The Fireman Columns
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Most Recent Column in The Fireman - July 2008
YOUTH FORUM
The VFBV/CFA Youth Forum, which is scheduled to be held at Fiskville on the weekend of 9th and 10th August, is seeking young CFA members between the ages of 18 and 24 years to attend.
It is anticipated there will be 100 participants made up of 60 young people, 20 volunteer Association representatives and 20 CFA personnel.
The majority of the forum will be spent in small groups from 5 to 20 who will discuss pre determined topics and will come up with views and suggestions as to the actions that need to be taken to solve the issues of the topics.
Hopefully the forum will deliver outcomes that will contribute to a youth strategy for CFA.
PETER DAVIS RETIRES
Secretary of the Victorian Urban Fire Brigades Association, Peter Davis, officially retired from that position on Friday 4th July. Peter was appointed to the position in 1993 and has been a dedicated servant of the Association ever since.
Peter has been one of the prime movers in the move to amalgamate the two volunteer Associations under the VFBV umbrella and has worked diligently to hopefully achieve that outcome, while ensuring that the individual strengths of both Associations are incorporated into the new Association.
The VUFBA has been extremely fortunate to have had a secretary of the calibre of Peter Davis to guide it over the past decade or so, and to fight for rights of volunteers irrespective of whether they are a members of a rural or urban brigade.
Urban Championships are a passion of Peter's and he has indicated his interest in continuing to be heavily involved in preparation and management of future Championships.
Peter was made a life member of the VUFBA in 2003 in appreciation of his contribution to the Association and is also the recipient of an Australian Fire Service Medal.
To commit the time one has to as Secretary of the VUFBA requires the support and understanding of your family - there is no doubt that Peter has received that from his wife, Maree and other members of his family.
Peter intends to spend more time on his farm at Bayles and to do some travelling around Australia.
As you expect of Peter, whilst he retired on 4th July, he has agreed to support the VUFBA in the induction and familiarisation of his successor.
All volunteers would wish Peter and Maree good health and long life in retirement.
VACANT BOARD POSITIONS
Members are reminded that the terms of office for Tom Brodie (rural) and Hans van Hamond (urban) on the Board of VFBV expire in October.
A display advertisement with more detail appears elsewhere in this issue of "The Fireman".
CLIMATE CHANGE GREEN PAPER SUBMISSION
The State Government sought submissions on a green paper entitled "Land and Biodiversity at a time of Climate Change" and VFBV took to opportunity to make a submission.
We were particularly interested to respond to the questions relating to using and managing fire.
In answer to the question, "were we willing to accept increased use of fire in the landscape for ecological objectives and to reduce long term risk ?", we said yes we are.
Fire is an integral part of the Australian landscape and is necessary to keep bushland healthy and to reduce the impact of unplanned large wildfires.
We also said we were willing to accept more prescribed burning in catchment areas to reduce the risk of severe unplanned fire.
In the question of whether we were willing to avoid future development in high risk areas, our view was we were willing as development in high risk areas puts volunteer firefighters at risk.
NSW RFS ANNUAL CONFERENCE
President Gary Lyttle and CEO Andrew Ford recently attended the NSW Rural Fire Service Association Annual Conference at Mudgee when they delivered a paper on "Sustaining Volunteerism into the Future and the Bringing Together of the Two Volunteer Associations in Victoria".
The paper was well received and led to national radio coverage in the following week.
VFBV LOGO COMPETITION
A reminder that VFBV is conducting a competition to look at the possibility of a new logo for the Association – details were included in the last edition of The Fireman. New designs are welcome up until the end of July and should be submitted to the VUFBA office. Any suggested name change for VFBV will also be given consideration. More details are included on the VFBV webpage.
VUFBA WELFARE FUND
At the end of the financial year, the VUFBA Welfare Fund paid out $37,651.00 to urban volunteers who found themselves in serious financial difficulties during the year. The Association's Fund has been in existence since 1913 and has assisted many hundreds of urban volunteers over this time. The Fund will be amalgamated into the new VFBV Welfare Fund when it becomes operational towards the end of the year.
CLASS A FOAM
Representatives from VFBV, the VRFBA and the VUFBA have been part of a Working Party involved in the selection of new Class A Foam for the CFA. Three products have been accepted by the CFA and are currently being analyzed in regard to OH & S compliance. In early June, the three products were subjected to a series of operational tests at Fiskville. It is anticipated that recommendations for a new Class A foam product will be developed shortly. The Associations have also drawn to the attention of the CFA the need for the new foam product to be compatible with the foam used by DSE.
COMMUNITY SAFETY – 2025
At their joint meeting on 15th June, the Associations received presentations from Lisa Sturzenegger, Community Safety Director and Emily Preece, Manager Community Safety Framework, on a presentation Lisa recently made at two overseas conferences and on the development of a Community Safety Framework up to the year 2025.
CFA has already conducted some workshops to gain input into the development of the Framework and will be conducting another Workshop on 10th August 2008 to gather volunteer input. The Associations have written to all Regional Councils requesting them to nominate volunteers to participate in the Workshop.
BOARD MEETING IN WODONGA
The VFBV Board has accepted an invitation to visit Region 24 for its next Board meeting on July 25th. The meeting will be held at the Wodonga Fire Station and all brigades in the Region will be invited to meet with the Board after the meeting.
