Create a Local NAHF Chapter

Create a Local NAHF Chapter

Starting an NAHF Chapter at your firehouse or city can make a major difference in your career and the careers of those you work with. Public Safety Officers, including those in the fire department, will generally start a professional or nonprofessional organization in order to work towards equal rights and opportunities in a professional field. The NAHF is no different in this regard. What the NAHF does try to do differently than some organizations is emphasize the importance of professional camaraderie and mutual respect between NAHF Chapters and professionals in public safety in general.

Getting Started

When you start a chapter with the NAHF, we are willing to help you set up the infrastructure and recruit members and walk you through the whole process. We're there every step of the way, so it's not something you have to put off until you have time to "figure it out". You can apply today and we'll get you started. Apply Today...

It's advised that, before applying for recognition from the NAHF, you gather at least ten core, dedicated members to get the ball rolling. Some chapters may be started from a core group of a few less or far more than ten, but ten tends to be the safe number. If one or two members lose interest or wind up being too busy, you still have eight or nine dedicated members once you've gotten through the process.

We'll walk you through the nuts and bolts of starting a chapter. For now, just try to see if there's enough interest in your local public safety community to support a chapter, that's step one.

Chapter Benefits

The core benefit of forming a chapter is in encouraging community involvement. Many hispanic firefighters out there may be the only minority at their firehouse. While there's something to be said for the camaraderie between all public safety professionals, taking part in an active organization like the NAHF can provide members with a real sense of belonging, purpose and mutual respect.

Communication between members and chapters is of vital importance to the NAHF philosophy. Strengthening the bonds between public safety professionals and chapters is key, Being interdisciplinary, the NAHF also allows Hispanic Firefighters to meet professionals from other fields in public safety. Typically, working in public safety can leave professionals feeling a little isolated. Through membership in the NAHF, a member's place in the larger public safety community is made clear.

How it Works

Individual chapters may focus exclusively on NAHF causes and activities, or pursue their own goals. They may refer to National NAHF campaigns to deal with the issues facing Hispanic firefighters across the country, or focus exclusively on more immediate, local concerns in their own area.

Starting a chapter with the NAHF offers unity without asking that members sacrifice the freedom to govern themselves on a chapter-by-chapter basis. On a national level, the NAHF is devoted to national concerns, but regionally, chapters are free to focus on regional concerns.

This freedom extends to a number of aspects of the organization. Beyond choosing their own goals to pursue, their own issues to face, a chapter will also determine for themselves the amount paid above and beyond in dues by their members. While a chapter's Constitution is expected to be compatible with the National NAHF Constitution, each chapter is free to write their own Constitution and Bylaws in accordance with how they feel their own chapter should be governed.

While the NAHF will need to approve a chapter taking a stance on a new issue under the NAHF banner, the National Organization encourages chapters to raise these issues for consideration.

Recruiting a Founding Membership

While there are no rigid requirements for minimal membership to maintain a chapter of the NAHF, at least ten members is suggested before applying for chapter recognition, but the more the better. Typically, at least seventy active, participating members will make up an effective NAHF chapter.

The leadership duties of an NAHF chapter can be a little too demanding when you have a group any smaller than seventy active members. For instance, an acting chairperson or president who also serves as treasurer is likely to get burnt out before the NAHF has managed to affect much positive change.

While the NAHF offers many benefits for participating chapters, anyone looking to start a group should understand the responsibilities and hard work that go into the job. The payoff is more than worth it for most participating members, but the decision to start a chapter shouldn't be made lightly or without a sufficiently sizable membership.

If you need to recruit members, you should start by working with your own co-workers and colleagues to form the core group and then contacting the National organization. NAHF can connect you with National members in your area who are not yet affiliated with a local chapter. From there, you'll probably want to get the word out through various means of public announcement. There are probably quite a few Hispanic firefighters in your area who are not yet affiliated with the NAHF, or perhaps have never even heard of it.

In any event, know that you can rely on the NAHF to help you through the process of building your own local chapter. A core purpose of the National organization is to offer Hispanic Firefighters and public safety professionals strength in numbers and in unity. In other words: the more members the better.

Your success in building a local chapter of the NAHF goes hand in hand with the National organization's success in spreading the word, and the bottom line is that, locally or nationally, the NAHF is devoted to issues of vital importance to today's Hispanic firefighters by working together.

It is simply better for the Hispanic firefighter community, the community at large, and public safety for the NAHF to lend their full support to those wishing to recruit members and found a local chapter every step of the way.

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