how we go forward in the future fire service. And here’s the best part: we’re going to have fun doing it – a lot of fun!

I’m so excited about this new training venture that I’m not sure I can adequately put it in words. I guess you’ll have to experience it for yourself to truly understand its impact.

While I am proud to be invited to be a part of this team, I’d be even more flattered if you’d consider joining us at one of our inaugural events planned this fall; or to attend or host one of the several new events we have in the works for 2012 and beyond.

Check out our conference details at www.goforwardtraining.com and tell them I sent you when you register. Use the promo code “SCHMITTENDORF” to take advantage of an added 10% discount on your conference costs.

Don’t worry, I’m not trading off any of my other ventures such as my feature writing here at TigerSchmittendorf.com, my story-telling at Run-to-the-Curb and FirefighterStorytellers; or my coaching at FireRECRUITER.com. And for those of you keeping score at home, I have no intention of giving up my full time gig serving as deputy fire coordinator in Erie County.

This is just another dot to be connected in my life-long quest to Go>Forward in the fire service. Thanks for riding along.

Stay safe. Train often.

Tiger Schmittendorf
Chief of Training
Go>Forward Fire

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Firefighter, officer, chief—these are the titles of the jobs we sign up for. But just like “bingo chairman,” “corresponding secretary” or “roads and grounds committee member,” the title of “leader” is not something at the top of our list of “I want to be that guy” jobs that we strive for when we first join the volunteer fire department.

Although almost everyone who joins the fire service dreams of being chief one day, they probably don’t dream of being a “fire service leader”; that is, it’s not necessarily an inherent thought process to connect the title of “chief” with “leader.” And while the title of fire chief may conjure up images of flashing lights and standing in front of a burning building barking orders into a portable radio, as we know all too well, being a “fire service leader” requires a lot more preparation and hard work than that.

There is much discussion going on in the fire service today about this "void space" created by the potentially damaging collision of retiring experience and the growing lack of experience of today's firefighters and officers. When I say growing, I'm referring to the fact that as our fire load goes down (that's a good thing), so does our experience level, accordingly (that's a bad thing). Thus we end up with a "growing" lack of experience.

I had the privilege of writing a companion article to Chief Jeff Johnson's feature: Handling the “Leadership Absenteeism” Crisis Ahead—a Career Perspective recently published on FireRescue/FirefighterNation. It was interesting to see how much our thought lines paralleled each other, despite the fact that we didn't physically meet until I bumped into Chief Johnson at the CFSI dinner in Washington DC the week before the articles were published, let alone collaborate on our writings.

It turns out that we share a common mentor in Chief (Ret.) Jack Snook of the same Tualatin Valley Oregon Fire & Rescue that Chief Johnson retired from. I and many others consider Chief Snook to be the father of volunteer firefighter recruitment and retention as he wrote the manual originally titled: "A Breed Apart" published back in 1989. His work is still relevant today.

After our complementary articles were published, I came across this article on mentoring – which fit right in with the common thread solution that Chief Johnson and I proposed respectively. And then earlier today, Bill Carey of Backstep Firefighter sent me a link to this article which debates the value of experience vs. education in today's up and coming officers and leaders.

What really hit home with me was the way the author described how the fire service struggled with the acceptance of standardized and performance based training curriculum 10-15 years ago. I know that story firsthand as that's when and why I was hired by Erie County Emergency Services to implement just such a program. To say there were growing pains associated with this transition is being polite.

The author goes on to remind us that while many of us "more experienced" firefighters may have struggled to embrace the concept at the time, Gen-Y firefighters have simply never known anything different and thus easily become "early adopters." It's in that vain that he makes the pitch that education based officer development will take a similar path towards acceptance.

I've spent the past two weeks on the road (and many more hours before that) visiting with firefighters around the country, conducting my own observational research of those I've dubbed X-box Firefighters and the way they integrate into today's fire service. If I've learned nothing else about this generation, it's that their greatest expectation is to be given clear expectations from their leaders and mentors.

So, if you're looking to fill the leadership void space in your organization, I suggest you read the articles linked herein and surround yourself with the next generation of fire service leaders to better understand their expectations of you, and the role that we play in adapting to the needs and wants of our replacements.

