V.F.D notes
Volunteers are recruited by V.F.D. at a very young age if they are seen by other volunteers to be observant, well-read, and excel in activities such as note taking, even those currently at apprenticeship. Neophytes, or young trainees of V.F.D., are carried away by their ankles in the middle of the night.
Children will be dragged out the window by the ankle, into a long, black car. Recruitment has also been known to occur when a taxi driver attempts to show his passenger a photograph of you as a baby, something that notably happened in The Reptile Room. It is also mentioned that children without a parent or guardian will be contacted in a more direct way.
While it is claimed that the children are taken with parents' permission, there are some clues that may lead some to believe this a false statement; neophytes seem to rarely, if ever, see their parents after recruitment, and The Unauthorized Autobiography includes photos of a boy in a park, taken secretly, in hopes of recruiting the child. It is also mentioned that E. Snicket (and presumably her husband, Jacob) was unaware of when her children would be taken, and the Denouement parents seem to have been not expecting their children's recruitment, as they were preparing for the triplets' birthday, and their house suspiciously burnt down after the boys were taken by the Volunteers.
Following their kidnapping, children are isolated from people they know and scattered across the globe, assigned to strangers to perform perplexing errands. Once "their ankles have healed", the organization knows they can be trusted and obedient, and the authorities have stopped searching for them, they are taken to headquarters.
Neophytes go to the V.F.D. Headquarters where each is given a commonplace book and trained throughout childhood and into adulthood in a particular topic that interested them. According to Captain Widdershins, "V.F.D. isn't just a fire department. Aye–it started that way. But the volunteers were interested in every such thing!"
Before the schism, Volunteers were required to get a tattoo of the V.F.D. insignia on their left ankles, but afterward, they found it hard to know who was who while in disguises, because if they had a tattoo, they could be on either side, and because the insignia was only shown off by the fire-starters after the schism, the tattoo was associated with that side of V.F.D., causing problems.
When a volunteer graduates, they are to choose their chaperone and become an apprentice to them. Apprenticeship should involve learning from their chaperone in an area of interest. Potential apprentices can choose their chaperones from a list of chaperones, ranked by their success in their various endeavors. It is unknown how long apprenticeship lasts or how it ends. After apprenticeship, Volunteers are expected to take jobs or go into the field.
he V.F.D. utilizes several codes for communication between Volunteers. After the schism, however, both sides continued to use the same codes, so it is very difficult, if not impossible, to tell if the member using the code is on the Fire-Fighting or the Fire-Starting side.
Several books are required reading for apprentices, which contain codes and clues hidden inside.
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Clearly
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Ivan Lachrymose: Lake Explorer by Vincent Francis Doyle
Grimm's Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm
Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson
The Coded Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
I Lost Something at the Movies by Lena Pukalie
