July 30, 2010

Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association
Attention: Board of Trustees
P.O. 881
Millersville, MD  21108
Subject:  Nomination for Individual of the Year

Gentlemen:

            The officers and members of the Odenton Volunteer Fire Company (OVFC) are very proud to nominate President Troy A. Odendhal for the Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association’s Individual of the Year Award for 2010.  Troy is being recognized for his devoted service to both OVFC and the County Association.  He has been a member of OVFC for 15 years and a volunteer in Anne Arundel County for over 20 years.

            Troy is a key member of OVFC and has played a vital role in many essential operational and administrative activities over the years.  Immediately upon joining OVFC, Troy became instantly involved in a number of administrative and emergency response activities. What became immediately clear was that a loss for one volunteer fire company was a gain for another - OVFC.

Troy is certified as a Fire Officer I and served as a Lieutenant for four years until January 2010, when he decided to step down as an officer to devote full time to the vital duties required of the position of President.  As a company officer, he routinely responded to or was on stand-by duty at the station for over 100 incidents annually.  Even as our company president, he continues to maintain his competency as a firefighter and rides during periods of high demand.

            In January 2009, Troy was elected to the important position of President of the fire company.  As OVFC President, he has been very focused on ensuring the long term viability and financial security of our fire company.  He has worked diligently on improving our budgetary processes.  He has organized a Long Range Planning Committee to assess the impact of the surrounding County development on OVFC’s future.  Troy has coordinated closely with the County fire administration to ensure that OVFC receives all the funds appropriately due under the ambulance grant agreement.  He has overseen several important facilities projects, and actively sought additional County funds for vital OVFC projects.  He has also worked very closely with the County Office of Law on several issues of concern to the fire company.

            Prior to his election as President, Troy served for five years on the OVFC Board of Directors as the Membership Secretary.  He greatly refined and enhanced our membership process, attracting an average of five new members each month.  He developed a comprehensive orientation program for prospective new members and patiently guided each new member through the membership and clearance process.  He carefully tracked the progress of each new member through their initial training period, and promptly resolved any problems they experienced.  In addition to the induction of new members, Troy was responsible for maintaining current information on all company members, including their training records.  He has carefully trained our current Membership Secretary to assume these duties and continues to closely support our membership process, which is essential to the long-term success as of a volunteer fire company.

            Troy also chaired the OVFC Information Technology Committee until his election as President.  He wrote a user-friendly computer program to track response information for the station and individual members, which he unselfishly shared with other volunteer stations and advised them on its usage.  The information collected in this program is used to recognize the contributions of our members and in justifying requests for funding.  He has also developed an automated paging system that alerts members of emergency calls on their cell phones.  He and his committee kept all the station computers and other essential electronic equipment fully operational. He was also successful in getting a second County computer for use by OVFC officers.

            Troy also served as the station Quartermaster for three years until his election as President.  True to form, Troy took a broken and worn out system and spent countless hours streamlining and modernizing it.  As Quartermaster, he was also responsible for issuing and tracking pagers to responding members, a responsibility which he still maintains.

            He has also directed our mail-out fundraising program, which provides about 25% of our annual operating funds.  He developed a targeted mailing list and managed the contractor who handles the mailings.  He ensures a careful accounting of all funds received.  He ably trained another OVFC member to take over these duties when he became President, and continues to closely oversee this important project.

            Although we are proud of his service to the OVFC, Troy has also expanded his support to the volunteer system to aid other Anne Arundel County volunteer companies. Approximately two years ago, he assumed chairmanship of the Recruitment and Retention Committee of the Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association.  He has reinvigorated that important committee.  Building on the best practices which he implemented for the OVFC, Troy regularly assists other volunteer companies in improving their membership processes.  He works closely with the Volunteer Coordinator to improve new member processing procedures to identify ways in which it can be streamlined to allow new members to become active sooner.  

            Recognizing that volunteer retention involves letting members know that their contributions are appreciated, he organized a volunteer promotion ceremony in June 2010, at which over 120 volunteer members in the County were recognized for their training accomplishments and rank promotions.  Troy also represented the County Association at a major teen job fair at Fort Meade in May 2010.  At this event, over 30 new potential members were interviewed and provided contact information for local volunteer fire companies.  The OVFC benefited greatly from this activity as a large number of these new candidates resided within the Odenton response area.

            Troy has taken that same level of enthusiasm to the Maryland State Firemen’s Association as a member of the MSFA Recruitment and Retention Committee.  Although this committee is still in its infancy, Troy has offered to assist and we are sure that he will become an asset as the committee begins identifying best practices and assisting departments across the state in improving their volunteer recruitment and retention capabilities.

            In summary, Troy Odendhal is a highly dedicated and extremely valuable member of OVFC and the Anne Arundel County fire service.  He is a strong and intelligent leader.  He works very hard and never boasts of his many accomplishments nor seeks recognition.  We are proud to be able to submit his nomination for Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association’s Individual of the Year Award and trust that you will give him true consideration in the selection of an individual for this prestigious award.

Sincerely,

Donald R. Evick
Chief
Odenton Volunteer Fire Company