Whether you decide to forge ahead and form strong bonds with those you'll be handing the reigns to some day, or you decide to stick your head back in the void space and pretend these challenges don't exist, I'm pretty sure they'd expect nothing less from you. I've found them to be pretty good judges of character.

Stay safe. Train often.

PS – Look for Paul Hasenmeier's web exclusive on fire officer development coming to FireRescue/FirefighterNation in June. He fits right in with this line of thinking and he offers a great "Read it today — Use it tomorrow" solution to the process.

Links in this article:

• Handling the “Leadership Absenteeism” Crisis Ahead—a Career Perspective — By Chief Jeff Johnson on FireRescue/FirefighterNation.com: www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/handling-the-leadership
• Handling the “Leadership Absenteeism” Crisis Ahead—a Volunteer Perspective — By Chief Tiger Schmittendorf on FireRescue/FirefighterNation.com: http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/handling-the-leadership
• Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI): www.cfsi.org
• Mentoring Advances the Quality of Future Fire Service Leaders  — By Kenneth Morgan on FireRescue/FirefighterNation.com: www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/mentoring-advances-the-quality
• Tualatin Valley OR Fire and Rescue: www.tvfr.com/
• Recruiting, Training and Maintaining Volunteer Firefighters — By Chief Jack Snook, et al.: http://www.books.google.com/books?id=cpvBs-MO7CAC&lpg=PP1&ots=iZZDdtJe71&dq=chief%20jack%20snook&pg=PP2#v=onepage&q=chief%20jack%20snook&f=false
• Backstep Firefighter — by Bill Carey: www.backstepfirefighter.com
• Company Officers: The Great Debate–Experience Versus Education — By Alan Rufer in IAFC On-Scene:  www.iafc.org/displayindustryarticle.cfm?articlenbr=46236
• Erie County Department of Emergency Services: www.erie.gov/fire
• From the X-Box to the Box Alarm — By Chief Tiger Schmittendorf: http://tigerschmittendorf.com/2009/06/21/from-x-box-to-the-box-alarm/
• Lt. Paul Hasenmeier: www.paulhasenmeier.com

4/21/11 – More on mentoring — just came across this mentoring worksheet from Fire 20/20.

4/21/11 – Related: "Dig In." — http://tigerschmittendorf.com/2009/09/01/dig-in/

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Her Dad was a fire lieutenant and her two youngest brothers (twins) joined as cadets, then volunteers and eventually became career firefighters.

But when Janet Wilmoth tried to join her local volunteer fire department, the fire chief told her to “Go home and have babies.”

She went on to do that too, but in the meantime, Janet Wilmoth took another approach to the fire service. She’s been with Fire Chief Magazine since 1986 and now leads the charge for improving the fire service as the publication’s editorial director.

I wonder if that chief has since been reminded of that famous quote: “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel!”

Join Janet and Tiger Schmittendorf, host of the Firefighter Storytellers Internet radio show live at 9pm EST on Wednesday-February 9, 2011, as Janet tells her story of growing up as a firefighter’s daughter to being a fire service leader.

Read Janet’s story at Run-to-the-Curb, which will be availableat the start of the live show. Please consider downloading and sharing the Show Flyer at your fire station and with your social networks.

Here’s the direct link to the show.

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A natural extension of RuntotheCurb.com, Firefighter Storytellers is an open-format Internet radio show in which listeners are encouraged to call in with personal accounts and anecdotes from their life in the fire service, giving a literal voice to those stories that form a common bond amongst us all.

If you’ve never listened to a FirefighterNetcast, visit the site now, sign up for a new user account for BlogTalkRadio, and be prepared to join in the conversation.

Listen in via the Internet, listen and/or participate by calling in, and join in the live chat that takes place amongst listeners while the show is going on. In case you miss the live show, you can even download the podcast after the fact on FirefighterNetcast and iTunes too. It’s free, it’s fun and it’s easy.

Every firefighter has a story.
Listen in. Call in. Tell your story.

