volunteer Must Attend Activity to receive credit

Frequently, a department will send a group of firefighters to the county training facility for a drill or other training. Or, a firefighter will be selected to be a delegate to a convention. In these situations, the firefighters are out of town and away from their response area.

A question often asked is, if there is a call during the time the firefighter is away at the training or conference, can that firefighter be credited with attending that call? The rationale often given is that the firefighter was out of town on fire department business, and if it wasn't for that the firefighter would have been free to attend the call.

I believe the easy answer to this is no. A volunteer must actually attend the activity in order to receive a point (or a response credit in this case). So no, the volunteer should not be credited with attending the call.