SAMPLE LETTER

Dear,

I am writing as a volunteer firefighter in the State of New York. The fire service is at a major crossroads, and immediate action needs to be taken. There are currently two major initiatives on the table that could help with the situation of declining service provided by the volunteer fire service in many of our communities. These initiatives include nominal remuneration (stipends) and alternative service delivery options (additional county or regional supplemental delivery models).

The current laws in NYS prevent these from being options and need to be changed. While I agree that there are valid concerns and challenges to both of these proposals, the opportunity currently exists to hammer these out and move forward. I am requesting that FASNY, AFDSNY, NYSAFC, and CFCASNY take immediate steps to work together as one voice, along with DHES, OFPC, and elected officials, to find a compromise to move this forward. No single organization has the solution or the power to fix this. The current chest pounding, rhetoric,  false claims to be the only voice of responders, and self-serving smoke screens has got to stop. We are currently spending boatloads of money to fight each other instead of combining resources to address the real issues. I am disgusted with the attempts to make this about one organization. Each organization’s board must put the right people at the table and give them the power to make decisions on behalf of the organization. This can be done by a simple vote of each organization board to empower these people to make decisions. Once the Task Force makes a decision, each organization must stand behind it and back the direction of the Task Force. That is called negotiation, and it is how things get done. We all need to work together for a common goal (to save the volunteer fire service) and stand united. This has worked in the past for the common good of the volunteer fire service. No single organization or department is going to get everything it wants. We have tried that model for 100 years and it is not working. Stop claiming to be working on a solution and then spend all of your energy just trying to blow it up behind the scenes.

I am asking each board to stop the nonsense and stop making the volunteer fire service look like a bunch of misfits. The firefighters are watching. The officials are watching. The public is watching and all of them are currently shaking their heads at this circus.

Respectfully submitted,

NAME

INSERT NAME OF FIRE DEPARTMENT