Volunteer Incentives

[VollyMedic16]

I wish it was still just as easy as saying people volunteer for the satisfaction of helping people but with changing times that is not the case anymore. Currently where I volunteer we are desperately lacking membership. With people needing to work two jobs and EMS not being the job for the area it is difficulty to find people to ride on an ambulance.

I am looking for any help with ideas for incentives to get people to not only answer calls from home but to even get people who do not live in the area to stay in quarters for some time.

Right now we will reimburse for mileage and food. When you join if we have it members get an ANSI jacket, a portable radio, and if they would like a green light. That is about it though. We have some people that do a lot of calls simply because they enjoy it but with changing times and increasing call volumes that a lot of work for a small handful of people and eventually they will burn out if they do not get enough time off.

Any ideas please share.

Thank you.

 

[Tommerag]

At my volley dept we get a really nice ems jacket if your an emt-b or higher, any classes we take get paid for. For some of us that is enough, I volunteer because I like helping the community.

We are having the same problems though. There are only a handful of us consistently show up to calls, training, and meetings.

Some of the departments around here have a retirement program. It takes into account how many calls a year you go to, going to a required number of meetings and training hours. I also believe you have to be on for at least 10 years. As for how much they get I'm not sure

 

[rwik123]

That's depressing to hear. My town is paid non volunteer with a contract to a local ems agency. I would kill to live in a town with volunteer. Volunteer? incentive? Seem to contradict the original purpose of volunteer.

 

[Tommerag]

Volunteer? incentive? Seem to contradict the original purpose of volunteer.

It may be a contradiction, but the reality is that alot of volly depts have trouble recruiting and retaining members. So there are depts that need to have "incentives" to keep members on and active otherwise their towns would have no type of fire/ems services.

 

[rwik123]

It may be a contradiction, but the reality is that alot of volly depts have trouble recruiting and retaining members. So there are depts that need to have "incentives" to keep members on and active otherwise their towns would have no type of fire/ems services.

Do any departments give financial incentive per call? Like a pay per call system where the people who respond get payed a small amount.

 

[Chimpie]

Do any departments give financial incentive per call? Like a pay per call system where the people who respond get payed a small amount.

I know of at least one that does/did.

 

[Medic2409]

The Vol FD I'm a part of did have an ambulance, but they've sold it due to liability. When they had it they would pay a EMT I think $20 for a transport, EMT-I $30, and EMT-P $40. Nowaday's as a Vol FD, you get x-amount per call if you've made so many of the meetings, plus so many of the calls.

 

[feldy]

im in a special volunteer program (while the department is fully paid) where we get free training (con ed stuff) through the department and good experience. Unfortunately, we have to pay for our uniforms and obviously any other personal gear.

 

[MrBrown]

New Zealand relies heavily on the contribution of volunteer Ambulance Officers and has a range of small incentives like retail or banking discounts, holiday home access, discounted private health insurance and a meal/gas allowance of ... if Brown remembers correctly $10 per ambulance shift.

 

[18G]

One volly FD I know of takes all the calls you ran throughout the year and assigns a value to them and allows the member to pick a gift card or cards to a number of different places. Most volly's end up with gift cards anywhere between $100 and $300. Mostly all volly depts pay for member training.

I used to be a very active volunteer as an EMT but haven't done that prob since 2006. Times change and people just don't have the time to do it ne more. I have 3 kids and after working an EMS job I don't have time or feel like doing it as a volunteer. Incentives do help people make the justification for responding from home or spending a few hours on station. For example, if I vollied throughout the year and ran enough calls to get a gift card for $200 to Wal-Mart, that would make for a nice added bonus towards my kids Christmas (since the volly dept issued the cards in Dec).

 

[Phlipper]

The service where I volunteer and work PT paid has a per-call payment for volleys, with the checks cut in December running from $2000 to $6000 or so. They also provide tees and sweats for uniform, and of course almost any healthcare related class you wanna take is paid for. The system actually works pretty well and we only have three or four who won't show for shifts or who won't lift a finger while here. Everyone knows who they are and they are ostracized, for the most part.

There is no way to motivate a volunteer who wants to just show up whenever they want and wear a shirt and hat and not do much else. I've worked in management for almost 20 years and I've tried a few things with one or two of our slackers, to no avail. "Team player" speeches are worthless when the person has no concept of 'TEAM' in the first place. Being scheduled for paid days was supposed to be a reward for solid volunteer service, but the worst of the $h!tbirds is still on the paid schedule and we are still like "WTF, Chief?". And another EMT completely refuses to work Saturdays and Sundays and just says "Can't do it. Sorry" no matter how much of a bind he puts the rest of us in, yet he's still on the paid schedule.

