VAC Membership Types/Categories Question

[helicopper 1,050]

Staffed 100 percent by volunteers, the organization has 70 members, 25 of which are active riders, and is one of the last fully volunteer emergency response groups in the area.

An article about an agency in our area states this and I have a question: if only 25 of 70 are active, riding members what exactly do the other 45 do? I know FD's have fire police, exterior members, auxiliaries, etc. but what exactly is the benefit of having 65% of your membership not contributing to the main purpose of the agency?

[FFEMT150 214]

An article about an agency in our area states this and I have a question: if only 25 of 70 are active, riding members what exactly do the other 45 do? I know FD's have fire police, exterior members, auxiliaries, etc. but what exactly is the benefit of having 65% of your membership not contributing to the main purpose of the agency?

No benefit at all! They are DEAD WEIGHT and only show up for the freebies. We have a few too. You find them everywhere. There are the few exceptions such as those who do the office type work and cleaning. Having 65% non riding is a bit nuts.

[Ga-Lin 86]

I call it the 10-90 rule,usually 10% of the members of most organizations do 90% of the work. Which is why turnover in such places is high. My guess is that this place, for the most part, is being carried by long time members who have hung on. Having an all volunter org. is getting harder & harder in this economy.

[rob 249 0]

they are all pieces of the puzzle. What a load of crap!!!!!! the 10% who do the least b**** THE MOST

[helicopper 1,050]

I call it the 10-90 rule,usually 10% of the members of most organizations do 90% of the work. Which is why turnover in such places is high. My guess is that this place, for the most part, is being carried by long time members who have hung on. Having an all volunter org. is getting harder & harder in this economy.

I'm with you on that. My question is what capacity are they in? Are they allegedly active members that are simply inactive or are they some other kind of member (social, associate, etc.)?

Do agencies have any policy on how many members the organization can have and how many must be active, riding members?

I remember info from an FD that boasted having over 300 members but only about 40-50 were actually qualified to don SCBA and perform fire suppression operations. I just don't understand why organizations carry such robust memberships of people that can't/won't/don't contribute to the mission.