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Photo courtesy of www.RaisingLaddersPhotography.com

I stumbled across a new resource recently that caught my attention: FDLiveIn.com

The concept of fire station live-ins or bunk-ins, depending on what you call them, has been around for quite some time and with quite a bit of success. Different departments run their programs in different ways but the common theme is that the firefighter lives in the fire station “rent-free” in return for volunteer service. Most live-ins are students but not all, and in some departments entire families live in the fire station.

For whatever reasons, the concept has not caught on in my area of Erie County NY and I’ve always wondered why. I’ve written three articles in the past month on the live-in/bunk-in concept and it’s gaining quite a bit of attention as a potential solution to recruitment and retention challenges in the volunteer fire service.

The program has intrigued me so much that later this week I’m traveling to Hyattsville MD — home to one of the longest standing and most successful bunk in programs in the fire service — and home to the X-Box Firefighters who created FDLiveIn.com. And to get a better understanding and appreciation for the program, I’ll be bunking in the station Friday night and they’ve arranged a tour of several live-in fire stations for Saturday.

Stay tuned here, at FireRECRUITER.com, on Twitter and Facebook as I report back on my experiences. My goal is to provide you with enough photos, information and stories to allow your volunteer fire department to consider whether a bunk-in program is right for you — or if the whole concept is just ”bunk.”

PS — Doc Moltrup, Chief Emeritus of Hyattsville VFD and one of the founder’s of their now-famous bunk-in program, will be my guest on my Internet Radio Show: Firefighter Storytellers –  live from FDIC in Indianapolis the week of March 22-26, 2011. Watch Storytellers for the formal announcement of time and date of the show.

Related links:

• FDLiveIn.com
• @FDLiveIn – On Twitter
• @FireRECRUITER — Can your volunteer fire department afford to live without a live-in?
• @FireRECRUITER – Is this the ultimate bunk-in program?
• @FireRECRUITER — Look: Another successful bunk-in program!
• @FireRECRUITER — Walking the Walk and Living it Up Like a Live-In
• @FFBehavior — “Bunkroom Articles” – New Feature to a growing FD Live-in Site

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As I do with much in life, I take new experiences and new information and compare it to other aspects of my life in emergency services. Whenever it’s the least bit relevant – I try to apply it to the business I love: the fire service.

Such was the case this past week when I completed a National Fire Academy on Safety Operations and Management. I applied the process and premise of managing safety in our organizations and applied it to recruitment and retention.

While the resulting article may raise more questions than it provides answers, I hope you’ll ask yourself these same questions to assess whether or not your volunteer fire department is taking the right steps to be flush with volunteers — or needlessly flushing them and their experience away.

Click this article to read more at www.FireRECRUITER.com.

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Glenn Usdin was a Run-to-the-Curb kid, growing up in the Long Island New York fire service and rising to the rank of fire chief in Lancaster PA. Like many in the fire service, his career path has taken him in several different directions including a tenure as associate publisher of Fire Engineering Magazine, president of American-LaFrance Used Fire Apparatus, now the owner of a large used fire apparatus company – Command Fire Apparatus and his most recent venture with FireEMS Blogs, founding the FireTruckBlog.com.

Listen in as Chief Usdin shares his story of how he’s made a career out of his fascination with fire trucks with host Tiger Schmittendorf on the Firefighter Storytellers Internet radio show live at 9pm EST on Wednesday-January 12, 2011.

If you’ve never listened to a FirefighterNetcast, visit the site now, sign up for a new user account for BlogTalkRadio, and be prepared to join in the conversation.

Listen in via the Internet, listen and/or participate by calling in, and join in the live chat that takes place amongst listeners while the show is going on. In case you miss the live show, you can even download the podcast after the fact on FirefighterNetcast and iTunes too. It’s free, it’s fun and it’s easy.

Every firefighter has a story.
Listen in. Call in. Tell your story.

Tiger Schmittendorf serves as Deputy Fire Coordinator in the County of Erie Department of Emergency Services (Buffalo NY). He is a Nationally Certified Fire Instructor and has been a firefighter since 1980. He created a recruitment effort that doubled his own fire department’s membership and helped net 525+ new volunteers countywide. Schmittendorf is active on the editorial board of FireRescue Magazine and is the author of: TigerSchmittendorf.com, RuntotheCurb.com, and FireRecruiter.com.

