Back on board for 2011

Well... first day back in the office and already a month has gone by. 1000+ emails in the inbox have all been cleared and now looking to the work programme for 2011. I can tell its going to be a busy year not only with programmed work but event response too - wind and rain going crazy outside the window and one event under our belt already this year (well done to the team).

Welcome to Noel Mingins... Noel has taken up the EMO Rural Fire position with Ruapehu District Council taking over from Annie Petersen. It will be good having Noel back in the Group. Farewell and all the best to Annie, who is staying with Ruapehu DC but in a waste minimisation role.

In the next few weeks, we have a number of Emergency Management Committee meetings, a Co-ordinating Executive Group meeting, a Welfare Advisory Group meeting and a training programme to kick off.

The Horizons Emergency Operations Centre will be relocated to the ground floor in the next short while; taking advantage of new IT and better managing the space available to the team for emergency response.

The EMIS is about to enter final testing so hopefully it won't be too long before the system is launched and we can start the move to an integrated information management system. I understand that this testing phase will take about 6-8 weeks.

Anyway... 2011 is underway so keep an eye on the blog and feel free to ask questions, make suggestions and give us feedback on the Manawatu-Wanganui CDEM Group.