Pete,

It's funny you should bring this up. This is a long story, but it will re-connect with yours.
We just had our nominations for business and line officers for 2008.

As of this moment, nobody wanted to take Chief Engineer, Assistant Engineer, Captain, Company President, Vice President, Relief Association President, Relief Association Vice President.

We got a notification that we'd be able to get EMT-B and EMT-A training for free. Great, right? Well you know full well how long those programs take for the first time through, and even a refresher program is long. No takers there.

By simple default, I'm now Lieutenant, Company Recording Secretary, Acting President for the Fire Company, and we voted to eliminate the position of President and Vice President of the Relief Association and create a position called "Administrator of Relief Accounts" and that's me.

We now spend more on Insurance and Fundraising than we do on Apparatus Maintenance, Safety Equipment and Training combined.

In 2007, so far, I've logged only 75 hours on emergency scenees, 67 hours of training, and 159 hours on administrative & fundraising duties.

I have come to the conclusion that this is a second, unpaid office job, with some emergency services work on occasion. It's not just me. All around us, fire companies are simply falling apart under the burden of ceaseless administration.

As 2008 looms, the prospect of more endless administrative hell sits there (we just learned that our sales-tax exemption is out of date, and it takes 3-4 months to get it renewed, but we need a current sales-tax exemption to register the rescue turuck. Oh, and the 2006 tax return wasn't filed, and the IRS didn't like our 2005 return and wants to fine us $5,300. Oh, and another thing - we need to file sales tax for the community breakfast we did last month. And the insurance company called and they need to have a meeting to go over the policy changes. And we need to update the signature cards on the bank accounts. And the NFIRS reports need to be done.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, there's a new housing development going in, and I need to work with the Cheifs on water supply pre-plans, we need to get our local maps and box cards updated and we need to do a walk-through at the elementary school during Christmas break.

As much as I love doing the emergency services, quite frankly, I can't switch jobs to run with the local paid EMS crew and keep my house, because they pay $8.00 an hour for part-timers and $12.00 an hour for C shifters. As far as paid firefighting, the salary is better, but to be honest, it's not a career that a 42 (almost 43) year old guy is going to do well to start in.

So I think that there's three things happening here. First of all, the self-funded volunteer emergency services in America are nearly extinct. Where we live, the political and cultural inertia, both from governments and from the 80 and 100 year old fire companies is making the reality that we need to go to a regionalized, fully-funded municipal fire department, with an administrative staff, difficult to present, much less implement.

But I've responded to enough calls with only 2 or 3 members - even at night - to know that the end is in sight.

And so, I think you have reached the same conclusion. You know and I know that to get, and maintain ALS skill levels is a job in and of itself. You also know that EMS in general is moving to a mostly ALS service, and that leaves you out unless you're collecting a salary while taking a 48 hour Paramedic Refresher Class plus 16 hour ACLS Class.

Same goes for firefighters. Sure, I can go on as an officer without NIMS 11,000,456 for a while, but eventually, somone, somewhere, will tie grant funding to some rule requiring "all officers to have attained NIMS 70,000,012 certification" and we can tell the members they have to go for yet another training class for yet another 24 hours or we can say "screw this, I hope my house doesn't catch fire" and stay home for a change.

In the end, it's not possible for a volunteer with a job and family to really keep it up anymore, and that's a sad fact. So, my advice to you - let it go, knowing that the best of your work and the most meaningful part of that career is behind you and you did right by a lot of people in the time and way you could. From here on in, it's not a moral duty anymore, it's just another job someone has.