The public appreciates good customer service when dealing with an organization, and the same is true for your volunteer fire department. While performing skillfully during calls is the trademark of competent firefighters, the public may judge you on other things, such as how you acted during a call and how they were treated. Join Tom Merrill for this free webinar to sharpen your social fitness skills and improve your department’s customer service reputation. In a field where many situations are out of your control, learn more about what is in your direct control – a caring attitude, timely responses, and true empathy.

Volunteer fire departments are constantly recruiting new members into their ranks. One of the most important, but often overlooked, steps in the recruitment process is onboarding new firefighters. The long-term retention of firefighters begins with the onboarding process. Join Jason Decremer, PhD, director of certification for the Connecticut Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, for this free webinar that will examine the best practices for onboarding new firefighters by taking participants through a series of strategies that will help ensure your department has a properly managed onboarding process that leads to long-term retention of firefighters.

An intro to media relations for the fire service - with battle-tested tips on dealing with the press on the fireground, back at the fire hall, and in a crisis - will be shared. Roles and duties of the media will be reviewed, including news gathering techniques. A recipe for good media relations that can be applied by any fire department to any type of event or other positive press opportunity will be presented, including how to deal with the negative side of media relations: crises and scandals.

This presentation focuses on the unique challenges faced by volunteer fire officers on the firematic (operations) side of the organization as well as the often-forgotten-about administrative side. The presentation strongly emphasizes the important role and the immense responsibilities that all officers have in taking care of their organization. Aspiring officers will be provided with a variety of ideas that can assist them in gaining support from their fellow members and all attendees will learn eight proven leadership traits that all fire department members can use to create and maintain a more unified and harmonious operation.

The fire service is reportedly showing a decrease in qualified candidates to enter the workforce, both career and volunteer, but there is a limited change in how recruiting is done. This session will provide tools and information that can be applied in departments. One-in-three American labor force are millennials, making them the largest generation in the workforce. This program will show you compelling ways to bring this group to volunteer because they see the difference they can make.

Are you prepared to survive - and better yet, thrive - as a newly promoted leader? This fast-moving presentation will run through the first one hundred days following your promotion - and beyond. What you should look for, what you should ask, and what you must do to keep moving forward. This presentation will cover a myriad of topics including lifetime learning, ethics, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, using social media, and more.

This timely, interactive program will explore the leader's role and responsibility in keeping their firefighters alive, out of jail, and out of the local headlines. The course is appropriate for board members, line officers and general membership. We will discuss current trends and threats in the fire service that are causing issues for fire service organizations across the nation. Specific topics will include apparatus operations, sexual harassment and social media challenges, substance abuse, PTSD and poor leadership skills. The program will use real-life scenarios and challenge the students to ask themselves if each example could currently happen in their own departments.

Struck-by-vehicle incidents involving firefighters and emergency vehicles at incident scenes are increasing. This session will look at several case studies of secondary crashes at incident scenes and review what has worked to protect personnel and motorists and review what still needs to be done to prevent struck-by-vehicle incidents. This session will explore what a fire department can do to protect personnel at incident scenes.

We claim 200+ years of tradition unimpeded by progress. The truth is, we’ve seen dramatic changes in the fire service. Yet, there are things that we’re afraid to talk about; homosexuals, race relations, PTSD, suicide, cancer, relationships, female firefighters, substance abuse, resistance to change, the impacts of social media... the list is endless. This interactive session will touch on things we're afraid to talk about, and send you out thinking. Check your feelings at the door & be open minded.

This class will discuss the latest research and cancer prevention techniques from departments across the country, as well as the latest changes in NFPA 1500 & 1851 standards relating to firefighter cancer issues, including personnel exposure reduction and the proper cleaning and storage of PPE. Lastly, we will discuss the research and justifications behind the "red/yellow/green" zones in fire station design, the "clean cab" concept, and what all this means for the future of the fire service!