District 7 HQ

Brigade

Welcome to the new newsletter for the District 7 HQ Brigade.

The object of this newsletter is to assist in communicating news items to

members. The name of the newsletter “Training Matters” is to

emphasise the importance of training.

For the brigade to provide a useful service to the District, members need to be

skilled up to perform the various tasks we may be required to assist with. We

can only do this through training.

Just like any other brigade, we need to train regularly to keep our skills up to

be able to perform well when we are required.

It is a requirement of the brigade that all members attend a minimum of

3 meetings per year and 8 training nights and/or skills maintenance ses-

sions per year. Considering there are 365 days in a year this is not much to

ask. After all we are an emergency service organisation and the community

are depending on us to be able to perform well in trying situations.

Forgotten when our training night is? It’s the last Wednesday of every

month starting at 1900 hrs.

From time to time there will be extra training sessions for targeted

activities. These will be communicated via your pager.

The Brigade Management Team will be regularly monitoring the

attendance of all members to ensure we are meeting our training

requirements.

Special points of in-

terest:

New newsletter for

brigade

New Web Site for HQ

brigade

Questionnaire for mem-

bers to complete

Driving Legislation

training session in July

Keep your pager on as

this is how we contact

you

New Web Site for Brigade

Another initiative we

have launched to assist

in communicating with

members is the District

7 HQ Brigade web site.

The site is full of useful

information such as the

training calendar and

latest news sections.

Each week the site is

having more and more

information added to it,

so check it out

regularly. To find the

site type the following

address into your web

browser:

http://

sites.google.com/site/

district7hqbrigade/

Hint: Create a short-

cut on your desktop

You MUST keep

your pager on

2

Election Results 2

Brigade

Questionnaire

2

2010 Training &

Meeting dates

3

Pager Training 3

Your own CFA

email account

3

On road driving

Legislation training

4

Inside this issue:

New Newsletter

for District 7 HQ Brigade

Training Matters

July 2010 Volume 1, Issue 1

Like all other CFA brigades, the way

we communicate with you is primar-

ily via your pager. It is important you

always ensure the battery is

changed and not left to go flat.

Batteries are available from the

District Office free of charge. You

are encouraged to take several

home with you each training night.

The brigade recently ran a “How to

use your pager” session for all mem-

bers, to ensure you know how to use

it properly. If you are still unsure, see

Wayne and he will help you.

We will be running extra training ses-

sions on a regular basis shortly, and

these will be communicated to you

via the pager.

Even if you are unable to carry your

pager with you all the time such as

when at work, you can still leave the

pager on at home and silence it so it

does not make a noise. This will

allow you to read any messages

when you get home.

If you don’t want to use a pager then

perhaps you have joined the wrong

organisation. The BMT expect ALL

members to keep their pager opera-

tional at all times.

We will shortly commence a weekly

pager test so you can check your

pager is working properly. You will

receive more information about this

shortly.

Remember, we are an emergency

organisation here to assist in pro-

tecting the community. The quickest

way to contact you is via pager.

assist the District .

We will be looking at training people

up to fill various roles in the District

Office and the Incident Control Cen-

tre. It is important you complete the

questionnaire so we can see what

skills you have to offer.

Please also provide us with your

email address if you have one, so

we can be sure we have the correct

address.

Attached to this months edition of

Training Matters is a questionnaire.

Can ALL members please complete

the questionnaire and return it to

Wayne Noble in the enclosed self

addressed envelopes.

Completing the questionnaire will

assist us with tailoring our training

program.

It will also assist us to see how each

individual can best be placed to

Why you MUST keep your pager on

Brigade Questionnaire

The BMT is made up of:

Brigade OIC - Geoffrey Grey

Captain/Chairman - Les Kelly

Lieutenant - Lauire Hill

Lieutenant - Janis Hill

Lieutenant - Ian Board

Secretary - David Cecil

Training Officer - Wayne Noble

Comm’s Officer - Daryl Nash

The brigade had its bi-annual elec-

tion on May 26th. Bob Barry came

along and spoke to the brigade

about the new area boundaries and

districts. The new Brigade Man-

agement Team (BMT) members

have taken up their positions as at

the 1st July. The brigade thanks

those outgoing BMT members for

their service over the last 2 years.

The new BMT members are all

looking forward to serving the bri-

gade and providing strong leader-

ship.

Election Results

Page 2 Training Matters

Congratulations to David Cecil on

receiving his 5 year service

Certificate from Operations

Manager Bob Barry

Brigade members participating in

the Map reading & GPS training

session in April

The monthly training session dates for

the remainder of this year are:

Wednesday 28th July (incl. meeting)

Wednesday 25th August

Wednesday 29th September (incl. meeting)

Wednesday 27th October

Wednesday 24th November (incl. meeting)

December To Be Announced

All training sessions start at 1900 hrs (7pm)

At the District Office.

Please send your apologies if you are unable

to make a meeting.

up.

Forgotten you password to bri-

gade’s online? Wayne can issue you

with a new one. As all you have to

do is ask.

CFA connect is where you will find

news items and messages from the

CFA. You can access it through

Brigades online.

Did you know that every CFA

member has their own CFA Email

account?

This was one of the topics covered

when Wayne presented a session

on how to use Brigade’s online,

email & CFA connect in March.

If you need help setting up your

email account, let Wayne know and

he will organize to meet you early

one training night to help you set it

2010 Training & Meeting Dates

Your own CFA email account

The members of the brigade really

appreciated Cindy coming along to

give the session and there has been

a lot of positive feedback from

those that attended.

For those that have not met Cindy,

she is currently our Brigade Ad-

ministrative Support Officer

(BASO). Cindy was involved in the

initial role out of the current style

pagers.

Thank you again Cindy.

On Wednesday 30th June, Cindy

Harrison-Roberts came to the bri-

gade and delivered a training ses-

sion on how to use the pagers.

Cindy took the brigade through all

of the various functions of the

pager including:

How to set the alert tones

How to put the pager on silent

How to use the menu’s

Preparing for firmware updates

Pager Training

Don’t forget

there will be

extra training

nights

scheduled on

top of the

regular

monthly one’s

Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 3

Brigade members participating in

the Map reading & GPS training

session in April

If you want to contact the

author of this newsletter

email Wayne Noble

guidelines on driving CFA vehicles.

That is what this session is about.

You need to attend regardless of

whether you drive lights & sirens

or just under normal road condi-

tions.

Geoffrey Grey will be conducting a

Driving Legislation training

session for our July Training night,

starting 1900 hrs at the District

Office.

All members will benefit from this

session regardless of what area of

the HQ brigade you are involved

in.

This session is compulsory for

anyone who may need to drive

a CFA vehicle, be it a car, bus

or truck.

If you do not attend this session

you will not be driving a CFA

vehicle this summer.

The session will be a theory pres-

entation followed by an assess-

ment.

It is imperative that all drivers

understand the road laws and CFA

Wayne.noble@members.cfa.vic.gov.au

On Road Driving Legislation Training 28th July 2010

Don’t forget to check out the Brigade Web Site at:

http://sites.google.com/site/district7hqbrigade/ Keep up to date with what is happening in the

brigade.

Regularly visit the web site.

District 7 HQ Brigade

Where on the web

http://sites.google.com/site/district7hqbrigade/

The driver drove this vehicle too

close to the shoulder of the road in

the 2008 northeast fires