Department Dues

[Guest]

Was curious how many area volunteer departments require there members to pay monthly or yearly dues?

[Guest]

Sleepy Hollow Fire Department pays yearly dues at the Annual Meeting of the Companies on the first tuesday in April

[f19 4]

do you guys get fined for not attending calls,meetings etc.???

[Sean11FD 3]

I think my dept makes you pay 25 dollars when you join, after than i dont think anything. Since its volunteer, i dont think it would make sense to pay to do that. Just sounds retarted.

[res6cue 67]

Yes, yearly.

[JustSomeGuy 0]

How are you gonna require someone to pay to volunteer? JMO

[RWC130 594]

In our company we have an Application Fee and Yearly Dues.

Members with 25 Years (Life Members) don't pay dues.

If you are an Active Firefighter with 25 Years or more you don't pay dues.

Company Officers don't pay dues.

If you miss a Drill, Meeting, Calls, Events, Etc you are not fined.

Edited September 21, 2006 by RWC130

[calhobs 110]

do you guys get fined for not attending calls,meetings etc.???

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I never understood how or why departments fined you for missing calls or not going to meetings. It sounds like a money makeing deal for the department. I just cant see making someone who gives there time freely, and then making them pay a fine for missing a call or a meeting or a parade. Can you picture this " hey Joe thanks for coming around this year and oh by the way here is your bill for the calls you missed and the 2 meetings and the parade you didnt come too and by the way pay it ASAP or we have to kick you out". I would hope most of the Departemnts that do this do not have a manpower problem.

[calhobs 110]

better yet why do fire departments have dues and Ambulance Corps dont? Well i should say my ambulance corp dont. I would just assume that many others dont either?

[DOC22 1]

In my Department members who are either Ex-Chief or have 20 years are life members. Life membersare exempt from payment of dues all others pay annually.

[ny10570 745]

Fines for missed events (when they were actually enforced) were only levied if you didn't notify someone you would not be able to attend. Even though we're volunteer, its still a service that we provide and a job we are tasked to do. This just serves as some form of accountability.

[Remember585 815]

I think fines are from the old days where it was more of a club then a fire company.

In ours, fines aren't something you see too often.

If you miss calls - it happens. If you don't make the 10% you don't qualify for the LOSAP. Miss the call percentage two years in a row, risk the loss of your membership.

Meetings - if you miss more then two in a row without an excuse, you get fined. HOWEVER - if the member is active firematically this usually gets waived.

Cleanups, parades, drills - no fines. If you don't meet your OSHA requirements you risk losing your active status and/or membership.

When I first joined the Company was harsh with it's fines. Now, being that training and covering calls is FINALLY superior to the other BS, if a member is very active training and responding, they don't see any fines.

We buy uniforms too, if you don't participate you either give it back or pay for it.

Dues are $10 per year. This goes into the operations of the company (house supplies, meals, etc.).

Once you hit 20 years of service, all dues and fines are dismissed.

[RocklandFires 44]

$20 application fee then $1 a month until you become a life member @ 25 years.

[IzzyEng4 427]

We pay an annual dues of $10 for active and $15 for social members. Members who area retired from the company or have reached 50 year member status or have been honored with the title Honorary Captain are exempt. Our joining fee for our company is $2. We do have fines such as we have to attend three parades and if you are not excused by the parade committee then you are fined $10 per parade, you miss six parades in a row, you have to pay up your fines and turn in your class A uniform. If we attend other parade besides the three manditory those are not fined. There are small fines like vulgar language at a meetings and such but rarley does that happen.

We do not fine for not attending drills, missing meetings, ect.

[bartman884 0]

Our dues are $3 a year. Also we have sign duty to change the sign in front of our station and if you do not do it your week there is a $5 fine. Other than that no other fines, if you don't make 15% of calls you are subject to be removed from active status.

[Monty 35]

My previous department was $3/year - and Class A and work uniform was provided.

My current Company is $25 application fee. My last years dues & fines were about $30. I forget how many years you need to have before you do not need to pay dues and fines. It may be 20.

I guess that's how we get our food and drink subsidized.

We also have to buy our own Class A uniform in our Company.

The things we do for love ehhh?

[AFS1970 504]

We still have an old rule about dues that has never been enforced since I've been a member. It says that the annual dues shall be $25, but that members making their quota of points (calls, drill, meetings) are exempt from dues. Theoretically we are supposed to collect these dues every year.

I think that dues are an idea whose time has passed. I'm sure they were useful at some point, but lets face it, most of these dues ammounts were probably alot more in days past. $25 isn't the fine it once was. Also, any rule that isn't enforced over a long period of time, ceases to be useful.

[res6cue 67]

I wish our dept would do away with them. The amount of income generated from them is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of our income. Thankfully I'm not too far away from life membership and I'll never have to pay them again. I'm even thinking of pre-paying just to get it out of the way.

We used to have fines for various infractions but they were mostly done away with when our bylaws were recently revamped. Some of them were silly anyway, and apparently had been in the bylaws since like...I dunno 1930 maybe lol.

"For neglect to equip within the time prescribed, 50 cents per month

fine." <-- what does that even mean???

"Any member found removing or in any way interfering with orders or

papers on the bulletin board, unless authorized by the proper officers, $1.00 fine."

"For using personalities towards any members, or for introducing

religious or political subjects at the meetings, $1.00 fine."

This one everyone liked though, but sadly it's gone now. The rule was always interpreted to take profanity into account also, at the rate of $1 per curse word. If someone were pissed at a meeting, they'd stand up once recognized by the chair and usually with a bit of showmanship, would take their wallet from their pocket, pluck out a dollar bill, hold it up and then proceed to call someone an a-hole. If you were really lucky, they'd pull out a five or ten dollar bill before treating the whole room to a rant! And if you slipped up and let a curse out accidentally, the entire room would remind you, simultaneously piping up with "ONE DOLLAR!"

I can see people not understanding or believing why you should have to pay to volunteer, and I guess I'm inclined to agree. But I'm just so used to it by now that I don't b**** about it. Probably should though, but it's also not like we don't get it all back and then some what with all the toys we buy and food we eat and whatnot.

Edited September 21, 2006 by res6cue

[Guest]

in mamaroneck we pay a yearly dues and yes we due get fined for all calls from 7pm to 7am after 10 years you dont have to pay fines anymore

[scopino 0]

Yes we pay yearly $1 a month so $12 yearly, don't particularly know why but we do

[AFS1970 504]

I like this fine:

"Any member found removing or in any way interfering with orders or

papers on the bulletin board, unless authorized by the proper officers, $1.00 fine."

Maybe that one should stay.

Since we operate on a point system, with 1 point for each call, drill or meeting the lack of points becomes it's own fine. The key to making a point system work, IMHO, is that points above the minimum have to mean something. Otherwise there is no reason to go above the minimum.

Back to the topic at hand, I think that a point system that rewards activity is the flip side of a fine system that punishes inactivity.

[CAM502 6]

Wait so you get fined for missing a parade but not for missing a drill?!?!? Hmmm interesting....