Strate­gic and oper­a­tional separation

@fire is a non-profit aid orga­ni­za­tion whose members have joined together as a regis­tered asso­ci­a­tion. Flat hier­ar­chies and short paths ensure the agility that is impor­tant as an oper­a­tional organization.

The Board of Direc­tors, elected by the members, is respon­si­ble for the strate­gic direc­tion of the Association:

@fire – Internationaler Katastrophenschutz Organigramm
@fire orga­ni­za­tional structure

Oper­a­tional activ­i­ties in the orga­ni­za­tional struc­ture are managed by depart­ment heads for the Manage­ment & Logis­tics (MuL), Vege­ta­tions­brand­bekämp­fung (WFF), and Rubble Rescue (USAR) disci­plines. The depart­ment heads make deci­sions in their sectors inde­pen­dently, but in close coop­er­a­tion with the Exec­u­tive Board, and are supported by orga­ni­za­tional teams. The subdi­vi­sion of the subject areas is directly struc­tured accord­ing to the appli­ca­tion compo­nents of @fire.

In addi­tion, there are cross-sectional func­tions such as finance, member­ship admin­is­tra­tion, IT, public rela­tions, and many more, which are directly assigned to a board department.

Decen­tral­ized struc­ture via regional teams

Members and task forces are orga­nized into regional teams. In these, train­ings and regu­lar team services take place in order to keep the travel load within limits despite the suprare­gional activ­ity of @fire.

The board of direc­tors, team lead­ers, depart­ment heads, subsidiary orga­ni­za­tions such as @fire Switzer­land and the elected member spokesper­son as ombuds­man form the asso­ci­a­tion’s inter­nal orga­ni­za­tion and steer­ing commit­tee (ViOLa), which meets regu­larly to discuss and decide on direc­tional deci­sions and every­day issues.

This creates a decen­tral­ized struc­ture for the admin­is­tra­tion of the asso­ci­a­tion, whose advan­tages are exploited through inten­sive commu­ni­ca­tion and Inter­net-based admin­is­tra­tion tools.

Despite the steady growth, we are proud to have main­tained the open commu­ni­ca­tion culture that is typi­cal of @fire. We are convinced that this is the only way to contin­u­ously develop @fire.