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I am a volunteer at a small rural department, where I have called home for the last 13+ years. Our department is strictly volunteer, and we have always had a policy that job & family come first. We now have a chief that is a little gung ho, and has "ordered" us to start responding to more incidents. This chief acts as if he is a hired chief, or a large paid department, rather than an elected chief of a small volunteer department. He forgets that the department as a whole is supposed to make decisions of major purchases, as well as other issues. Recently, we were talking about getting an urban interface pumper, after our station got an add on. He took it upon himself to order a large tanker, that we dont have room for. Now, we have 5 trucks in a 3 bay station. On top of that, he also requested a SUV from the county, so now he has this vehicle in town at his house.
At a recent meeting, a new member was making suggestions about how our training should be handled, and the chief was going right along with it, as if "thats how it was going to be from now on", and then I spoke up, the chief got mad because he thought I was going against his authority, and then all hell broke loose. The suggestion was to create a committee of people to perform the trainings, then the chief would assign members from that committee to train the other members. Our dept is too small to be having an internal committee on training, and we dont have any members who are qualified to do training. This discussion went on for 30 minutes, in a veryheated manner, and the chief was in total agreement with the other member, and he said "we WILL do this!" At that point, another member made a motion to table the discussion until our first meeting after the first of the year, and the motion was seconded. Then the chief proceeded to say that we will adopt this new policy at the next meeting. I told him no, we have a motion on the floor, so now we needed to vote on it. He said something to the effect that he was the chief and he decided what was what. I said no, we need to vote on the motion. (We always follow Roberts Rules of Order in our meetings, and he has absolutely no idea how to conduct a meeting in that fashion). The other member that had made the original suggestion then had to tell the chief how the voting process worked. Before the voting, another member started in on a little rant about how things needed to be and that we needed to start doing more training. I stopped him, I told him that he sat there and kept his mouth shut during the entire discussion period, and now we were voting so he needed to shut it. That didnt go over to well either. The motion passed 7-4. And the chief STILL said we are going to discuss at next meeting. What a moron. I am not bitching at the suggestion of training, just the manner in which they are going about it. Coincidently, the member that has suggested the training has been to one call since he has joined the department, and is also responsible for burning up a 2way radio, and a power supply, due to failing to install a ground wire on an outdoor antenna.(he told us he was a qualified radio equipment tech, and he seemed to know what he was talking about).
I dont know what to do now. I dont want to be there anymore with this chief acting like this, (he has a severe case of big-head syndrome). Seriously thinking of quitting the department that I helped to build, I am one of the few remaining original members. Considering going to a local department that neighbors us. I have had a mutual aid agreement with them for several years. Maybe someone has some advice for me.
At a recent meeting, a new member was making suggestions about how our training should be handled, and the chief was going right along with it, as if "thats how it was going to be from now on", and then I spoke up, the chief got mad because he thought I was going against his authority, and then all hell broke loose. The suggestion was to create a committee of people to perform the trainings, then the chief would assign members from that committee to train the other members. Our dept is too small to be having an internal committee on training, and we dont have any members who are qualified to do training. This discussion went on for 30 minutes, in a veryheated manner, and the chief was in total agreement with the other member, and he said "we WILL do this!" At that point, another member made a motion to table the discussion until our first meeting after the first of the year, and the motion was seconded. Then the chief proceeded to say that we will adopt this new policy at the next meeting. I told him no, we have a motion on the floor, so now we needed to vote on it. He said something to the effect that he was the chief and he decided what was what. I said no, we need to vote on the motion. (We always follow Roberts Rules of Order in our meetings, and he has absolutely no idea how to conduct a meeting in that fashion). The other member that had made the original suggestion then had to tell the chief how the voting process worked. Before the voting, another member started in on a little rant about how things needed to be and that we needed to start doing more training. I stopped him, I told him that he sat there and kept his mouth shut during the entire discussion period, and now we were voting so he needed to shut it. That didnt go over to well either. The motion passed 7-4. And the chief STILL said we are going to discuss at next meeting. What a moron. I am not bitching at the suggestion of training, just the manner in which they are going about it. Coincidently, the member that has suggested the training has been to one call since he has joined the department, and is also responsible for burning up a 2way radio, and a power supply, due to failing to install a ground wire on an outdoor antenna.(he told us he was a qualified radio equipment tech, and he seemed to know what he was talking about).
I dont know what to do now. I dont want to be there anymore with this chief acting like this, (he has a severe case of big-head syndrome). Seriously thinking of quitting the department that I helped to build, I am one of the few remaining original members. Considering going to a local department that neighbors us. I have had a mutual aid agreement with them for several years. Maybe someone has some advice for me.
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