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Box 191 stands as a memorial to the five Buffalo Firefighters who were killed in a propane explosion on December 27, 1983

A year ago I wrote an article titled “A December to Remember” to remind us of our obligation to be better story tellers, for prosperity’s sake — and for safety’s sake. Earlier today, Chicago and the rest of the fire service buried the first of two firefighters killed in the line of duty on the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Stockyard Fire that killed 21 firefighters.

Given recent events and all the heartache they’ve brought, I’m not sure that December is a month to remember but instead, it’s one we’d like to forget.

Last night I had the privilege of joining some 50 firefighters and civilians as they stood in the cold at the corner of Grosvenor and North Division Streets in the City of Buffalo to remember an event that claimed the lives of five of Buffalo’s bravest. Surrounded by those drawn to the small memorial erected at the site, Division Chief Don McFeeley stood in the center of the intersection and retold the story of that fateful night when a propane tank exploded inside a warehouse — shattering windows, throwing debris and burning buildings across twelve city blocks.

Two civilians were also killed in the explosion that tossed and crushed the first responding Engines 1 and 32, and Ladder 5 like they were Tonka toys. He told how fate spared the crew of Ladder 2 responding from downtown as they got hung up on snowbank as they turned a corner a few blocks from the scene. Rescue 1 and Engine 3 inadvertently turned down a wrong street a block away from the blast, saving their crews from almost certain death.

Standing next to Chief McFeeley was Chief (Ret.) Jack Supple, whose brother Harvey was the first chief on location. We were standing in the exact spot in the street where Harvey was standing when he radioed for a second alarm assignment after being impaled by a piece of debris sticking out of his neck, causing a near fatal wound.

The year was 1983 and some of the firefighters present at the brief and informal ceremony last night were not even born, let alone in the fire department when the explosion happened. I was 19 at the time but remember it like it was yesterday.

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to interview one of the firefighters who was there that fateful night. Pat Coghlan was a lieutenant on Engine 33 which responded on the fourth alarm. He recounted that experience and the deep impact it left on him on my Firefighter Storytellers radio show broadcast live from the Buffalo Fire Historical Museum. A young firefighter named Mike Lombardo was on his crew that night. Mike went on to be commissioner of the Buffalo Fire Department and just retired as a battalion chief earlier this month. Mike wrote a firsthand account of the incident titled: The Explosion for Firehouse.com in 2002.

Pat Coghlan was there at the ceremony last night as he has been every year since the explosion, along with his family and widows of the slain firefighters. It was an honor to honor those fallen brothers in front of alarm box 191 — flanked by flowers, flags and a marker reminding us that we have an obligation to remember that Buffalo Firefighters Michael Austin, Michael Catanzaro, Matthew Colpoys, James Lickfield and Anthony Waskielewicz answered their last alarm at that spot.

At exactly 8:23pm last evening, a Buffalo Fire Department dispatcher transmitted Box 191: “Twenty-seven years ago on this date, December 27th 1983, at 20:23 hours, five of our brothers responded to their last alarm. We invite all members of the department and all those monitoring this announcement to observe a moment of silence in their memory, and in the memory of all who have died in the line of duty.”

Despite these darkest days, the brotherhood of the fire service perseveres stronger than ever as we look forward with hope for the brighter days that only a new year can bring.

Links in this post:

