The Dauphin Fire Department got a chance to learn about how other departments in Canada handle recruitment, retention, and branding during a course held in the City of Sunshine last month.
The DFD hosted a Beyond Helmets and Hoses course on November 21 and 22, which Fire Chief Cam Abrey says helps fire departments, officers, and up-and-coming fire officers, come up with strategies on how to recruit and retain new members, and how to more effectively run the department.
Abrey says it was great to work with the instructors from around Canada, and hear that what happens in Manitoba isn't all that different from the rest of the country.
"To hear what they're doing in Newfoundland, to hear what they're doing in Ontario or New Brunswick or B.C., and how they are going through the same issues that we are, it gives a chance of, you know, all these different people are getting together and just brainstorming: what can we do to try and find new members?"
Abrey says we're very fortunate in Dauphin to have the fire department running at full membership right now.
30 people took part in the two-day course in Dauphin. Another session was held in Winkler earlier in November with another 30 people. Out of the two sessions, 24 Manitoba fire departments were represented.
Abrey says Beyond Helmets and Hoses is a course delivered by peers from across Canada. He says it's a Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs program administered by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, and bringing it to this province was a partnership between the Manitoba Office of Fire Commissioner and the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs.
