Volunteer incentive programs

I don't get it.

Are you still a volunteer when you're getting an incentive/benefits to work?
 
Oh god, please stop posting. If anymore people post on this topic, we're going to crash the site! I don't think the servers can handle the huge influx.
 
Tuition reimbursement is huge out here as the main incentive. You mainly find the guys who are at the Basic level and want to move to medic. It is hard to offer that to most medics however due to the fact that they somehow feel that they don't need to go to school since they are now "at the top". If you are looking to recruit more medics than a great incentive would be to offer training classes so that they can stay atop their CEU's.
 
In my area there are no county based incentives at all. My town offers LOSAP (Length of Service Award Program). It is basiclly a retirement fund that the town contributes money to based on the number of hours logged per person per year. You have to serve a minimum of 5 years to receive anything at all although the contributions start in your first year. Other than that there are some small tutions available from the state first aid council and all CEU credits are paid out of the state training fund for volunteers.
 
Guardian said:
Oh god, please stop posting. If anymore people post on this topic, we're going to crash the site! I don't think the servers can handle the huge influx.
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What? Personally, I am not fond of incentive programs for volunteers, your a VOLUNTEER, you should not do it to receive special incentives. I would rather see the tuition/books etc. paid for by a PAID service.
 
CFRBryan347768 said:
What? Personally, I am not fond of incentive programs for volunteers, your a VOLUNTEER, you should not do it to receive special incentives. I would rather see the tuition/books etc. paid for by a PAID service.
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I seriously doubt anyone is doing it just for the incentives. For example, where I volunteer, we get $3 "coffee reimbursement" if we work a night shift, and $10 meal reimbursement if we work a day shift. Does that cover all my food? Hell no. Does it even come close to covering gas for the drive from my house to the station? Hell no. Would I stop volunteering if they stopped paying us for coffee and meals? Hell no.

It's a nice gesture, a way to show us that they haven't forgotten about us. And it is nice to get a few bucks every now and then. I don't see any problem with it at all.
 
You're going to think I'm stupid, but here's my plan:
1. Tuition reimbursement grants. If you want highly trained staff, help pay for it. Require that those that get grants volunteer x hours.
2. Make people want to come to the station. I worked in a suburban city that had several all volunteer fire stations. They were an all-volunteer city with no compensation besides some money if you volunteer 20+ years. Their response times were amazing, because the stations were great. They had big TVs, snack food, and a cool living place where people tended to hang out. If you build it, they will come!
3. Volunteer recognition. You're going to think this sounds stupid, but I've found in every job people want to be recognized for what they do. Maybe a "Volunteer of the Quarter/Month," or some other recognition, I'm telling you, it works! Get a few local places to throw together a prize package, get a nice certificate framed for $5 total, and you're ready to go. Recognize volunteers for doing things you want, and you'll see more people do it. Maybe one volunteer will be picked at random for a $25 gas gift card. Team up with a local sports team, they love to give out tickets for volunteer agencies.
4. Ask your volunteers what they think. Sometimes I've have a great idea or be so insulated in a project I'll implement something that doesn't go over so well. Now I get feedback from my entire audience/group, and it's amazing what they have to say. Take it all in, write it down, and then evaluate it.

I hope that helps.
 
OK... I swear that I posted in this topic... but after some discussion with MMiz... it seems as if we might have had a database hiccup and lost some of the posts from this thread.


Some places have incentive programs that have people taking home big checks... those really do enter the Paid per Call discussion.

My home squad gives us points for $1 per 6p-12a shift, $2 per 12a-7a shift... and extra points for meetings, trainings, dayshift volunteering, etc. If you are a preceptor, you get an extra point per shift you precept.

And if we fill both shifts for both rigs for the whole week, every "primary" on the schedule gets 10 points.

We use our points for purchases from Galls, etc, as well as getting them as gift cards. We also use the points to purchase optional uniform components - like our polo shirts, job shirts, and jackets. I bought my 5.11 winter coat with incentive points a year and a half ago.

I've pointed out that I actually spend more in gas to get to/from the squad than I get in incentive points.
 
thanks for the great ideas. I'm going to use these as suggestions for the reserves as my department.
 
I know this is an OLD topic, but I wanted to revive it a bit since next Monday (July 28th) we're suppossed to be having a meeting with our Chief and officers to throw out suggestions on increasing our volunteer attendence for calls and meetings / training. Personally, I'm going to bring up FFEMT's point system, although it'll probably go over like a ton of . . . . . you-know-what since our administration doesn't want to add anything onto our budget and this would be an add on to our current 10.00 per run pay. Does anyone else have any incentive programs that seem to work well?
 
Our EMS service is part of a health region. So, we all work full time (excluding the smaller town to the North of us) However, our FDs are volunteer. While there is one service North of us that I absolutely LOVE working with because of their dedication and proffessionalism, I don't much care for the FD in the town I actually work in. Unless it's a full-on structure fire, they don't really have any interest in responding. We had a call for a lady that fell of a ladder. We thought she was on the ground, but she was actually on a lower section of the roof. We had to call in our local FD, and didn't get many people to show up (about 4). We were able to get her off the roof, but more people would have made it much easier. We have even had Vollies show up on scene in their POVs and decide there were enough people there and left.

I understand that people have full time jobs and Volunteer service IS volunteer. But, as far as I'm concerned, if you aren't able to meet your volunteer commitments, maybe you shouldn't volunteer.
 
I have mixed feelings on this. Volunteer means that you do it out of the goodness of your heart. Once you start "paying" it is no longer "volunteer" whether it is $10.00 a shift or $100.00.

On the other hand recognition is never bad but in our squad everyone gets recognized (no "EMT of the year" crap). I suppose earning points toward coats and T's is not a bad idea but we are a pretty poor department (even our annual banquet is dish to pass at the fire house) we don't even buy alot of those.

With some States giving an income tax credit (NY gave $200 tax credit this year) and the Federal Government considering the $1000 credit it does become more important to track memebership and what qualifies as an active member.

An issue in our department has been definition of "active member", it was not spelled out in the begining of time what that ment. We don't even have an up to date membership roster. I jokingly said that to find out who our members are we should ask the state for a list of all those who gave our agency as their primary agency for the tax credit. I suspect we would discover a memebership list longer than the population of our hamlet.
 
Students get scholorships for school....either full scholorships or $500/semester scholorschips. ...For now anyways, they're talking about cancelling it, which would really, really suck.
 
i get $17 per call but i get paid for details $21 and hour for details...private details for events are $50 and hour....its nice but our call volume is the same or more than some paid dept.......
 
One of the places I work, everyone gets $4/hr while on call. Its listed as a vollunteer department, but a few years ago they changed that because they couldnt get anyone to vollunteer for free.
There is no bonus for calls run or standby.
The other services I work for a paid departments. At one I get 7.50-$8 /hr plus tuition assist and uniform, at the other I get $10/hr flat rate.
 
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My agency pays like this for calls
SOB Student on Board 0.00/hr
EVO Emergency Vehicle Operator 12.50/hr
EMR Emergency Medical Responder 15.00/hr
EMT 17.50/hr
For the length of each call.

Here our EMRs I'm told is the equivalent of a US EMT-B.
 
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