VFBV

CFA invites you as a new Member to complete the online induction at www.cfa.vic.gov.au/induction

The induction program takes about an hour and will assist you with:

• becoming familiar with CFA, our structure, vision, mission and values;
• learning about our past, present and future;
• understanding potential hazards volunteers can face and the support available to members; and
• recognising the importance of your role.

Thank you for your commitment. We hope your experience with CFA will be a long and rewarding one.

If you have any questions, please contact Volunteerism on 1800 232 636 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Australian Emergency Management Volunteer Forum (AEMVF) is offering a new online resource, the AEMVF Introduction to Leadership Training.

It is free and available to all emergency management volunteers.

This training is 45-60 minutes and can be done at your own pace. It is full of useful learnings and tools to help you discover and grow your leadership capabilities.

This workshop covers basic leadership principles and approaches and provides take away tools to help put your skills into practice.

Follow this link for the course and the accompanying workbook and video.

The report on the 2014 VFBV Volunteer Welfare and Efficiency Survey is now available - you can read it online here or download it below.

We encourage volunteers to read the report, and to register for the 2015 survey now (see below, the survey starts in July).

This annual survey looks at trends in volunteer opinion, and would not have been possible without the more than 1,600 CFA volunteers who took part in 2014.

The survey began in 2012 and is put to work as a productive tool by both VFBV and CFA.  This year’s results once again confirm some strong trends that are clear pointers to paths for improvement by CFA. 

VFBV will soon run several Drill Down Workshops with groups of volunteers, looking at the outcomes, the causes and possible courses of action.  To add your comments, talk to your District’s VFBV Delegates or call Cliff Overton at the VFBV office on (03) 9886 1141.

Please encourage your Brigade members to sign up for the 2015 survey - send your name, district and email address to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and you will receive an invitation by email.  Call (03) 9886 1141 if you require a printed copy of the survey by regular mail.

You can read the full report on the 2014 survey here or download a PDF copy below.

 You can sign up for the 2015 survey here.

This report provides comment and detail on matters considered to be important to CFA Volunteers' welfare and efficiency, as measured through the Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV) Volunteer Welfare and Efficiency Survey.

The report uses survey data provided by a series of statements rated by volunteers for importance and performance. The report also uses information gathered from written response comments against the survey statements.

Observations against the 2014 survey results are presented by survey theme, with comments on both the survey scores and the written comments received.

As with the previous two years, survey data is collated and analysed for trends, outliers and exceptions that guide us to particular issues warranting further analysis. The survey results are compared against demographic profiles that include gender, age, length of time as a volunteer and brigade type.

The survey data is also compared to previous years' results to determine if changes have occurred and whether reasons for these changes can be identified.

Click on the links below to see each of the detailed sections of the 2014 VFBV Volunteer Welfare & Efficiency Survey report;

• Foreword, by VFBV Chief Executive Officer Andrew Ford
• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Observations
• Respect and Professionalism
• My Role as a Volunteer
• Cooperation
• Support from CFA
• Training by CFA
• Recruitment and retention
• People Management - My Brigade
• Demographic Variations
• Volunteer Satisfaction
• Conclusion and Survey Questions Gap Scores

The 2015 survey will open in July - you can sign up to take the online survey here or request a paper copy of the survey by calling (03) 9886 1141.  Your comments will be confidential.

Two years ago, CFA asked members what their communications preferences were. The results of that survey led to a number of improvements including the regular inclusion of Regional Director columns in Brigade magazine and the introduction of an online version of the magazine.

Communications technology is rapidly evolving, especially with the revolution in smart phone use, so CFA is going back to members to ask again how they wish to be kept informed and which content they find useful.

The online will take 5 minutes to complete, and the responses collected will help CFA better understand the communication needs of staff and volunteers.

The 2014 survey is now available here:www.surveymonkey.com/s/Comms2014

The survey will close on Monday 4 August, and, a printed copy will be included in the winter edition of Brigade magazine.

CFA’s change to digital radio dispatch channels is set to begin on 8 December in District 12, the first CFA District to migrate to the new digital frequencies on CFA Tait Radios.

The change will roll out District by District, with radio traffic still available on existing analogue radio frequencies for a period of time while the change to digital radio is bedded in.

VFBV has important advice for everyone using a listening set or scanner to monitor local Brigade activity;

• Don’t dispose of your existing analogue set – analogue radio frequencies will still be used for incident management channels for the foreseeable future, even after regional dispatch goes digital
• CFA will make regional dispatch available online, which means your computer, tablet or smart phone could monitor sufficient radio traffic to know when Brigades are called out or returning from calls.
• CFA is now looking at digital scanners/listening sets, with the intention of partnering with a vendor(s) to select digital sets that will be available for members to purchase at a competitive price – VFBV representatives are on the working party that will assess the machines’ suitability

The project was built into CFA’s Regional Radio Dispatch Project after VFBV’s 2010 Scanner and Listening Set Stocktake confirmed that there were thousands of sets being used by Brigades, volunteers and their families to monitor the movement of appliances and the escalation of jobs in their local area.   For operational volunteers, their scanner provided a way of predicting when their own pager might light up, and for family members, the listening set offered a way of providing support or just keeping tabs on how things were going for a volunteer in the field.

Well done to all Brigades that responded to the stocktake, which gave VFBV solid facts and figures to back what had been common volunteer wisdom up until that point, and well done to CFA Headquarters staff and in particular the Regional Radio Dispatch Project and CFA Technology Services Teams for working with VFBV and Brigades to provide flexible options that will help keep volunteers, Brigades and communities in touch with their crews in the field.

Digital radio promises more range, sensitivity and voice quality in radio communications and dedicated dispatch channels for each CFA District.

With Telstra contracted to build the new Regional Radio Dispatch network, the infrastructure build program is well advanced and once District 12 migrates across, a schedule for all CFA districts will cascade in quick succession.

Progress reports and project updates are being posted on the CFA website www.cfa.vic.gov.au