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s Y RICHARD 8. C41�SAWAY INTERACTIIIE NEIIIISLETTER KEEPS FIREFIGHTERS INFORMED SK YOUR FIRE DEPARTMENT membership to list what needs to be improved, and communication will be near the top of that list-regard- less of whether the department is volunteer, combination, or career. Providing tnnely and accurate information is essential to top performance and good morale. Communicating nnportant information in an all-career department can be accom- plished during morning shift briefmgs over the course of three to five days. But in departments with volunteers or paid on-call firefighters who don't work scheduled shifts at the fue stations, getting information to the members quickly is a challenge. Person- nel may be coming and going at all tnnes of the day and night. Membership meetings are one way to get the information out, but there is a lnnit to how many meetings mem- bers will tolerate in a month. Moreover, the information may be too important or titl]e- sensitive to wait until the next scheduled meeting, especially during tnnes of signifi- cant change in the department Such was the case in Roseville, a first- ring suburb of Mixixieapolis and St. Paul. The Roseville Fire Department has three fire stations and 65 paid on-call members. Members wark shifts on-duty in the fire stations and answer callbacks from home. The department experienced substantial changes in the past two years (e.g., a new chief, new officers, policy/procedure changes, and new standard operating guide- ■ RICHARD 13. GASAWAY is a 2 1-year veter- an of the fue service and chief of the Roseville (MN) Fire Department He has a bachelor's and a master's degree in business administration and is a graduate of the National Fire Academy's Exec- utive Fire Officer Program. ines). Communicating these changes and ceeping the members updated on everyday ;vents were overwhelming tasks. Some nembership meetings lasted an agonizing Four hours in an effort to keep members Intormed. MODERNIIING SCHEOULIN6 In addition to nnproved communications, the department also needed to upgrade its antiquated fuefighter shift scheduling sys- tem. The system featured a monthly calen- dar posted on a bulletin board. Members who needed to trade shifts would circle their names on the schedule, indicating they needed to trade or give away a shifk Anoth- er member could take the shift by crossing out the circled name and writing his name in its place on the schedule. Anyone could make changes to the schedule at any tnne. Occasionally, a mem- ber's name would be circled, scratched from the schedule, or added to the sched- . ule without ihat mem- ber knowing it. The ' � ' system lacked account- ability. Sometimes, this resulted in shifts running short because members were un- aware of schedule changes made, and some hard feelings resulted among the victnns of this outdated scheduling system. A mem- bership survey revealed scheduling was one of the most significant issues causing members anxiety, and the outdated system needed to be fixed. We solved the problem by putting the sched- ule on a computer. Our city's computers are netwarked, which makes it easy to keep the schedules on the station computers up-to-date. Members could easily access the sched- �ile using a shortcut on the desktop on each fire station computer, which takes the user to a portable data file created with Adobe@ Acrobat(c�. All members can view the sChed- ulc and print a copy, but they cannot change it. To make changes, members must call the department administrative assistant and leave a voicemail message, so schedule changes can be left any time of the day or night. As with any new way of doing tlungs, it took several meetings with the membership to explain the changes, and a paper copy of the electronic schedule was posted in the stations for a month. Some members needed basic computer training on how to use the desktop shortcuts and how to print a docu- ment. Our training officers developed � very basic computer class for the members. In hindsight, we should have anticipated the need far this training and provided it in advance of the changes. This training prob- lem was minnnized, as the members experi- enced in using computers shared their l�owl- edge with our "technologically challenged" members. After a break-in period and an evaluation of the new system, we determined that elec- tronic scheduling was a success. Member feedback was very supportive and noted how smoothly the new scheduling system was going. 18 June 2001 FIRE ENGINEERING