CFA Connect Blogosphere

A number of new members of the executive and Fire and Emergency management teams come to CFA not only with extensive experience in the emergency services sector but, more specifically, a strong and committed background in volunteerism.

We welcome Fran Boyd as Executive Director People and Culture and David Spokes as Executive Director Performance and Strategy. Mark Sullivan, the new Executive Director Communities and Communication, has more than 25 years' experience in the NSW police force and the Rural Fire Service.

This week is National Volunteer Week. It's important to recognise and thank our volunteers throughout the whole year, but this week gives us the opportunity to more formally acknowledge and celebrate the extraordinary commitment, energy and selflessness that our 58,000 volunteers bring to CFA every day. The work you do is essential. It is something that we, as an organisation and as a community, do not take for granted. The theme for National Volunteer Week 2012 is: "Volunteers - Every One Counts". Nowhere is this more evident than within CFA. Every CFA member brings knowledge, skills and experience to CFA. This gives us great diversity, strength and capability enabling us to accomplish great things for the community. Volunteers are ordinary men and women - our family, mates, neighbours, bosses, employees, the people we pass on the footpath or sit next to each day - but our volunteers are also exceptional people who give their own time and talents to serve others in their time of need. During National Volunteer week various activities will show our appreciation for all that you do. Visit CFA Connect for details on how to get involved. CFA prides itself on its volunteers who are the backbone of the organisation. We are proud to take this special opportunity to recognise our volunteers. On behalf of CFA, I say "Thank you for your effort, commitment, determination and enthusiasm. Your work is important. It is appreciated. Keep up the great effort and THANK YOU!"

I am pleased to announce new appointments to CFA's leadership team. Each of the individuals below brings to their role significant experience, knowledge and expertise.  Their skills and capabilities complement each other and those already existing in our organisation. The diversity and strength in the team ensures CFA is in the right hands to achieve our goals.

I was one of ten people selected for a 2 day pilot course at Fiskville. The idea was to take volunteers who may be the initial Incident  controller at  a job and give them some experience in a realistic environment

International Firefighters Day - Remembering The Fallen:
Today, 4th May, is International Firefighters Day. It is a day for us to honour the memories of firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty. This Sunday many of us will be attending the memorial service at Fiskville, alongside CFA members, families, friends, colleagues and distinguished guests, to remember the 66 CFA firefighters who have died serving our community. It is important to recognise the men and women in our community who commit themselves to protecting the safety and welfare of our family, friends and neighbours and often, strangers they have never met. I encourage everyone to take a moment today, and on Sunday, to reflect on the work our firefighters carry out every day, to commemorate the memory of those who are no longer with us, and to celebrate the strength that comes from being a part of the CFA family. Our work can often be long, dangerous, difficult and with little reward. Every once in a while, a firefighter may be asked to do something extraordinary - to think quickly and clearly, to act decisively and to provide help amid scenes of great trauma, tragedy and personal risk. Today is a day to thank all firefighters for their extraordinary commitment, exceptional courage and for their selfless service and, sometimes, sacrifice. Some of you have served our communities for most of your life. For some a few short years. But you set yourselves apart as model citizens. You set a fine example in our community. Your willingness and dedication to serve is to be congratulated. Thank you for your service, your commitment and for your courage.

The Spirit Of CFA:
On International Firefighters Day, I am reminded by those deeply moving words on "The Spirit of CFA" posters produced in the wake of the Black Saturday fires: "Hailing from all walks of life, you are our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, our grandparents, neighbours and our friends. You help and protect us, without wanting of recognition or reward. In our time of need you are there. Your courage and compassion are inspiring, your loyalty unquestionable. You comfort us with a tender hand; you stand at the face of nature's beast and fight for our lives and our land. You are the essence of the true meaning of community. You epitomise the Australian spirit, the spirit of CFA."

I am pleased to advise that volunteer members can now transfer from one brigade to another and still remain a member of CFA, without the need to show they've resigned on CFA's data system.

