Webinar - Investing in Your Volunteers

Today’s volunteers serve many roles in fire and EMS agencies. Those roles are helping to provide essential services in one of the most challenging and stressful times in our country. Providing resources and support to your department’s volunteers and showing them the value of what they are doing are critical to keeping them active. This webinar, presented by Chief Bill Gardner (Ret.), senior director of fire products at ESO, and Division Chief Ron Roy of Wenatchee, WA, will discuss how to re-invest in your volunteers to keep them motivated, involved, and healthy and increase the success of your department.

This webinar was sponsored by ESO. Learn more about ESO’s solutions for the fire and EMS services at www.eso.com.

Bill Gardner

Chief

Senior Director of Fire Products at ESO, Chief Gardner retired in 2019 as the Fire Chief in Leander, Texas. After retiring from his fire service career, he returned as volunteer Sr Advisor at Leander Fire. Bill began his firefighting career in 1985, working at various Municipal Fire, Emergency Management and Emergency Medical Services Departments. He was recognized twice as the Paramedic of the Year (1999 & 2001) at Austin/Travis Co. EMS, received a nomination for International Association of Fire Chiefs for the Fire Chief, Central Texas Firefighter of the Year, and was a finalist for Texas Firefighter of the Year. Gardner also served as the President of the Texas State Firefighters and Fire Marshals’ Association.

Ron Roy

Ron is currently a Volunteer Division Chief at Douglas County Fire District #2 in East Wenatchee and Chelan County Fire District #1 in Wenatchee Washington. He started his volunteer career in 1973 and he joined as a board member of the Washington State Fire Fighters’ Association in 2002. Currently he is one of the two Directors to the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) representing the volunteers of Washington State on the national level. Ron Currently chairs the Wildland Committee for the NVFC. Ron lives, works and volunteers where he was born and raised in rural Eastern Washington.