Volunteer Incentive Committee
Meeting minutes – May 12, 2008
The meeting was called to order at 7:10 pm by co- chair Ron Masters. Present were Mike Balf, Jim Barton, Cal Meyers, Dave Lockwood Dan Schnobrich and Ron Masters. Absent were Marie DeSousa and Gil Hayes.
The minutes of the April 7 meeting were reviewed. A motion to accept was made by Dan Schnobrich and seconded by Dave Lockwood. The motion carried.
The committee reviewed a letter sent to the Board of Selectmen requesting an added appropriation of $17,000 which would allow the incentive program to be paying out on a July to July basis. Ron Masters reported that the First Selectman agreed to bring this request to the first available Board of Selectmen meeting. Since both May meetings fall on dates set for town budget functions, there will probably have to be a special Selectmen’s meeting. This meeting has not been scheduled as yet.
The committee discussed the methods used by each department to gather the data necessary to provide the incentive payout to the volunteers. BBFD needs to begin to use Firehouse software that is currently in use by WPFD. BBFD has the purchase of this software on their list. The cost is about $3000 but it would expedite the data gathering chore. Both departments agreed that gathering data on as monthly basis would be too time consuming and there was some question as to whether the Town Treasurer would agree to monthly payouts in any event. Both departments agreed to establish end dates for training and to use June 15 as the date to begin gathering data for the last quarter. Hopefully this would allow all bills to be paid by the first week in July.
The committee agreed to resubmit the revised incentive program to the Board of Selectmen for their review and approval. The proposed change would increase the pay per callout to $12 /call and increase the annual stipend paid to the department’s volunteer officers.
The committee set July 14 for the next meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 8 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Masters co-chairman
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