Previously our CFA Resource Management System (RMS) database was modelled in a way that made it necessary to record that a member had resigned if moving from one brigade to another.

Knox Group Specialist Appliance Display:
A strong commendation to the Knox Group for the highly successful display of specialist appliances held on 22nd April. High praise goes to DGO's Ian Atherton, Peter Shaw and Lt2 Craig Williamson from Montrose. The display included specialist appliances and equipment from Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, Parks Victoria, Victoria Police, SES, St John Ambulance, DSE, Ambulance Victoria and MFB. Of course there were over 35 CFA vehicles participating. Acting DCO Gregg Patterson described the display as "awesome". Look forward to something bigger and better in 2014! Great leadership and initiative team - well done! For images of Knox Group's display, click here.

Psychological Safety:
Our psychological safety is just as important as our physical safety. Working as a first responder in emergency services means we are exposed to circumstances and events that others would rarely see. Just like physical safety, there are steps we can take to eliminate or minimise our exposure to psychological risk. Our People and Culture team recently discussed with me some tips on how to include psychological safety into our daily practices:
• Minimise your exposure to traumatic images and sounds wherever possible. If you coordinate training for others in CFA, this should be a key message.
• Remove yourself and your team members wherever possible - if a turn out involves an MVA and fatality, keep non-essential personnel at a distance from the scene. Make sure crew members are not exposed for too long.
• Prepare yourself wherever possible - identify things that may be distressing to you and plan how you might deal with them.
• Look after each other and activate support services (such as peers) when you need to.
• Most importantly, be prepared to talk about your feelings and ask for help if you don't feel right.

Flash Mob From Gordon:
The initiative and inspiration from our members is truly amazing. Check out the video link on CFA Connect at: http://www.cfaconnect.net.au/news/cfa-flash-mob-in-ballarat-mall.html Gordon CFA's Diane Lawson led a "flash mob" of Gordon Fire Brigade members in Ballarat's Bridge Street Mall last week. Their message was about volunteering and winter fire safety. As Diane said to the gathered media: "Most people only get to see us on the job, not as an all-singing, all-dancing mob of flash." A great, positive and fun way to get the message across. Great work Diane and team!

Successful Fuel Reduction Burn At Cardinia:
Allan Budziarski, who is Vegetation Management Officer at Southern Metro has advised of a very successful 62 ha burn carried out last week. Robbie Irving (Upper Beaconsfield) was burn OIC and was mentored by Wildfire Instructor Mark Barille. Resources were drawn from Upper Beaconsfield, Bunyip, DSE, and Melbourne Water Corporation. Allan reports that Approx 500 litres of water utilised throughout the entire duration of the burn (approx the same amount of burner mix!!). Ecological values that were accounted for in the planning stage included habitats for the Powerful Owl Habitat, Musk duck and Blue Billed duck and sensitive riparian zones. Allan says that further burns are planned for spring 2012. This is important and valued work. Terrific effort, and thank you!

I don't know when I first noticed that the Fire Station did not have a Flagpole but it got me to thinking that we perhaps should.

Colac was the venue for the Rural Championships on 31 March (Seniors) and 1 April (Juniors) and also the occasion of the first official function for the Governor, The Honourable Alex Chernov AO, QC, the official patron of CFA. The Governor was accompanied by Mrs Chernov. The Governor congratulated both VFBV and CFA (especially the local organisers) and showed a keen interest in the juniors, recruitment and health issues.

The Chernovs had their own Black Saturday experience in the Yarra Valley area and were greatly complimentary about the local brigades' efforts.

Member ID project:

One of the recommendations from the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission was that CFA supply identification cards to Fire Fighters to facilitate their passage through traffic management points. I must encourage you, if you haven't already done so to apply for one. The member ID project was established and is going very well with over 16,000 members now sporting the new tags. We would like to see as many CFA members as possible with a new ID tag. It has been very pleasing to notice a large number of the new CFA Member ID tags already being worn by both staff and volunteers. I want to stress the importance of all CFA members obtaining one of the new CFA Member ID tags as they will replace the white traffic management point stickers in the very near future. Anyone who hasn't applied for one should do so as soon as possible by going on to CFA Connect.

