Retention and Recruitment
for the Volunteer Emergency Services
Challenges and Solutions

Dr. William F. Jenaway
CFO, CFPS, CPP, CHCM, CMM, CSP
Executive Vice President, VFIS
CEO, VFIS Education, Training, and Consulting

September 26, 2007

WILLIAM JENAWAY, Ph.D.

Dr. Jenaway is employed as the Executive Vice President of VFIS, and the CEO of their Education, Training, and Consulting subsidiary. Prior to this, he spent 20 years in the insurance industry, with 15 of those years as an executive in the risk management departments leading hundreds of loss prevention specialists in the assessment and management of billions of dollars of risk.

Recently he has been the project manager on USFA projects including research and revision of the USFA document "Volunteer Fire Service Recruitment and Retention", "Safe Operation of Emergency Vehicles in Volunteer and Small Combination Fire Departments", "Small Community Vulnerability and Threat Assessments", and "Developing Mutual Aid Agreements for Volunteer and Small Combination Fire Departments."

Among Bill's many affiliations are Chairman of the Risk Management Standard for the NFPA, Chairman of the NFPA Standard on Providing Emergency Services to the Public. He is President of the Congressional Fire Services Institute, and a Commissioner of the Commission on Fire Service Accreditation, as well as a Past President of the Pennsylvania Fire & Emergency Services Institute. The author of more than 200 articles on fire, safety and management-related topics, and has written six texts on fire and safety discipline and four children's books. He has also testified numerous times before local, state, and federal legislative bodies. Bill is a member of the graduate school adjunct faculty at St. Joseph's University and at California University of Pennsylvania.

In 1999 Bill was appointed to the distinguished "Gilmore Commission", as by directed by Presidential order of both President Clinton and President Bush, officially known as the Advisory Panel (to Congress and the President) to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction. In 2003 he was named to the Pennsylvania Senate Resolution 60 Commission to develop a strategic initiatives for Pennsylvania's Fire and Emergency Medical Services and served as the Commission's Chair.

Bill began his fire service activities began in western Pennsylvania where he was named Fire Chief in East Bethlehem Township, Washington County, in 1977. He transferred to Eastern Pennsylvania and joined the King of Prussia Volunteer Fire Company, where he also rose through the ranks to become Fire Chief and President. He has served for over 10 years as Chairman of the municipality's Fire and Rescue (EMS) Services Board. King of Prussia was the first all-volunteer fire department to receive accreditation from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. In 2001 he was named "Volunteer Fire Chief of the Year" by Fire Chief magazine at the annual conference of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.