• A December to Remember - http://tigerschmittendorf.com/2009/12/03/a-december-to-remember/#
• Run-to-the-Curb: Pat Coghlan – http://runtothecurb.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/fire-nerd-pat-coghlan/
• Firefighter Storytellers Radio Show with Pat Coghlan – http://www.firefighternetcast.com/2010/12/christmas-characters-firefighter-storytellers-128/
• Firefighter Storytellers – Show video courtesy of the Erie County Fire Blotter – http://eriecountyfireblotter.com/?p=4837
• The Explosion: Firsthand account by Buffalo Fire Dept. Chief (Ret.) Mike Lombardo at Firehouse.com – http://www.firehouse.com/news/line-duty-deaths/explosion
• Photos and video from last night’s memorial service – Courtesy of Jim Herr Sr. of the Erie County Fire Blotter – http://eriecountyfireblotter.com/?p=5029&show=gallery
• WIVB-TV – Firefighters remember N. Division St. explosion-12/28/10 – http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/buffalo/Firefighters-remember-North-Division-Street-explosion
• WIVB-TV Archive – 2009 Story on Fallen Firefighters -http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/News4_Archive_Division_Street_explosion_20090825
• WIVB-TV Archived Video from the night of the explosion -http://www.wivb.com/dpp/search/Darkest_day_of_firefighting_in_Buffalo_20090825
• Box 191:  Excellent article by Christopher Naum at The Company Officer – http://thecompanyofficer.com/2010/12/27/buffalo-box-191-north-division-december-27-1983/
• Remembering 5 Buffalo Firefighters Killed 27 Years Ago Today: Fire-Rescue Magazine article on FirefighterNation.com – http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/remembering-5-buffalo

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A thought provoking article in the Fire Engineering Training Community by my good friend and fellow blogger ChiefReason reminded me to re-post this piece I wrote several years ago titled: “Starting the New Year Right!”

Art’s blog titled “The Day the Passion Died” suggests that we’re all due for a fire service check-up to make sure that we’re physically, mentally, emotionally prepared for the challenges that lie ahead, and just as importantly, that our head - our attitude – is in the right place.

His writings remind us all to revisit our fire department and personal goals and direction every once in a while, and there’s no better time to do so than as we’re about to embark upon a brand new year full of new challenges and opportunities.

Art’s sharp, and sometimes biting insight challenges us to achieve balance between our “two families” — the one at home and the one at the firehouse — and to “clean the litterbox“ as ncessary. That’s no small feat if you’re the least bit passionate about either.

Whenever I think of balancing my life’s ledger, I’m reminded of Commandment #7 of my “Top Ten Commandments for Recruitment and Retention” (also a piece I wrote almost ten years ago).

#7.  Peace at Home = Peace at the Firehouse. Make sure you’re targeting the right audience with your recognition and incentives programs.

This commandment encourages us to always put our first family first — a concept that applies to us and to our fire department. Once our organizations realize that volunteers who are happy at home will be happier, more productive firefighters at the firehouse — we all win. However, to succeed at figuring out this difficult equation requires, as Art suggests in his advice to a commenter, that we include both families in the conversation.

As Christmas quickly approaches, I’m certainly thankful for my brother Art and the great folks we’ve come to know and enjoy in our close circle of friends in the FireEMS Blogs network. I’m also thankful for the many friends I have throughout our great fire service and I count my blessings every day that I get to do what I love.

But most of all, during this holiday season, I’m thankful for my first family first:

Laurie, Kathleen and Alex — Thank you for the sacrifices you make on my behalf in allowing me to serve.

Laurie — Happy 23rd Anniversary on December 26th. I love you more each day.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

And with that said, I’m leaving the fire academy and going home…

Stay safe. Train often.

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Links in this post:

• Fix it – http://tigerschmittendorf.com/2009/01/01/fixit/ The Day the Passion Died – http://community.fireengineering.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1219672%3ABlogPost%3A241837
• ChiefReason – www.chiefreasonart.com
• FireEMS Blogs – www.fireemsblogs.com
• Fire Engineering Training Community – http://community.fireengineering.com/

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Today marks the 235th birthday of the United States Marine Corps and tomorrow is Veterans Day. What a great time to celebrate the contributions and sacrifices made by our military service men and women who protect our lives and our freedom around the world every day.

To that end, I thought it appropriate to tie a few events together in an effort to pay appropriate recognition and thanks to our Veterans.

The Story of a True Serviceman:

I’m pleased to announce that tomorrow evening will feature a special Veterans Day Tribute on my Firefighter Storytellers Radio Show on Firefighter Netcast with my good friend Dan Frontera.

Dan Frontera grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY in a family where community service was simply a way of life. His Dad was a Veteran along with most of his uncles. Both his Dad and one of his uncles were volunteer firemen too. It’s no surprise that Dan then grew up to be both a soldier and a firefighter.

