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Adriana Moore

Brian Bailie

English 2089

November 22 2017

I am currently a member of Wayne Fire and Rescue Auxiliary, in Clermont County

Ohio. WTFR (Wayne Township Fire & Rescue) is one of the few fire departments that still has

an auxiliary to help raise money for the department. The auxiliary is an organization of men and

women in a community that meet on a monthly basis to discuss past meeting, future meetings

and makes plans to raise money for the Fire Department to purchase much needed equipment. 

Although  the department may or may not receive monies from the government via grants, there

are always items needed by the department that aren't purchased using grant monies.  The equip-

ment can be anything from items to make the job safer for the men and women running on the

department, items to make the community safer (i.e. lock boxes on homes with elderly people, to

which the dept has the combination to obtain a key for entry to the home in case of emergency,

tems to make the community safer, such as lock boxes on homes with elderly people, to which

the department has the combination to obtain a key for entry to the home in case of emergency,

to items that assist the department in being able to respond to 911 calls in a faster more efficient

way.

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Just like any other organization, there are disagreements and problems with even the sim-

plest of things. Being a member of the auxiliary is completely voluntary and you can quit at any

time. Once you've been voted onto the auxiliary, the same people tend to remain each year until

forced to resign for any number of reasons.  The most common reason for resignation is because

of the amount of time a person has in their life to volunteer on a consistent basis.

Everyone on the auxiliary works together and seems to get along to the outsider looking

in on a meeting or fish fry, which is the auxiliary's biggest fundraiser. However, there are always

minor squabbles going on in the background.  The most common of which is that no matter how

many volunteer functions, it's usually the same people working, researching, attending meetings

and interacting with the public.  Generally speaking, the auxiliary may have a total of 20 volun-

teers but it's usually the same 7-10 volunteers doing the majority of the work and showing up for

the monthly meeting's.  It's almost always guaranteed that while only a small percentage of the

members do the majority of the work, that definitely 95-100% of the members will show up if

there's something to be voted on or recognition to receive.

There are outside conflicts that affect the auxiliary. Often there is misinformation about

ones ability to join the auxiliary. People think that you need to be related to someone on the de-

partment to be an auxiliary member. That is not the case, anyone that wants to be a member of

the auxiliary can fill out a form and have the chance to be voted in at the next monthly meeting.

Another issue that can be a challenge is recruiting volunteers to make desserts for fish fry.

Desserts can be donated by auxiliary members, department members or members of community. 

Often times, fire department members think the auxiliary will have enough people to take care of

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desserts, so they don’t bother to bring any themselves. Just as the auxiliary members often hope

that department members will provide more desserts or they both think the community will do-

nate more desserts. These assumptions can lead to having too many desserts or not enough

desserts for a given fish fry.

There are many internal conflicts that can cause problems as well. For example; if an

auxiliary member doesn’t particularly like one of the officers of the auxiliary, it often deters him

or her from volunteering as often as they could and or should. Smaller “clicks” also develop

within a larger group. This can make working as a cohesive unit more difficult. Another issue

can be that the same individuals volunteer for everything over and over and tend to burn out

quickly. So those same people end up doing most of the work while others do very little if any.

However, everyone wants to take credit for the money that has been raised. Part of being an aux-

iliary member is to come up with ideas and make suggestions for new ways to raise money.  Ev-

eryone doesn’t always provide suggestions or ideas when asked, which lets the responsibility fall

on only a few outspoken people.

The auxiliary cannot make any sort of decision without it being voted upon.  If it happens

to be a situation that can’t wait until the next meeting to be voted on, a phone call is placed to the

officers to vote and make an informed decision on behalf of the entire auxiliary. Sometimes this

can cause a problem because people show up expecting to vote on a particular issue, only to find

that the officers have decided that it is time sensitive and the officers have already made the deci-

sion. When this happens, sometimes people might perceive that officers can be influenced by

their affiliation with members of the fire department. For example, one of Kelli’s conflicts, might

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be that she is the President of the Auxiliary but she is also a member of the Fire Department, in

addition to being the Chief’s wife. Some people might think that she has conflicting rolls. Such

as,“Do what her husband wants vs what’s best for the fire department vs what she should be do-

ing as an auxiliary member.” By having so many divided loyalties, it could make people question

the process used to vote on time sensitive issues.

According to an article the auxiliary was originally mostly behind the scenes. The auxil-

iary provided first aid at the fire ground and fundraiser dinners to sponsor community events.

The Fire Department and the auxiliary worked together then and now. Back in the day the auxil-

iary members were the fire fighters wives. They would go to the fires as well, but they would be

there to give their husbands refreshments. This is why people still have the misconception that

only Fireman’s wives and/or family members can be an auxiliary member. But as we now know

anyone that wants to become a part of the auxiliary can put in an application. They don’t have to

know someone on the fire department. The history shows why there is conflict with outside peo-

ple and the auxiliary.

As an attendee of a recent auxiliary meeting, I made a point to discuss the auxiliary with

it’s current Secretary, Lisa Moore. She has been a member of the auxiliary since approximately

1996. She has seen different chiefs run the department and different presidents run the auxiliary.

She discussed how at one time, the auxiliary had a lot of members from the same family, and this

made members of the community and the department “uneasy”. The uneasiness arose from more

than just a few decision being made “after hours” or during “non-meeting” times. Lisa’s state-

ment to me was: “members of the community have to be able to trust the auxiliary members

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or they are less likely to volunteer when needed. If a community member feels that something

“sneaky” is going on, they are less likely to volunteer or donate when needed.”

In another conversation with the current Auxiliary President, Kelli Moulden, other things

were discussed.

Adriana: “Kelli, how long have you been a member of the auxiliary?”

Kellie: “I have been here since 2003 when my husband became chief of Wayne Township Fire

and Rescue. Although I’ve been on the auxiliary since day 1 of his reign as chief, I’ve only been

President for the past 6 years. In that time in addition to trying to constantly obtain volunteers, I

have also run into the issue of having health issues and being required to step away for 1 year, in

which Lisa took my place as President.”

Adriana: “Please give me an example of conflicts with others during your time on the auxiliary.”

Kelli: “I think every group or organization has issues of some sort. The organization is like a

family and just as in a normal family environment, you have squabbles or people that don’t agree

on certain situations, but you agree to disagree and move forward for the greater good of the or-

ganization.”

In conclusion, although there can be many challenges for an auxiliary, ranging from diffi-

culty in recruiting volunteers to simply not having enough time to get everything done, the end

result is the same. Any given community has a fire department that responds no matter the

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time of day or night and these brave men and women rely on their auxiliary to help raise money

for needed equipment, as well as provide nourishment on long calls. The members of an auxil-

iary must look past all disagreements, uneasiness or underlying difficulty to support the fire de-

partment they stand behind.

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Work Cited

Lisa Moore the secretary of the auxiliary Interview.

Kelli Molden the president of the auxiliary.

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