Management Committee – Summary of minutes of the 4 August meeting
Meeting commenced at 1833 hours
ATTENDANCE:
Greg Cook, President
Allen Gale, Secretary
Robbie Palmer, Treasurer
Alan Hawke, Vice President – South
Trevor Patten, Vice President – North
Jenny Hattenfels, Metro North Coastal
Matthew Rosher, Kimberley
Colin Reed, Pilbara
Steve Cable, Midwest Gascoyne
Sarge Bottacin, Goldfields Midlands
Ros McConchie, South West
Peter Newton, Lower South West
Kerry Keys, Great Southern
APOLOGIES:
Sarah Hamilton, Metro North East
Marty Seward, Metro South East
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: Accepted as true and correct
PRESENTATIONS:
Local Govt Grant Scheme (LGGS) – Garry Kravainis, DFES Manager Assets – 30 minutes
- Capital Grants $ are over subscribed mainly due to cost blowouts. Supply chain issues resulting in limited vehicle availability. Provision of buses to Units often means additional garaging bays.
- The LGGS Working Group is replaced by a communications process involving the WA Local Govt Association.
- Day-to-day expenditure by Unit is a Local Govt responsibility, determined in consultation with the Unit and is to be based on spending need/priorities of the Unit.
- The 2023 LGGS Manual is to be published soon.
- No reason is given to Units about why LGGS Application Line Item 9 requests are not approved – Garry indicated that an explanation would be provided in future.
Workforce Management Solution Project- Garth Civil – 20 minutes
- Aim of the project is to “Manage welfare and fatigue” of all career and volunteer personnel.
- Propose to source off the shelf IT solution to track data.
- Life to be made easy for Units by reducing the input points.
- The guiding principles will be shared with SES when developed.
- Needs to consider non-operational tasks as well.
VICE PRESIDENTS ACTIVITY REPORTS
Trevor Patten ESM
- Region has been operationally quiet, other than Karijini several rescues.
- General Rescue Ute sent back to Perth from Roebourne Unit and Tom Price Unit as they meet requirements.
- Concerns about High Risk Training requirements – Chain Saw and Working at Heights
- ‘YES Program is being supported by all volunteer groups.
- Providing support for the Midwest Gascoyne Exercise at Eneabba
Alan Hawke
- Attended LM meeting in the Lower South West in June. Positive attendance for the LM Workshop at Cottesloe as a consequence.
- Encouraged Vinay Domal, Cockburn SES to express and interest in serving as a SES VA Management Committee member and Regional Rep for the Metro South Coastal region.
- Great Southern Region still has no Regional Rep – there is a problem sourcing an interested volunteer.
ROUND TABLE
- Politicians visiting Kalbarri are “not permitted to engage with the volunteers or go to the Unit building” without the permission of the office of Emergency Service Minister. This doesn’t seem to be very democratic – Steve Cable is disgusted with it.
- Third Party access to the Volunteer Hub
- Next meeting with Chief Supt’s to include discussion on:
- Safety Culture related matters
- DFES senior staff movements
- Fuel reimbursement rate for SES VA approved travel by car will be increased from 60c/km to 75c/km for travel from 01 August 2022.
- Debrief for the response to the Storms impacting the south of the state end July and beginning of August to conducted by SES VA if DFES doesn’t intend to call a debrief.
NEXT MEETING – 1st Thursday in October (to be confirmed)
Meeting closed 2118 hours
REPORTS
President – report tabled
Treasurer – report tabled
Secretary – VA Office Correspondence report tabled
Management Committee – Regional Reps verbal reports x 7
Common themes included:
- Course cancellations – lack of suitable Trainer/Assessors
- Positive feedback received in relation to the LM Workshop at Cottesloe
- The YES programme in the north of the state is achieving good results.
- New rescue vehicle suitability
- District officer changes
SUB COMMITTEE REPORT
SES Volunteer Training Advisory Group (VTAG) verbal report by Robbie Palmer
- Plan to meet at the end of the year.
Working from Heights – verbal report by Greg Cook
- Preferred solution has been presented for sign-off
- Recent incident has an investigation pending – this will cause some delay.
GENERAL BUSINESS
Review Action Items
- President Greg Cook has raised training related issues with DFES Assistant Commissioner.
- VA will work with DFES to ensure May WOW Day Planning is completed in January each year, rather than a last minute effort.
- VA will develop survey questions for WA FES Conference attendees to answer about the conference programme and Gala Dinner (Awards dinner). It is intended to ask SES Unit Management similar questions.
- President Greg Cook will write to Adrian De Kleer, DO Natural Hazards – SES Training, about the Management Committee concerns in relation to SES volunteer training.
- The use of industry qualified Trainer/Assessors for SES training is being raised with a DFES senior officer.
- Sarge Bottacin is producing SES exercise development documentation which he will be circulating to assist Units with future Regional Exercise development.
- The loss of SES Unit Charitable Status is being dealt with by DFES Finance Branch and is beyond our control as it is federal government (ATO) related matter.
- Minister for Fire and Emergency Services is unable to attend the Eneabba exercise. President Greg Cook intends to extend an invitation to the Cuballing exercise.
SES volunteer Vinay Domal, Cockburn Unit, is appointment the Regional Representative for the Metro South Coastal and represents that region on the SESVA Management Committee for approximately 12 months at which time nominations will be called for the position for election at the 2023 AGM.
Local Managers Workshop – FES Legislation Consolidation
- A lot of work to be done in the next few weeks developing the scope and presenting options with elements from current legislation in WA and eastern states jurisdictions linked for consideration.
- To be shared with Units that attended the Workshop initially, then shared with all Units following an adequate comment period.
SES Awards and Recognition
- Some changes are being made to the Awards, however the Association has submitted dissatisfaction with the changes.
WA FES Conference 2022
- SES VA Merchandise will on sale in the Exhibition area again this year.
- The four DFES volunteer Associations will have a joint meeting to discuss needed changes and ways to improve future WA FES Conferences.
AGM SESVA – Regional Rep Nominations and Vacancies
- AGM is 9am 11 September at Crown Perth – the day after the WA FES Conference
- Regional Reps to contact Units reiterating why the VA is so important and why a Unit Delegate Form needs to be submitted by 10 September to the Secretary to ensure the Unit has a vote during the AGM, either Face-to-face or via ZOOM.
Regional Exercises
Steve Cable is leading the Eneabba Exercise – 13 and 14 August
- The response from Midwest Gascoyne Units has been excellent – a good number volunteers are attending, including from the Metro regions.
- The exercise is being documented so that a package can be shared to other Units/Regions for assisting with their own multi Unit/Region exercises.
Kerry Keys is leading the Cuballing Exercise – 17 and 18 September
- Only one country Unit has nominated a team, so Metro will be invited if no further nominations are received by the second week of August.
- The NDRC WA Team will participate in the exercise to get team bonding practice.
- So far the SES Comms Support Unit, SWORD Logistics, local BFB and Police have committed to support the exercise.