The Importance Of Rural Fire Stations:

Regional Director Pat O'Brien from Loddon Mallee has offered some important observations about the rural fire station program. The first relates to comments made by the Captain of Sandhill Lake (a locality in D20 without any community infrastructure whatsoever and an old tin clad wooden framed station without any facilities situated on the roadside of the Kerang - Quambatook Road) at the opening of the new 1B station late last year. His comments are paraphrased as follows: "We put up with poor roads, poor mobile phone coverage, slow or non-existent internet, almost no council services and no community infrastructure. CFA and the Government have now provided this wonderful fire station and it will benefit not only the Brigade but the whole community. Thank you. We are very grateful for this investment and demonstration of faith in our future after the years of drought, floods, mice and locusts. This station will help us to continue." The second concerns two stations, also opened by Minister Walsh, late last year; Waitchie and Annuello. Both new 1B stations replaced tin shed motor rooms without any facilities; additionally, neither community had any workable community infrastructure. Both Brigades are Rural and are located in dryland cropping areas. Waitchie Brigade and FS now host a weekly community get together every Friday night where the community gathers to have a fish and chip meal. Annuello, centrally located in Robinvale Group now hosts CFA training activities and local community meetings for which there was no previous suitable venue.

Good Friday - "Thank You!" - A Fantastic Effort All Round!:

Two Sunday's ago, after fervent bout of channel surfing, I stumbled across this interview on the Footy Show, with Campbell Brown from the Gold Coast Suns.

 

We have now concluded the appointment of the three OT&V senior management positions.  James Stitz, who was a manager in the previous Learning & Development Team for several years, takes up the role of Executive Manager Training Development.  The two other appointments are external candidates. They are Manager Volunteerism, Kate Harrap. Kate starts today with us, being the 10 April.  Manager Training Delivery is Craig Ferguson and he commenced his new role last week, on the 2 April.  Both Kate and Craig have a sound knowledge and understanding of CFA.

I'm pleased to provide an update on the Regional Radio Dispatch Service project that will improve radio communications for our regional brigades.

The CFA Board has given approval for negotiations to begin with a preferred supplier to finalise the service contract. Depending on these negotiations, the project should roll out towards the middle of the year and into early next year, beginning with a pilot in District 12. We will announce the winning tenderer as soon as the negotiations are completed.

This is an exciting project because, through technology and training, every brigade will have access to reliable and robust radio communications. Brigades can deal directly with emergency call centre operators throughout incident dispatch, which will reduce the risk of communication failures and improve safety for both our members and the public.

This weekend many of our brigades will be supporting the 2012 Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal, as they have done so for over 60 years.

The volunteering spirit is truly alive and well at CFA and it's remarkable to see our members standing on street corners collecting money and conducting their own fundraisers for the Appeal, when they already give so much for their communities.

Once There Were Three Kings:
Last weekend saw the annual Warrandyte Festival which was kicked off by a street parade on Saturday morning (led by the ‘King" or "Queen" of the Festival). This year there were three "Kings": Bernie Ezbury (Warrandyte Captain); Rohan Thornton (North Warrandyte Captain); Greg Kennedy (South Warrandyte Captain). This was a great example of the esteem that CFA (and our leadership) is held in the community. Well done to everyone involved in the leadership of these three brigades.

Is Occupational Health, Safety And Welfare At The Top Of Your Agenda?:
"Safety First!" means that OHSW needs to be at the forefront of everything we do. This includes routine business. It is a great idea to put OHSW at the top of the agenda of your meetings - be they administrative, operational, at Brigade, Group or higher levels - in fact every time we meet. It is an opportunity to check if there are issues that need to be attended to or followed up either during or after the meeting. I will be insisting this approach at meetings I am involved in from now on. You should consider this too.

