morning lineup firegeezer on 30 Sep 2007 07:04 am
Morning Lineup - September 30
Here we are, the last day of September already. The nights are getting cooler, some trees are starting to change into their autumn colors, and the sunup-to-sundown time span is less than 12 hours now. I guess I’d better start looking for my long-sleeved shirts and get them out.
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It was just Friday that I briefly mentioned the practice of some departments demanding higher standards of training levels to the point of discouraging recruits and retention. Then yesterday up comes FirefighterBlog’s posting of job openings in Cal Fire for firefighter positions. (see last night’s Around the Fire Web feature.) I was reading through the announcement and was really surprised to find that they require paramedic certification before employment. The starting pay is around $36 K yr. Is that a fair price for that level of skill being demanded? Cal Fire is one of the country’s largest F & R departments with about 5,200 firefighters. So that means there will be a fair amount of turnover each year. Can they successfully bring in and retain enough people to fill their alloted positions with that kind of entry-level requirement?
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As I mentioned the other day, the Geezer Guys are going to continue addressing the growing problem of volunteer recruitment. We would like to hear from you about what you are doing to identify the cause in your area. And we’d especially like to learn about any successful programs you’ve initiated to build your membership. Conversely, if you’ve tried something that didn’t work, tell us that too.
Write to us at: geezerguys -at- yahoo -dot- com. This will be a continuing theme for several months.
Ok…let’s get the equipment checked out. This will be an easy Sunday, unless something comes in. I’ll go get the coffee started.
