News 
A multi-agency project team involving CFA, SES and Ambulance Victoria have launched a survey to gather the views of volunteers on a future supplementary altering system, involving a mobile app.
VFBV supports this survey and project, and encourages all members who would like to compliment their paging service with additional options such as mobile apps to provide feedback via the survey. The survey closes on 31 July 2018.
You can complete the survey by clicking here.
Below is addition details reproduced from the CFA announcement on the 4th July 2018
DCO Gavin Freeman requests your feedback on a proposal to use a smart phone application as a Supplementary Alerting System (SAS). Take the survey before 31 July to have your say.
A Supplementary Alerting System (SAS) Project Team, which includes CFA, EMV, SES and Ambulance Victoria, is working to procure a smart phone application that can provide an additional way for receiving alerting messages.
With the purpose of supplementing the current EAS pager alerting system, the Project Team is seeking feedback from CFA people through this survey.
DCO Gavin Freeman encourages participation in the survey, which will assist in the design of the Supplementary Alerting System.
“We’re aware that many of you are currently using commercially available applications which provide this service, our aim is to procure an application that provides a common platform and is accessible by all our people,” he said.
“By taking part in this survey, you will help the SAS Project Team understand the views of our –people on these high-level requirements and to hear if there are other capabilities which should be included.
“Responses will then be considered for inclusion in the tender request sent to application providers.”
It is planned that tenders will be called for in August, with an application being made available later this year. The survey is being managed by EMV and to ensure the validity of the results, CFA people will be asked for name and member number.
“It is important to note that these will only be used to confirm you are a CFA member when completing the survey. EMV will remove these details from any results supplied to the SAS Project Team, ensuring your feedback remains confidential at all times,” he said.
Gavin emphasised that any new smart phone application would always be a supplement to our pagers.
“Current pagers use a service that guarantees timely delivery of all messages and no telecommunications (phone) provider can give the same assurance. Pagers will continue to be CFA’s primary method of alerting staff and volunteers to emergency calls,” he said.
