Friday, May 23, 2008

My new approach to the topic at hand......................

I understand that, yesterday, the Board of the SSVFD was to meet with Council Members Hess and Stroud to (presumably) discuss the recent differences between their respective organizations. Of course, I was sorely tempted to contact either a Board or Council Member (or both) to see what transpired. But I have been able to restrain myself up to this point so that I might conduct an experiment in the dynamics of the situation.

The basis of this experiment is to test the often quoted adage, “history shall repeat itself”. Of course, that is, if we do not learn from the past. Along with this, I am formulating a new theory that, as there are five distinct and identifiable stages of grief (or crisis)which are unavoidable, there are also several distinct and identifiable stages in the demise of a Volunteer Fire (Rescue or EMS) Department. These, I hope, are avoidable.

When I moved to Southern Shores during the summer of 1984, to the best of my memory, five of the the six fire departments on the Dare County north beaches were volunteer: Nags Head (with a paid Chief), Collington, Kitty Hawk, Southern Shores, and Duck. Although a “combination” department, I believe that Kill Devil Hills had a fairly strong volunteer program at the time. Today, the SSVFD is the last all volunteer department, and largest pool of on-scene personnel available this side of Roanoke Island.

As an historical parallel I'll be using a Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., which is now a town, combination, fire department. I will apologize in advance if in this process I somehow mis-state or otherwise err in my memory regarding the events that lead to the transition of this VFD to a paid department.

Please note: “Names have been changed to protect the innocent”I am trying to relate this in the simplest terms I can to try and keep this as brief as possible. Those readers who may recognize these circumstances and are much more knowledgeable than I regarding the VFD in this parable need not be insulted nor incensed if I have left out some detail of which I am unaware.

Background:

Sometime, I believe during the early '90's, a VFD reported to the Town their need for a new fire truck. For some reason, that I am not aware of, the town ended up ordering a new truck to present to the VFD. Given that the usual process for purchasing fire trucks includes the input of the fire department, in order to suit the specific needs of the department, the bulk of volunteers seemed to be resentful that the town had done this without their input. As I remember the situation, I believe this created a rift between the VFD and the town, with the volunteers not understanding why the town council would meddle in their affairs, while the council could not understand why the VFD did not seem to fully appreciate the purchase of the fire truck. Ultimately, the truck was delivered, accepted by the VFD and placed in service.

Unfortunately, over time, this rift seemed to grow into outright distrust. This, along with, complaints from some disaffected volunteers, caused the town council to start looking into and enter into the internal politics and operations of the VFD. (It is, after all, a part of the human condition that there are internal politics in every organization, healthy or otherwise.) Then there were accusations of fiscal misconduct in the VFD, so out of a sense of governmental responsibility the town council initiated an investigation into those accusations.


The Stages of Demise.

Stage 1. Denial: this may be expressed in being unable to accept what is happening or not acknowledging the situation or it's severity.

Town: They (VFD) can't be that upset about this. They should be more cooperative and conciliatory in this matter. They must have something to hide.

VFD: Why don't they (Town) trust us all of a sudden. We do our best, train hard, and get the job done.

Stage 2. Anger: produces the desire to fight back or get even with the offending party accelerating toward a direct confrontation.

VFD: They have no right to tamper with our internal affairs. They had better stop and leave us alone.

Town: They have no right to resist us. They had better cooperate or they'll regret this. The taxpayers expect action, we'll get a court order and settle this.

Stage 3. Bargaining: actually in this case nonproductive non-bargaining.

VFD: Lets give them a show of force and turn up at their meetings en mass, in uniform. They need to to know we cannot be intimidated. If they don't leave us alone we'll walk out and lock the doors.

Town: We've gotten a court injunction to keep their Fire Chief away from the VFD station and any dispatches. We've contact the SBI to investigate. We'll show them we won't be intimidated, if they continue to resist we'll padlock their station and lock them out.

Stage 4. Depression: overwhelming feelings of frustration, bitterness, doubt, or guilt.

VFD: How can we ever regain the trust of the citizens? Will the Town take over the VFD?
Did we do something wrong? We were in the right weren't we?

Town: If they had only cooperated we could have settled this without being forced to be so harsh. We were protecting the public interests, weren't we?

Stage 5. Acceptance: in this case more like resignation to the realities.

Town: So the result of the investigation produced nothing and there is no prosecution, they brought this on themselves. We'll be certain to keep an eye on them so the don't get out of hand again.

VFD: Our Chief has resigned, we're fighting among ourselves, this is really a mess. Can't we try to start over?


Conclusion: In my opinion the VFD never truly recovered. The spirit of proud service and camaraderie had been broken. The only option left was to hire a paid Fire Chief from outside the VFD and rebuild the department on a new model, as a combination department.

Does history have to be repeated here in Southern Shores? Can this “train wreck” be avoided? Or is the momentum to great?

Does my analogy between Grief and Demise work? Can any of the above stages be mitigated or avoided altogether?

I, personally, would rather have this experiment fail, and the progression above stall before my conclusion becomes a prediction. But I fear we are already at Stage 2. Anger. If it hasn't happened already, resolve on both sides, has begun to jell. Soon, if not already, the threats will begin to fly.

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