Last paper in course

Last Friday the final unit standards for the Level 2
Certificate in Emergency Management being conducted by EMANZ for the Manawatu-Wanganui CDEM Group took part. The last paper was on aircraft safety and the team spent time in the classroom followed by practical lessons provided by the staff of the Square Trust Rescue Helicopter.

Some of the team hadn't had the opportunity to participate in aircraft safety training or go for a helicopter flight. This was good practical experience for some of the team that might be called on to do aerial reconnaissance, extreme event data collection, or welfare support flights.

Good response at response workshop

The fourth of our Group Plan review mini workshops was held this week... response is going to be our focus for a while so it was good to get some of the basics sorted. There won't be any startling changes but there is a move for consistency and best practice. The Co-ordinating Executive Group will be providing greater clarity on expectations and then following through to ensure that we a walking the walk and talking the talk.

After a shorter period of discussion than usual, the participants at the mini workshop recommended that we prepare the readiness, response and recovery chapters of the Plan and then bring them to the CEG for discussion. The basic understanding is in place following the first two workshops and the response discussions at this workshop have given us a good lead for the content of the Plan. Watch this space... things are happening.

Back on deck

Well, it's good to be back and refreshed ready for the run up to Xmas. I've had a weeks leave and a week on an UNDAC refresher course and was in Taupo yesterday for the second Central Plateau Volcanic Advisory Group meeting. With only 1,124 e-mails in my inbox I'm sure I'll be getting to the one you sent me any day now!

First of all, let's welcome Stewart Davies QSM to the managers role previously filled by Matthew Smith at Palmerston North City Council. Stewart brings a wide range of experiences to the emergency management scene including that of a Director of Land SAR New Zealand and a local SAR advisor.

The CPVAG meeting in Taupo provided a good opportunity for members to be updated on activities over the past 6 months. Further work is on-going with the review of the monitoring networks and the development of the Volcanic Strategy for the Group. I'm pretty sure that the Group will continue to refine the arrangements for a co-ordinated response to activity as well as day-to-day initiatives of members.

The first of the CDEM Group Plan review response mini workshops is being held tomorrow for CEG members. This meeting will set the direction for the preparation of the response chapter of the plan. A Welfare Advisory Group meeting is scheduled for next week to get officer input to welfare response issues. This will all be written up in time for a further response workshop to confirm the chapter before it goes to CEG. Here is a link to all the posts about the Plan review.

The Horizons EOC was activated on two occasions while I was away. The team managed events well including an opening of the Moutoa Floodgates. I also heard good reports of the new equipment in the EOC. Well done team!

Task Force Green work continues to be co-ordianted by Ross Brannigan in the Manawatu and Rangitikei districts. There is still a little bit of clean up work to do from the storm event of July.

OK - that's a quick update... more regular posts to come.

Marathon CEG

Well, the CEG met on the 23rd for its first formal meeting/workshop on the CDEM Group Plan review. Up for discussion was the strategic direction of the Group and Chapter 8: Management and Governance.

The material from the strategic direction workshop will be worked into the Foreword and Background in the Plan. Chapter 8 was provided in draft form and apart from a few minor additions was adopted by the CEG. That all sounds pretty straight forward but this is the longest CEG meeting we've ever had. 4 1/2 hours of good robust discussion is a long meeting by any CDEM standard! What is really pleasing to me is that the shape of the Plan, the planning pathway in relation to other documents, and the desire to be consistent across the Group are all taking shape in the eyes of CEG members.

The decision to drop memoranda of understanding between Groups and go for a standard commitment was well received. It is pleasing that MCDEM has seen the benefit of this approach and has introduced it into the draft Director's Guide.

The next mini workshop is on the 16 October and will address the first parts of the Response Chapter to the Plan.

Central Plateau Volcanic Advisory Group

The CPVAG is having its second meeting on the 14th of October and the agenda material has been prepared ready for distribution to members. I have e-mailed many members and advised that material would be posted via the blog. Here is a link to the documents for the meeting. The presentations from the previous workshop have not been posted in the Google Group but have been provided to members on CD.

Volcano Alert Bulletin for Ruapehu

Just as a fresh dump of snow is being received on the mountain GNS staff have issued an update on the Volcano Alert for Ruapehu. While things are warming up a little but this is not outside the normal cycle of activity observed at the volcano.

The Volcano Alert Level remains at 1 - departure from typical background surface activity, signs of unrest. The full Volcano Alert Bulletin is here on the GeoNet web site.

Microsoft Innovation Centre funding application

As you may be aware, we had a funding application in with Microsoft Innovation Centre to integrate our SMART Board with MS Groove. While this project made it to the final round and was well scoped out by Unlimited Realities and the Regional Council team, we were unsuccessful with the application this time round.

Ways of utilising Groove with a number of software packages currently in use by Group members will continue to be investigated by the Group but this particular initiative (worth about $65k) will be on hold in the meantime.

PRFOs in the pipeline

For the first time in 3 years the National Rural Fire Authority are running a course for training Principal Rural Fire Officers. I am fortunate to be on this course and have survived the first day-and-a-half of presentations. I must admit that it's quite a steep learning curve but so far so good.

The course is not unit standard based and is not intended to provide improved skills for use on the fire ground. The course is intended for managers who are responsible for the management functions associated with rural fire authorities including budgets and claims, risk monitoring, legislation and all that really exciting stuff. The collective experience of the participants is fantastic and I am learning as much from them as from the structured lessons. In some respects I have an advantage not having been in the business for very long... I'm not having to unlearn misconceptions and misunderstandings.

I am really glad we have Ross Fothergill and Tony Groome on board for our emergency response... their technical expertise will make sure we can provide professional services and advice on the fire ground where the rubber really hits the road!

Virtual volcanology - exploring volcanoes in Google Earth

From time to time when I find something cool I'll let you know. Here is what I've found tonight... John Bailey is a volcanologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory and is recorded here giving a presentation on AVO's use of Google Earth as an output tool for observing data from the remote sensing networks.

I know at this point you're concerned about me and wondering if I'm taking my medication but come on, this stuff is cool. For those of us that can't afford a trip to Iceland for the volcanogy conference, here is the poor man's conference participation. John's presentation is about 55 minutes long but is well worth a watch.

Make sure you have a good broadband connection before watching this!