Combining volunteer and career staff has proven to be an extremely effective operational model for the fire service. To better understand how your department can increase safety in your community, the IAFC has created three online courses and one in-person course.

• Course 1, “Is It Time to Transition to a Combination Department,” looks at key indicators to help you understand whether moving from an all-volunteer department to a combination department is right for your community.

• Course 2, “How to Transition to a Combination Department,” helps you understand the necessary steps to ensure successful integration of career staff.

• Course 3, “Build a Collaborative Team Culture,” allows the student to understand the environment that must exist for both volunteer and career staff to operate as one team and not as two separate units.

To access the above courses, log on to the IAFC Academy. Once there, you can find them under “Leadership” then “Volunteer to Combination Conversion.”

access the online courses