Some volunteer departments are legendary for their parties and some of us have gained a bad reputation because of it. These parties can go overboard in some cases, but social gatherings are often the glue holding volunteer departments together. The get-togethers we have had over the years may have been our best retention tool and can be seen as a barometer of our current department membership health. This may sound a bit farfetched, but if we are to accept that our members have an innate need for relatedness or being part of the group, then more social events may be essential to retaining members.

The problem with social events is we are all individuals; what may be considered a fun time to one person may be a chore to another. When events become a chore or "no fun," members may go to them grudgingly or not at all. Members lose interest for a variety of reasons but all too often socializing becomes a chore when members are either not part of the "in group" or are part of infighting within the department. The result is that a member who was previously very active starts coming to less social events, then less fire calls and finally not at all.

To understand this phenomenon and to be able to use it as a tool to gauge member satisfaction, the easiest thing to do is to look at a sample member's lifecycle in the department. While each member is different, we all go through a similar lifecycle throughout our career as a volunteer professional.

Members often start off enthused, if they make it through the probationary period, and are initially very active, before sometimes falling off. This progression is reflected in their social participation, which may be essential to keeping them active on the firefighting end.

It seems that new members often either become part of the group in their first six months, or quit. This participation may be a reflection on whether or not they were made to feel part of the family by being invited and included in social functions ranging from the annual Christmas party to beers after the meeting.

High school nightmares
Unfortunately this initial socialization reminds all too many people of their high school nightmares with the "popular people" being set aside from the rest of the students, or in this case members. Many departments have subgroups established rather than a membership as a whole. If a new member cannot break into these groups, they will feel like an outsider in the department as a whole and end up leaving.

If the member does make it past the initial socialization hurdles, their ongoing participation may be reflected in the amount of events they attend or how they value the social components of the department. If someone is not willing to make the time for the "fun" events of the department, the likelihood they are going to make time to sit through blood-borne pathogens for the 15th time is minimal. It may be that by getting them to participate more in the social events, we can ensure they continue to volunteer and respond to fires or attend drills.

Besides time, members can stop attending functions simply because they stop being "fun." This can be for a variety of reasons but most likely is due to infighting or a simple issue that blew up; maybe they did not get elected to the position they wanted, or maybe someone was elected who they do not like. It may even be something non-fire related. Maybe they had a bet on the Superbowl but lost big time and took it to heart ... No matter the reason, these seemingly small problems can become apparent in the social functions and provide a barometer of the current state of your membership.
This may sound far fetched, but take a look at the last five members you lost: you'll probably find they stopped coming to the Christmas party well before they stopped coming around at all. We make time for the things we enjoy and value. Maybe it is time to help encourage our members to value socializing at the department so that they value their membership as a whole.