 

We believed it time to give you all  an update on Matthew Temby's progress 

Matthew and Steve have been going to The National Institute of Health at Bethesda in America USA  since 2009 for research treatment of a rare form of thyroid cancer. Matthew was a thriving twelve year old who enjoyed the things that most kids his age do, computers, visiting his friends and participating in CFA Juniors. At that time Steve was Second Lieutenant at Doreen CFA and  they both would attend training on a Sunday together  Steve is still an active  volunteer fire fighter

Steve and his wife Linda thought that their son had a bad case of the flu when they took him to the hospital back in June 2009 with breathing problems.

 Many tests later, doctors at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne discovered the cause was a tumor emanating from his thyroid, crushing his windpipe. 

To assist Matthew’s breathing doctors at the Children’s Hospital in conjunction with the Austin Hospital inserted a tracheotomy (which he still has and copes extremely well with)

 If that wasn’t hard enough, doctors then gave them the daunting news that Matt’s particular tumor was a result of a rare genetic disease known as MEN2B, something we had never heard of. 

There was no effective treatment available to him in Australia and after a stay in hospital of almost six weeks Matt was allowed to come home.

In August 2009, Matt and Steve left  our country for the first time to travel to the United States. With the support of family, friends and local CFA Brigades they were escorted to Melbourne Airport to begin their journey.

To spend any length of time away from your family is hard, however The Children’s Inn at NIH certainly makes it a lot easier. 

Matthew and Steve  have spent some 24 weeks at The Children’s Inn and made many good friends (both from the Inn and outside of it.) There is always some form of activity or outing that helps take your mind off the medical side of the trip.

 I don’t think that words alone can describe The Children’s Inn, you have to see it first hand to appreciate what a fantastic place it is and the dedicated staff that work there.

The Children’s Inn have also made contact with the Australian Embassy in Washington 

 Whilst this will be a great opportunity for the Inn, it is hoped that it will also promote Matthew’s story to the Government back home so that we may be able to source the treatment without the need to travel such long distances 

Given everything The Inn and NIH have done for the Temby family, I feel that it would be extremely worthwhile for the Australian Embassy to consider donating or contribute in some way to this special place, you have to visit first hand to see  all that goes on there

Matthew & Steve are about to embark on their  10th Trip back to America for more tests and the drug treatment that has made such a huge difference to Matthew and his family

It is with these trips in mind that a group of CFA Volunteers formed the Matthew Temby Trust to raise funds for the trips to America and promote awareness of Matthews condition. With your generous assistance the trust has been able to fund the trips 

With the out look for Matthew looking brighter the tumor has reduced in size and we believe with further treatment the next step at some time in the future would be surgical removal

The Trust through you kind donations has been able to fund all of these trips but we are now at a time where we need your assistance again to fund future trips to America

Whist cash is always the easiest for the Trust to handle support can be provided in many ways donation of goods for raffles, frequent flyer  points, an introduction to a benefactor or a contact with an airline (One generous soul donated a car for us to resell)

The Trust in conjunction with the members of the Doreen CFA plans to hold a function at the Greensborough RSL in May Or June

In the mean time any assistance is very much appreciated. Non Tax Deductible Donations can be paid directly into the Bendigo Bank account number 633 000 137 812 616 or, alternatively, cheques can be forwarded to The Matthew Temby Fund, P.O. Box 59, Doreen, VIC, 3754.

We're making good progress adopting themes arising from the Jones Inquiry and I'd like to update you on the work taking place.

Thanks to all who have responded to the various large and small incidents we had across the Region this Fire Danger Period. Thank you also to all Groups and brigades that stepped up their preparedness levels, readied Strike Teams and manned Group HQs or Div Coms on TFB or Severe FDR days.

We are remembering the situation we were in in February and March last year. The outstanding efforts by individuals, brigades and Groups across LMR as well as all those from outside LMR who helped, in response to the major floods were, at the time and have continued to be since, an inspiration to all CFA members in the Region.

I thought it timely to provide an update on where things are at with the Creating our Future Together change process.

