Not only the municipality of Illingen has introduced a bonus system for its volunteer fire department, but already at the beginning of 2022, the council and administration of the municipality of Schiffweiler recognized the need to promote volunteering and introduced a points savings booklet for volunteer firefighters. For this purpose, 30,000 euros were allocated in the 2022 budget.
Volunteer fire brigades are a pillar of society and are mostly supported by volunteers. However, commitment to volunteer work is declining. To permanently maintain and further promote the motivation of volunteer firefighters, the fire protection advisory board of the municipality of Schiffweiler has introduced a volunteer point savings book for their active members of the volunteer fire brigade.
Since then, the fire departments of the municipality of Schiffweiler have been recording every active participation in operations and exercises using a points system, based on which the 30,000 euros allocated annually in the budget are to be distributed proportionally to the active members. The sum is provided by the municipality of Schiffweiler to promote volunteer work.
In the meeting of the fire protection advisory board in October 2022, which included representatives of the municipal council as well as representatives of the
As both the fire department and the administration are involved, it has been agreed to use only the individual deployment participation of each firefighter for the point calculation this year. For the year 2023, the training participation will also be taken into account.
At the end of November, beginning of December 2022, the individual participation in operations of the fire brigade members is determined. The amount of 30,000 euros provided by the municipal council is then divided by the total number of operations, and the resulting amount is multiplied by the participation in operations. Afterwards, the amounts determined in this way are paid out to the individual fire brigade members.
