Geeze, it was all debated here: http://www.safirefighter.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=53&topic=214.0
And the general consensus was that "Yes, combine and remove duplication", yet I say the same thing here, and get jumped on.
How can anyone honestly say that having 1 town, with 2 services, two trucks, two budgets and trying to source two groups of people from the same pool of residents is a good thing? Why cant it be 1 town, 1 service, trucks as needed, one budget, one group of people needed?
Personal opinion only & genuine question....be warned this is a rant that has been building for a while.
In a country region would you really think that an takeover would save that much dollars
If the need is for a specialised emergency response of rescue in an area, would you not need a specialised truck to carry the required gear for any volunteers (eg Naracoorte CFS rescue, CFS Hazmat appliances, Oakbank CFS with SES trucks being used be CFS members, etc, etc) ?? Other threads have been stating they cannot fit all of the 'would like to have' CFS equipment into the existing truck.
If that is so, then storage and training costs of the volunteers would be the same !! For example, the combined CFS/SES sheds I have visited, still have space problems for all of the equipment required to provide the required service.
For volunteers not wishing to combine into the one shed, I would assume their must be a local reason for this. Personalities of volunteers and volunteers wanting to specialise in a skillset will also need to be taken into account.
Sorry, but have attended 'Ash Wednesday I' (as a fire spotter & logistics), Danggali (on NPWS 4wd clearing spot fires, logistics & with a knapsack) and 'Ash Wednesday II' (logistics, fire spotting & looting patrols). I would prefer to complete a verticle rescue rather than face a wild fire again. For that I admire CFS volunteers.....
So on that basis, I do not care if I wear yellow, orange or pink dots (well maybe
). But i would attend a rescue response before a fire response. As a volunteer I believe I have that right to make a personal choice.
Each crew of a truck needs to have specialised skills, no matter what colour the uniform. Those skill sets will need to be maintained (which costs a volunteer time & money) and the brigade/unit costs will be the same if combined or seperate.
A combined services group would have major cost savings in administration overheads of Regional/SHQ setups. But I thought that was one of the major aims of SAFECOM was to reduce the duplication at that level.
In summary, personally if the local country area wishes to combine, then why don't the volunteers just do it (eg Oakbank CFS). If the volunteers want to stay seperate, then let them. But dont assume volunteers will automatically move with a forced takeover because one organisation is bigger than the other. I think some of the 2000+ volunteers might quit (this is whay the SASESVA was created in the early 1990's, see
http://www.sasesva.org.au/history.htm).
I must be missing something major here.....please enlighten me.
PS. This is a rant off the original topic, the forum administrators might wish to move this to thread.