Tune in to Firefighter Storytellers at 9pm EST on Thursday-November 11, 2010 to hear Dan’s story as he and I celebrate the contributions of all service men and women in a special Veterans Day tribute. We’ll discuss the similarities and strong bond between the military and the fire service; and we’ll give Dan a chance to share some of his efforts in serving other Veterans. You don’t want to miss this show.

Listen in, call in, download and follow Dan on his journey from Run-to-the-Curb kid to “Citizen. Soldier. Firefighter.”

Are you a Veteran and a Firefighter?

We’d love to have you call in to the show so you can give a quick shout-out to your fire department and military unit (past or present) and it will give us the opportunity to say THANKS!    The BlogTalk Radio Live Show Call-in Number is: 347-327-9920.

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A Veteran of Many Things

A day doesn’t pass that I don’t think about my Dad and all the sacrifices he made for our family and his country. He’s been gone for almost six years now so I think it’s important to re-visit something I wrote about him a few years back as my way of sharing him with you and me never letting his memory die. He truly was ”A Veteran of Many Things.”

Related:

• My Flag
• Raising a flag about lowering THE FLAG!

Fitting Tribute

This Veterans Day will be an especially tough one here in Buffalo and Western New York as one of our own was killed in action in Afghanistan last week. Army Specialist Blake D. Whipple, age 21, was killed by an IED. His family and our community will lay him to rest this week.

A fire department from neighboring Monroe County has a great idea for remembering the sacrifices of all soldiers and we should all follow their lead. Here’s the details of their program as shared with me by Randy Jensen, Public Information Officer for the Ridge Road Fire District:

 “Firefighters Pays Tribute to Fallen Soldier”   

The Ridge Road Fire District (Rochester, NY) pays tribute to Army Specialist Blake D. Whipple, 21, of Williamsville, N.Y., (Erie County) who died November 5^th in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 7th Engineering Battalion, 10th Sustainment Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.   

The Fire District pays tribute to all New York State Firefighters, Police Officers, EMS Personnel, and Members of the Military who die in the line of duty. We recognize them on our sign in front of the Fire Station and lower our flags to half staff at our Emergency Service Memorial for three days for them giving the ultimate sacrifice so others may live. 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Specialist Whipple’s family, friends and the members of the Military who are supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Randy Jensen, Public Information Officer
Ridge Road Fire District
1299 Long Pond Road – Rochester, NY 14626-3031
Office (585) 227-2123 – Fax: (585) 227-4040
rjensen@rrfd.org - www.rrfd.org

And that Folks — is living proof that the brotherhood we enjoy and share extends far beyond the fire service and far beyond our borders. We will dedicate tomorrow night’s Firefighter Storytellers radio show in Specialist Whipple’s memory and honor.

Related:

• Buffalo-area soldier killed by IED in Afghanistan – Buffalo
• Flags to Fly at Half Staff - Buffalo News

We Will Never Forget

We’re ten months away from the tenth anniversary of the horrendous attacks that occurred on American soil September 11, 2001 but there is never a bad time to remember the thousands of firefighters, police officers, military personnel and citizens going about their daily lives who were lost that day.

Although there are many others just like them, this recent news article highlights the efforts of one fire deparment in making sure that “Never Forget” means that “We Will Never Forget.”

My helmet is off to the Mt. Kisco NY Fire Department for doing the right thing when others would just as soon forget.

Check out their efforts here: http://www.lohud.com/article/20101110/NEWS02/11100321/Mount-Kisco-breaks-ground-on-9-11-memorial

To donate, send a check payable to the Mount Kisco Volunteer Fire Department; P.O. Box 91, Mount Kisco, NY 10549. You can also call Felice at 914-241-4593 or Alexander at 914-218-8334.

Mt. Kisco FD:

• Indpeendent Fire Co.
• Union Hook & Ladder Co. 1

Don’t Forget

Hopefully that’s enough ammo (pun intended) to remind you to thank a Veteran tomorrow and every day for their service to our country and our communities. Take every opportunity to salute their efforts and appreciate the sacrifices made by our military men and women — and our military families as well.

Hopefully my military buddies will nod in agreement when I bid you to:

Stay safe. Train often.

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