SA Firefighter

There is a suggestion to change the rules to allow for absentee voting. Before we worry about a minor detail like that, let's look at changing the regulations so that brigade officers can only be elected on competence and experience, and not on popularity, including whether or not they buy drinks after training.
That way, we might get a lot less stuffups on the fireground caused by incompetent officers. Their incompetence might not necessarily be their fault, but the fault should always lie with those who voted them in.

Who would want them?

Quote from: COMP00 on February 23, 2008, 04:47:19 PM
Gday,

Is anyone in the know as to whether members can do an absentee vote at brigade elections or must be present.


Simple - read the regulations part 11 as copied below.

(10) Each member of the brigade attending the meeting at which the elections are held is entitled to vote at the elections.

If a brigade has anything else in its constitution which is contrary to this paragraph, the regulations would take precedence as a brigade constitution must not contravene the Act and Regulations. In short, proxy votes are out!

The Volunteer Dec 2007 p 15 - "All CFS personnel are required to use a CFS Occurrence Book to record important issues, discussion and decisions during incidents".
Just to add insult to injury "Books are available to purchase via Regional Offices."
From the photo, looks like they have a hard cover too. Ouch - that's going to hurt if they .......

Well now we've reached the ultimate in paperwork - occurrence books for ALL CFS personnel, Here we are running critically short of firefighters (where have they gone - all running from paperwork probably) and now here we are filling out personal occurrence books. May be OK for IMT personnel, but a bit difficult on the fireground where the OC of an appliance, which will probably be short-crewed due to the afore-mentioned personnel shortage, may well be actively involved in combatting an incident in addition to holding GRN radio in one hand and VHF radio in the other hand. Makes you wonder what the OC is going to write with.
If he or she does not fill out the occurrence book, will he be charged with breaching FESA regulations, as has already been threatened against volunteers who have stated that they are unable to keep a log as well as run an incident?
You really have to wonder if someone gets paid for ideas like this. If so, it's time to leave - both the ideas person and a lot of volunteers.

We should not be knocking the operators in the MFS/CFS control centre. They are just trying to implement a system (if you can call it that) which was imposed on them by a Minister who has no idea whatsoever, and who was probably ill-advised by others who have no idea as well.

Thursday was just a taste of things to come. I am informed that 000 to MFS jammed up and appliances responding to incidents could not raise Adelaide Fire by telephone or radio. Too bad for those requiring incidents upgraded to 2nd or 3rd alarm when they are unable to staff their own radio due to lack of volunteers (now I wonder what could be the cause of that?)

But here's the crunch. Mt. Lofty Fire Tower is now not permitted to contact Adelaide Fire to advise of smoke sightings - they now must call 000!!! Too bad if 000 is jammed up again. Might as well close the tower down if it cannot function effectively and quickly.

This system could possibly be made to work, but it needs someone who actually has the skills to design the system and then implement it with full staff, training and equipment. This is different to having people who think they have the skills cooking up what we currently have.

At the end of this fire season, there needs to be a full enquiry as to how and why the amalgamation was introduced, and the results of that amalgamation in terms of volunteer frustration, and possibly more serious consequences, particularly when appliances require assistance urgently.

The Minister gave the direction to amalgamate with no understanding whatsoever of the issues involved. It's time she went!

This amalgamation was the Ministers decision - she now needs to take the responsibility for sorting the issues out.
1. No resource tracking now because Adelaide Fire will be too busy to do it, particularly in multiple incidents.
2. Total foul up with talkgroups for incident controllers to contact aircraft. It may be fine for the designer of the "system" who may work with radio communications all the time, but it totally ignores that fact that the only radio work that many volunteers do is with CFS. For crying out loud, simplify the system.
3. During a DEH fire this week, DEH appliances were directed to TG 160. They don't have TG 160 in their appliances.
This amalgamation was introduced with virtually no forethought as to how it would operate.