Massachusetts Fire Chief 2009

LE ADING A COMBINATION FIRE DEPARTMENT by the chief and career staff. In a combination department, it is important that you tell the entire staff what you are thinking of doing, why you are thinking of doing it and then give everyone a chance to comment. How do you give everyone a chance to comment and participate? I have used three methods with success. The ﬁrst is to email everyone a copy of the draft budget or procedure and simply ask them to email me their thoughts and ideas. Sometimes I get some great feedback and other times I don’t. But most of the time most members of the department don’t comment – it is enough that they’ve been informed and asked. The second method is holding a departmentwide staff meeting on a drill night where we review incidents, procedures and give everyone an opportunity to publicly question the chief. We do this every other month. Finally, I solicit individuals, regardless of their rank or job status, for input when I know or think they have a special interest in or knowledge of a particular topic. How ﬁreﬁghters think the chief spends money can create a great deal of friction in combination departments, so don’t spend it in secret. I post my monthly budget updates on the door to my ofﬁce so everyone can see exactly what we spend on overtime, volunteer stipends, heat, diesel fuel, repairs, PPE, telephones, training and so forth. This practice ends all of the whispering that “so and so got this and I didn’t.” It ends all the divisive myths and rumors about who is beneﬁting from the department’s spending. It unites both career and call/volunteer in the quest to save money so they can come to me with a request to purchase something they all want. Transparency also requires that the chief be a public and private advocate for both the career and call/volunteer members of the department. When dealing with selectmen, citizens and the media the chief must be seen as someone who believes in the department’s ﬁreﬁghters and has pride in all of them. Make sure that selectmen don’t try to use the call/ volunteer ﬁreﬁghters as a weapon against the career ﬁreﬁghters during union contract negotiations. If they try, bluntly tell them that their behavior is unacceptable and will do longterm damage to the department, ultimately costing them even more money. Bring together the department and tell them what the selectmen have tried to do and that they must stand together and not let themselves be divided. Finally, I have come to understand that most of the call/volunteer vs. career friction starts as a beef between two individuals. Recently, I heard the complaint that the “call guys don’t clean up after themselves and think we (career staff) are their maids.” This statement is a call to action for the chief of a combination ﬁre department. If ignored, your department will break down. If you look behind the sweeping generalizations, you’ll likely discover that a speciﬁc call/volunteer ﬁreﬁghter left a mess and the event needs to be dealt with as an issue for one or two people. Don’t let yourself or your staff send out a blast email calling all of the call/volunteers on the carpet for the sins of one. You can see where this goes. If you don’t de-escalate these clashes, you won’t have a combination ﬁre department for very long. Being the chief of a successful combination ﬁre department requires you to embrace the concept of blending the career and call/volunteer members into one team. This requires constant maintenance and leadership. It’s not an easy road, but if you succeed you will have the satisfaction of leading a high performance organization. ❚ Coldest A/C Units Available in the Market HOSELINE, INC. (407) 892-2599 Fax Toll Free 800-892-8143 E-mail: sales@hoseline.com State of the Art Emergency Vehicles Heating and A/C Systems for Ambulances, Fire Trucks and Utility Trucks. Suppliers of Ambulance and Fire Truck accessories such as; Patented 110-12 Volt A/C Heating R134A Combo Units, E-CAB Environmental (Drug Cabinet) storage, A/C and Heat Systems, Mobile Multi-Purpose A/C and Heat Units, Fittings and Insulation, Technical and CUSTOM Design Consultation. 8000-CM3000 System Available in 12v, 110v or Both. E-Drawer HC-7000 22 | M ASSACHUS E TTS FI RE C H I E F 2009 http://www.radiosolutionsinc.com http://www.hoseline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Massachusetts Fire Chief 2009

Massachusetts Fire Chief 2009 Contents A Message from the FCAM President Code of Ethics/Vision Statement Bonds of Service Legislative Report The Fire Chief for 2009 and Beyond Leading a Combination Fire Department Remember When Fighting for Code Change Leadership Matters Fire Risk Management - Fire Chiefs - Codes The Current Economy and its Effect on Fire Departments Statewide Fire Mobilization Plan Beware of the Truss Index of Advertisers

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.