 G'day, I'm Ewan Ferguson, CFA Chief Officer, and I'd like to talk to you in the introduction in this DVD about the volunteers and project and the Judge Jones Inquiry. In 2011, the Government of the Day determined that there'd been inquiry into the arrangements for the support of CFA volunteers. Obviously, CFA is a volunteer-based fire and emergency services, so we took this very, very seriously. The Judge Jones report, as we now know it, contains six themes of recommendations. They included culture and leadership of volunteers, the recruitment, retention and recognition of volunteers, involving stronger service delivery with volunteers, improving support to volunteers, their brigades and communities, and training development, and then finally training delivery and training assessment. So it's now two years down the track, and the purpose of this DVD is to ask the question how far have we come and how are we going? Now we developed an implementation action plan associated with the Jones Inquiry. That was a very detailed plan that we worked out with senior members of the volunteer fire brigades Victoria, senior volunteers with Judge Jones' input, and also senior management of CFA. There's a lot of activities involved in that action plan, and whilst we've been undertaking and acquitting a number of those activities, it's timely now that we review just how well that we've gone. Of recent months, CFA has determined that we need to have a stronger focus on the governance of the implementation of the recommendations from the Judge Jones Inquiry. We've established a program board with a program team, and the program team are going back remapping and assessing as to what we've done and exactly what we've got to do. In some cases, the actions need to be reframed and reformatted with the effluxion of time and the achievement of some things with some other things still to be done. So there's an awful lot happening. CFA have also appointed an independent chair to the steering committee for the Judge Jones' volunteer report. Her name is Dr Heather Wellington, who has an extensive background in management and governance. We've achieved a lot over the last couple of years. Some examples have come to mind. We've trialled and in the process of rolling out mobile training props, which are specifically targeted in areas where volunteers otherwise would have a long way to drive to get their training, particularly in structural environments. We've also improved access to training facilities, and recently with the establishment of the Victorian Emergency Management Training Facilities, we've seen the first lot of volunteers go through the new training ground at Craigieburn. We've also enhanced the record keeping around training and personnel records. We've made it easier for volunteers to transfer from one brigade to another, and finally we've introduced a whole range of information which volunteers can access online. So there are a couple of snapshots of things that we have achieved over the last couple of years, but there's still an awful lot more to do. What we want to do in this DVD is to go through in a bit more detail and lex demand we'll be talking to you shortly. But we also want to encourage you to give us your feedback on how we're going. Give us your feedback on whether the actions which remain in the volunteering project and the Judge Jones Inquiry are still relevant, or whether they need to be redefined. We look forward to working with you to continue to implement the recommendations from the Judge Jones Inquiry and to introduce more actions so that we can help you as a CFA volunteer do your job better for the community. I thank you for what you do. It's essential work, it's valuable work and it is appreciated. And CFA is here to modify our systems of work and our resources to help you do your job in the community. Thank you very much for listening. Hi, my name is Lex Deman and I'm the Executive Director for Operational Training and Volunteerism within CFA. I'd like to give you a bit of an update on some of the initiatives that have already been implemented under the Jones report. In the training area, we have now a state training strategy and under that state training strategy, all our campuses, all our training facilities now come under the one management regime. We've been able to upgrade all our campuses across the state, that being at West Sale, at Pennshurst, at Wangeratta, at Longranon, at Humpley and also the new facility at Muldura. We've also been able to enhance bank home and fiscal. As you may be aware, some 12, 18 months ago, we issued a poster that was called Who Can Train, Who Can Assess. We've reviewed that poster, we've updated the poster and now accompanying that poster will be a DVD from our Chief Officer. Clearly articulating who at Brigade Level can train and can assess. In conjunction with Fire and Emergency Management, we've developed role pathway statements. In other words, what do I need as a volunteer if I come in as a new member and wish to progress through the various operational roles to a level 3D controller, for example? What are the learnings that I need to pick up? This is now available online to all members through the Brigade's online website. And of course, with the Volunteer Support Program, we've introduced Brigade Sustainability Membership Pilot, the member Wellbeing Pilot and also the District Volunteerism Pilot. Those pilots are currently working with districts and with regions for the betterment of our volunteers. And we'll be making more announcements on this program during midway of 2015. Many of our tools and resources for volunteerism and recruitment and retention and recognition have been enhanced, updated, and are now available both online and on hard copy through our districts and regions. We've reviewed the recognition of prior learning, which has been a bit of a contentious issue throughout CFA. The new process is more customer focused. In other words, our assessors will be working with possible candidates seeking recognition of prior learning to help them through the process. We've conducted a review of the Brigade Operational Skills Profile, or BOSPIT is commonly known. And this will then allow Brigades to have greater understanding of where their training needs are and their training requirements are. And they'll work with their district operations managers and operations officers to enhance the training within their Brigades. So I trust this overview that I've been able to provide you very briefly in this video gives you some understanding of some of the great initiatives and new programs that are available to you, members of our CFA Brigades, to ensure that you're trained, that you're available to respond to the community needs, and that you're able to support each other in volunteerism in the recruitment and, of course, the retention and, of course, clearly recognizing the great efforts that our people do do on the front line. If you'd like to know more information, please either contact your district office or go through to the volunteerism website and look at volunteerism and training and you'll be able to find on that site a lot more about the initiatives under the Jones Review.