News 
Issue 12: April 2015
A quick snapshot of the priority issues and actions worked through at the most recent Joint Committee meeting between CFA and VFBV. (Meeting held 11/04/15)
COMMUNITY SAFETY CO-ORDINATOR
Approximately 600 Brigades this year will be electing a Community Safety Co-ordinator to the BMT for the first time. This role is supported by a comprehensive Toolkit that covers everything a new or even an experienced Community Safety Co-ordinator will need. The Toolkit contains a CD and other printed information that talks about what the role entails within your brigade and provides members with templates, which allow you to simply ‘fill in the blank spaces”, a guide to Social Media, explaining everything from Facebook to Twitter in clear, easy to understand language and it also contains resources from Fire Safe Kids to Vegetation Management. You can build this toolkit to include items particular to your brigade and it can become a useful resource for all brigade members. The Toolkit is available from your District Office via your Manager Community Safety.
CFA-SES COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND HAZARD AWARENESS FORUM
This year the annual CFA Community engagement forum is joining up with SES, and will be run jointly and open to both CFA and SES members. This year’s forum is being held at Novotel Forest Resort at Creswick on 1st and 2nd of August, 2015. The forum is open to members who undertake community engagement initiatives within their brigades, like working with and educating their communities and those who want to learn about and share local community engagement initiatives with other CFA and SES members, as well as experts in the field. This is a wonderful opportunity for members to showcase their inventive and innovative ideas to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience.
PLANNED BURNS
CFA provided feedback regarding volunteer participation in recent planned burns at Tynong. The committee was very pleased to hear high praise for our volunteer participants. This was a well-run burn and a great experience for all concerned. The feedback spoke about, not only the high level of experience and expertise our volunteers brought to the operation but the enthusiasm and abundance of information they were able to share with other participants. This congeniality and partnership building left a profound and lasting impression.
Members are encouraged to keep an eye out for future burn camps, and discuss your Brigade’s involvement. They are a great learning opportunity, and provide a great opportunity to study fire behaviour and fuel load interactions.
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES REPORTING TOOL APP
Following feedback from Managers Community Safety that many Brigades are involved in Community Events but they are not always known about, CFA has developed a web portal that makes it easy for Brigades to record and report their community engagement activities via their smartphone or tablets.
The portal is called the “Brigades Events & Activity Reporting Tool” with information on its download and use available on Brigades Online. Search for Brigade Activities.
The instructions run members through a step by step process to access the ‘Brigades Events & Activity Reporting Tool” and create a shortcut on your smartphone. If members find these instructions difficult to follow or would like some assistance, they can speak to their BASO’s or Managers Community Safety, as they will be trained in using the portal. Another easy way for Brigades to report their event is to simply record themselves on a mobile phone at the event explaining what the event is and send the video to your Manager Community Safety, and they will record the event for you.