We're focusing on making improvements in a number of key areas to build a stronger, more cohesive organisation. This will be better for our communities and our people.

The March Board meeting was held as busy brigades in the north-east and CFA strike teams moved out of flood response and into recovery. Some communities face the prospect of water lingering for many weeks. It's a testing time for our members and their communities who make their living in the area, many from the land, who are struggling to protect properties and having difficulty getting around their local roads.

The Board acknowledges the workload of brigades in support of the State Emergency Service. Once again, the emergency services have been the lifeblood of their communities and we thank you for your outstanding work.

Hi all

Since our last update, the Member ID project team has been focussing on the review of the private firefighting equipment (PFFE) guidelines, and has been visiting brigades, groups, districts and regions to discuss these issues and gather direct feedback on the Member ID and TMP systems.  The team has met with staff and volunteers from each region and with many CFA managers to discuss the PFFE guidelines and how they are being implemented.

Great Support To SES In North East and Gippsland Floods:

There has been lots of excellent work supporting SES in the last 2 ½ weeks in far east Gippsland and the north east. In a recent visit with SES Chief Officer Trevor White and CEO Mick Bourke, we saw first hand the efforts of CFA, SES, MFB, DSE, Army, Local Government along with Ambulance, DHS and a host of other organisations. This time around we enabled CFA commanders to be placed in positions or deputy positions at every level of the SES organisational structure.

To give us the chance to discuss key CFA issues and topics with you, from next week we will be implementing fortnightly live discussion sessions, hosted by myself and Chief Officer Euan Ferguson on an alternating basis.

Following a request from Independent Fiskville Investigator Professor Rob Joy, CFA has approved a three month extension of the Independent Investigation into the use of chemicals for live fire fighting training practices at Fiskville Training College dating back as far as the 1970s.

Professor Joy and his team requested this variation to the Terms of Reference after it became clear that more time is needed to complete a comprehensive investigation - there are still a great many interviews to be conducted with CFA past and present members and records to be reviewed.

Professor Joy also advised us that the interview process is proving not only to be an opportunity for CFA members to tell their story, but is also essential for him to gain useful information and that this is going to take more time. Professor Joy does not wish to pre-empt any outcomes or findings by issuing an interim report.

The extension was approved to honour CFA's commitment of ensuring a thorough and detailed investigation. Our members are our priority so it is important to give all members - past and present - every opportunity to contribute and be heard as part of this investigation.

When the allegations were first made in December last year we assured our members that we were determined to deal with this matter properly and seriously - we owe that to our people.

Communicating Better:
One of the issues identified in the Jones report was the need for better communication with volunteers. We know there are improvements to be made in this area. While it's important for us to not overload you with communication, there are times when we need to send you operational and CFA-wide information. In order to determine how our members want to be kept up-to-date, CFA's strategic Communications team have developed a short survey for all members to complete. The survey will be available both online and as a tear-out hard copy in the Autumn edition of Brigade magazine with a reply paid envelope for members to complete. It will also be included in the VFBV quarterly mail-out. I encourage you to take part and have your say at:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of the 3 key management positions within Operational Training & Volunteerism.

It is with great pleasure that I announce the following appointments to the roles of: -

Loddon Mallee Region has conducted a number of teamwork and leadership courses at Hattah in the last couple of months. These always provide an invaluable opportunity for discussion amongst participants about what good teamwork and leadership really mean, how best to lead and what a good team looks and feels like.

I have particularly found the exchanges of views, experience and ideas at the leadership courses to be of great personal value. It's been very instructive for me, as always, to see how others go about exercising leadership. The debriefs we conduct, after each participant has a go at leading the team through a mission, have produced some deep and meaningful exchanges.

Portland Hazmat:
Our thanks to the wonderful effort by a significant number of CFA and other agency personnel in bringing the HAZMAT incident at the Koppers coal tar pitch facility at Portland to a close. Hundreds of CFA members were involved in a range of roles. The incident was an outstanding example of agencies working together in an integrated, collaborative and collegiate way.