After Region East Forum

Paticipants at the Region East Forum held at Jamberoo

I always find it amazing how you can deliver the same content but different groups can take it different places. Same content as last weekend yet  received very differently this weekend by the participants. Lots more discussion and information sharing this weekend but the enthusiasm and passion were thankfully much the same at both forums.




Some really good feedback on the feedback forms such as;

• provide an area so districts or brigades can showcase their props or community engagement tools to further encourage sharing
• invite brigades or districts to present on their activities
• get regional staff more involved in the delivery of the forum
• more break out/interactive sessions
• thumb drives with copies of presentations

COUP DVD was again a big hit and popular with the audience as was Terry and Tim's presentation on fire, how it moves and the fire triangle. Just like Region North many attendees had not seen the fire triangle and liked the localised application of how a fire could move through a local area.

Frances from Canyonleigh

I spoke more this weekend about Canyonleigh Brigades Women's Fire Awareness Program and there were a lot of requests for this type of program to be provided. It will be. Frances and her Canyonleigh Brigade are very inspiring.

Thanks to all involved in the last 2 weekends - you made it so very very worth while.



Having fun at the Halloween night!



Region East Community Engagement Forum

This weekend we're at Jamberoo for the Region East Community Engagement Forum. There is about 80 participants who will have absolutely no phone coverage due to us being nestled against a mountain.

It will be a hard act to follow from the Region North Forum that really energized the Engagement team.

We most probably won't have Internet access but Lyndle will put an update on Facebook on Saturday night. Will update the blog on Sunday night.

That's all for now :-)

Just thoughts

This weekend is Region East Forum at Jamberoo so the planning is continuing - prizes, room decorations, tweaking presentations, sorting accommodation and hoping they are as good a group as Region North!

Mark is also liaising with the Regions to get the dates for the 2011 forums and aiming for August or September. We want to try and get the dates out as early as possible so people can plan.

Planning for next years Road Shows will also start soon so we can communicate these dates as well. I would be really interested in any content ideas people may have - hint hint!

We will try to publish the dates for all of next years key community engagement workshops and conferences soon so you can put them in your diary.

We have over 600 members on our face book page  now and activity is really increasing which is fantastic and motivating as well.

Remember we will be launching our internal e-newsletter mid November which needs to be subscribed to - stay tuned to find out how.

Day 2 of Region North Community Engagement Forum

Well we are underway with Day 2 and the majority of the group have turned up bright eyed and ready to go again.

First activity is looking at Risk Management Plans and discussing desktop research needed to start a community engagement plan. Where would you start the development of a community engagement strategy based on a risk management plan??

It is easy to under value the power of having a conversation with someone so next we will be discussing conversations and body language.

Fire Danger Ratings and Neighbourhood Safer Places are also on the agenda and we finish today on the Wishing Wall.

Region North Conference

Region North conference is under way. A great group with a good sense of humour and patience - yes we have already had technical hitches!!!

At the moment they are playing introduction Bingo!

Friday Update

Hi everyone

Today we presented to the joint RFSA Community Engagement Consultative Committee. Firstly we gave them an update on the projects the team is currently working on.

A quick overview for you:

~ Fact Sheets: 4 more will be released in the coming fortnight. We have had quite a few requests to make these an item you can order already printed. We will explore the budgetary implications of this.

~ We updated on the recent HotSpots activities.
~ Aider property visits are running ahead of forecast and we have visited just over 100 more properties this year than we had at the same time last year.
~ Planning for our annual Australasian Community Engagement and Fire Awareness Conference held in May each year has commenced. We hope to make some announcements on this by mid November.
~ Update on Bush Fire Survival Plan which is now due out in the second half of November. It has some exciting changes like a magnet to stick it to the fridge, a kids pullout section and all new pictures and is designed along the same lines as the fact sheets.
~ Speakers Program is running behind and we are now aiming for December. The first topics released will be Neighbourhood Safer Places, Fire Danger Ratings and PREPARE. ACT. SURVIVE.
~ We are developing key message cards that will be clipped to a caribeener. Each card is around the size of a normal playing card, will be laminated and will have key messages and information about key topics such as Fire Danger Ratings, Neighbourhood Safer Places and Bush Fire Alerts. These cards are designed to support you when interacting with the community.

The Consultative Committee were very active and provided constructive feedback and suggestions such as ensuring we deliver on the COUP DVD. This committee is a really great advocate for the work that our Community Engagement practitioners deliver.

We are currently on our way to Tamworth for the Region North Community Engagement Forum. The theme is Making Engagement Engaging. We will keep you updated over the weekend....

Welcome

Welcome to the new Blog for the NSW RFS Community Engagement team!



This blog does replace the previous 'Behind the Fire Line' blog which was not utilised as well as it could have been so we have renamed and are starting out again with a new fresh look!

We are working to improve our communication with our volunteers and staff, while also trying to make the Community Engagement team more accessible to you.


This blog will be used to update you on our projects, what we are doing around the state and to share ideas.

We hope it will become a valuable on line community where we share lots of information.


It is a busy time for us at the moment. Tomorrow we have the Community Engagement Consultative Committee meeting, Saturday and Sunday we have the Region North Community Engagement forum at Tamworth and the following weekend (30 & 31 October) we have the Region East Community Engagement forum at Jamberoo.


The revamping and revising of the Bush Fire Survival Plan is well underway but not moving as quickly as we had hoped and is now due out in November. It has some new additions that we hope you will like!


New fact sheets are also still being developed and progressively released as well as many other projects that we will progressively share with you.

Working to help make our communities safer

Your feedback and questions are important so we encourage your comments and to also help spread the word about this blog with other volunteers, staff and people interested in community engagement.