As I write this editorial we head into
the New Year festivities and recover from our Christmas celebrations. Hopefully each of you have had a chance to relax (at least at some point) and enjoy Christmas with people you love or doing something you love.
We head into 2018
after an interesting 2017 to say the least and as always there are heaps of issues on the go and/or emerging. For now I want to focus on one key issue and that is welcoming the recently appointed CFA CEO Dr Paul Smith who will start work with CFA early in the New Year.
Since the formation of CFA, volunteers have welcomed many a new leader to the organisation. As those that have come before, Paul will become a key custodian of our proud organisations hopes and legacy. As volunteers, we have a proud record of embracing the new and looking positively to the future, knowing that it would take a very hard person indeed not to be touched by the wonderful community based organisation they are joining, I
have no doubt that Paul’s commencement will mark a positive chapter in CFA’s long and proud history.
I personally look forward to a great collaborative relationship with Paul. Paul brings a wealth of experience and from my networks a
deserved reputation of being a values driven leader and person of high integrity. Paul has experience with CFA and the emergency sector and on behalf of all volunteers I say welcome and congratulations on your appointment Paul.
2017
VFBV Volunteer Welfare & Efficiency Survey – Interim Results
As you can see the main feature of this month’s newsletter is a summary of the 2017 VFBV Welfare and Efficiency Survey and I encourage you to take time to
understand the key results.
This year’s VFBV Volunteer Welfare & Efficiency survey closed at the end of October, with analysis now underway to compile this year’s full results. The final detailed report will be provided very soon, but in the
meantime, we are providing some interim, high level results.
This year was the sixth consecutive year we have conducted the survey. We would like to the thank the 2,653 CFA participants who completed the survey this year. This is an outstanding
result and the survey remains the largest survey of its kind within CFA and probably across the emergency sector, eclipsing other survey response rates by a significant margin.
This was also the second year in a row that VFBV has managed the survey
Nationally for fire agencies across the country, and also the second year VFBV has managed the survey across the Victorian emergency volunteer sector, including 6 emergency management agencies across the state to give a Victorian emergency sector perspective. The annual survey broke a new record Nationally, with a total of 7,727 respondents across Australia. This represents the largest survey of emergency management volunteers across the country.
The VFBV Welfare and Efficiency survey is an important tool, used by us to work with CFA, government and key stakeholders to provide evidence based feedback on matters affecting the welfare and efficiency of CFA volunteers. The survey continues to be valuable in providing feedback on
what is going well and where things can be improved.
Back in 2012, armed with only an idea - we workshopped the survey’s design and structure with volunteers across the State, running a number of facilitated workshops and focus groups. By the
end of this process, we had feedback and representation from volunteers from every single CFA District across the State.
The survey was designed by and for volunteers, to better understand the issues as volunteers see them and to measure and
understand how satisfied volunteers are with arrangements in place to support, encourage and enable them to do their work.
VFBV is extremely proud of the survey’s integrity and success, and we continue to devote considerable energy to the
survey’s analysis, with the hope that CFA will continue to embrace the survey’s results and drive real improvement and tangible outcomes that directly address volunteers views and feedback.
The VFBV Welfare and Efficiency survey is making a
difference and has certainly focussed attention of key policy and decision makers, sector leaders and volunteer support people to the issues seen as important to volunteers. The survey has been instrumental in shaping significant investment in a range of recently announced volunteer support, training and engagement initiatives.
One of the fundamental strengths of the survey is that it is a survey designed by and run by volunteers, providing an evidence based and unfiltered reflection of what volunteers are experiencing on the ground. As the name suggests, because the VFBV Welfare and Efficiency Survey is run by VFBV, it provides a volunteers assessment of how
things are, rather than someone else’s assessment of what they think volunteers are experiencing.
It is VFBV's legislated role to understand and bring to the attention of decision makers, issues affecting the welfare and efficiency of
volunteers and this survey provides one of the most powerful tools for individual volunteers to communicate their assessment of how things are going to decision makers.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey this year and
also in previous years. The old adage of ‘what gets measured gets done’ holds true and the ongoing trends now available from this survey will become an ever more valuable tool to influence areas requiring improvement and for identifying and sharing things that are working well.
VFBV will be running the survey again in 2018 so in addition to staying tuned for the detailed report, also make a note to participate again in the survey next year.
Thanks again to
everyone involved.
