A Learning Experience

Thanks to Tyler, I snapped this picture.

As you can see, Grand Island takes Fire School seriously. I learned that Long John Silver’s gives firefighters a discount, too. Many businesses do the same, and it is very much appreciated.

I went to a workshop called Volunteer Retention and Recruitment. Apparently, recruitment is not a problem exclusive to rural volunteer fire departments because there were 20 of us from all over Nebraska. It was nice to meet J. D., one of our dispatchers from Ogallala. The instructors, Greg Render and Kevin Quinn, were wonderful. Lyndsay, the super assistant, kept them organized. Greg Reddin, Project Director for ADAPT, also shared a lot of information with us. Most Fire School classes run 1-3 Friday, 8-3 Saturday and 8-12 Sunday. Mine was a bit different because we were in session Friday 12-5 and Saturday 8-5 (with a lunch break, of course).

Lyndsay is enthusiastic and knowledgeable!

The best part of the workshop for me was leaving class with a solid plan to recruit new volunteers. Lyndsay scanned our plans while we shared in class. She will follow up with each of us as the year progresses to make sure we are on target. As a technology junkie, I especially appreciated the flash drive and CD with sample documents to use in the recruitment process.

I hope to be able to implement some of the ideas from class. Realistically, some may not work for my area, but I sure can try!