Essentially, for the people who want to serve the community and who want to learn and contribute, no reward is really necessary. For those who just want to wear a shirt and hat and do as little as possible, no reward is big enough.

 

[46Young]

What about tax break incentives, a small pension with the requisite years of service, paid training or college education?

It looks like you're going to have to hire maybe at least a paid 9-5 medic for a QRV. One volly dept on Long Island uses North Shore LIJ to staff and deploy one paramedic unit 24/7/365. The hospital is guaranteed a set amount of revenue every year to cover costs and profit, and the town (Rockville Centre, I think) keeps the rest.

 

[VollyMedic16]

I am glad I was sitting down when I reopened this thread I can’t believe the amount of responses I have received over the past few days. Lots of ideas thank you. Right now we are doing our best to avoid a paid per call. Our board of directors are very strict on the idea of we are not paid and violate something within the state if we are to pay our members. For the most part you could claim your mileage at $0.14 a mile. When you joined and became a cleared running member you received, if available, an ANSI jacket, portable radio, and a green light. So really that’s not much. For the few of us that enjoy it that’s all we need but now with our call volume increasing anywhere from 50-75 more calls per year since 2005 we need to start getting more people or the few of us that are answering calls are going to get burned out. I’m also very big on the “Covering our area” since I work for the two agencies that end up mutual aiding into our district and I feel it is not fair to our community to wait for another ambulance and it is not fair for another ambulance to cover us.
Right now I am trying to write something up on how much a member can end up spending to volunteer. Some of it is ridiculous to who really does that such as washing your uniform after every call since right now we don’t have actual uniforms and if you are doing a shift there you don’t wash your cloths after every call. But if all added together it can justify receiving visa gift cards every few months.
Here’s what I have so far. Maybe this can help some of you who are in the same situation.

Proposal: Incentives for new/current members and reimbursements for new/current members going above minimum requirements.

New member: Upon joining – Ability to apply with NYS DMV for Volunteer Ambulance license plate (NYS DMV MV-653V)
Cleared Provider – Portable radio
ANSI jacket
Uniform shirt
Vehicle warning light
Shift signup availability
Key to station
Credit towards quarterly reimbursements

Quarterly Reimbursements – To cover the cost for those who go above minimum requirements for membership.
Cover 25% of calls in 3 month period
60 hours in quarters coverage over 3 months
Attend at least 3 training functions
Conduct and turn in at least 6 BLS NYS 800 spec sheets
Reimbursement to cover: Fuel
Food
Clothing/Uniform Cleaning
Other personal costs
Reimbursement: $250 on Visa gift card

2 Quarterly + Reimbursements – To cover the costs for those who go above the quarterly requirements.
Meet all requirements of 2 quarterly reimbursements in one year.
Cover an additional 25% of calls (50% of calls for combined quarterly call volume).
Cover an additional 60 hours in quarters in combined quarterly period.
Reimbursement to cover: Fuel
Food
Clothing/Uniform Cleaning
Other personal costs
Reimbursement: Additional $250 on Visa gift card

For those that do not perform on a call due to no other provider being available or another crew being available, all providers will receive credit towards reimbursement.

Approximate costs to members to volunteer:
Fuel – 1 mile = $0.14. 3 miles from station = 6 miles travel per call and shift = $0.84. Projected calls for 1 month = 40. 25% call coverage = 10 a month = $8.40. 2 shifts = $1.68. Cost per month to member $10.08.
Laundry – 1 load = $2.50. 10 calls a month = $25.00. 20hrs a month coverage, 2 shifts a month, $5.00. Laundry total $30.00 a month.
Food – $30.00 a day. Two shifts = $60.00 a month.
1 month cost to member to volunteer = $100.08
3 month cost to member to volunteer = $300.24

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Pneumothorax]

At our Dept we are furnished with, turnout gear, uniforms , key to the station. After 1 year, you get a really nice jacket with your name and the Dept logo. CEUs are offered via the dept thru training/drill, and any classes we take relating to the Dept- CPR, acls, ff1 , pepp stuff like that you will be reimbursed for.
I think the city also offers a small pension incentive, for every year youre on they put aside money for you.

For your Dept, do members have to reside in the city where they volunteer? I know a local agency here opened up recruitment to anyone 5 miles or less outside their city limit- bc membership was lacking.

Maybe that can be a possibility.

We volunteer for a reason & that's to be selfless and help those in need. If your noobs are looking to get the tshirt and sit on their ***, or get paid perhaps they are in it for the wrong reason.



^_*