Elect or Appoint

[Mike]

A PID would be most benificial, but its the age old thing....... you knoe its going to be interpreted differently no mater where you go.... then the little twists and turns get added in.....

The more you try to write these things out of the document the less people actually want to read them........

[rescue5271]

recently my brigade held its elections and as per normal people where but into positions because they where friends rather than people who had skills and been in the services alot longer.Yes these where elect positions and voted on by all that where there. What got up my nose was that fact that paid staff who are brigade members and only show up to vote each year did that and we never see them again for the rest of the year. Sure they voted for there mates,so tell me how would a appoint situation work?

[strikeathird]

Unfortunately this will always be the way, untill they get old, and leave.  Or u convince fellow brigade members to pull there head in, and vote for the RIGHT people.

[walker]

recently my brigade held its elections and as per normal people where but into positions because they where friends rather than people who had skills and been in the services alot longer.Yes these where elect positions and voted on by all that where there. What got up my nose was that fact that paid staff who are brigade members and only show up to vote each year did that and we never see them again for the rest of the year. Sure they voted for there mates,so tell me how would a appoint situation work?

Bill you have changed your mind on the elect vs appointment issue.
On May 26 you said that you prefered the election system so something has changed your opinion?
I am aware of the Staff that you are refering to and it appears to me that you have sour grapes at not being nominated into a position of power/authority. I think that your judgement may be a little blured as the staff you refer to have 49 years combined experience in the Naracoorte brigade and have sound judgement on who should hold senior brigade positions. There may be a good reason for them not to turn up so much, maybe they don't want to take a volunteers position at calls or training. Maybe Bill you need to talk to them to find out why??
Just dont bag them, find out why, you may be surprised.

Walker

[oz fire]

I think we are getting a little personal now. There is always a perception that mates vote for mates -  in my brigade that's the perception on how half the brigade got positions. As for identifying staff in a brigade as culprits thats a little low.

I think it would be great to have staff in a brigade - they do this stuff every day, they have the latest knowledge and they should also have the latest training! Coupled to this, why would they not vote for the suitable candidate - they have nothing to loose or gain from an appointment.
I know of several brigades close to Adelaide who have staff in them, and they usually have the latest info and don't speculate, excellent training standards as they have internal motivators and high competency levels as the staff don't want to see their brigade falling away.

This seams to be the same with brigades who have MFS firies in them! Maybe having a staff member or MFS firie brings out the competitive streak in the membership as they don't want to be outdone by someone who does this for a job???

Maybe the brigade could embrace the staff members and reap the rewards!!!! It seams to work in Adelaide!

[kat]

I dunno, my Brigade has always seemed fairly sensible about electing people that may be responsible for their lives. Many a "good bloke" has been defeated despite decent campaign beer budgets for someone less popular but more competent.

And once upon a time there were several PID's for CFS volunteer positions developed by staff. We did have them somewhere. I believe some were done as part of the Volunteer Management Diploma. Try your Regional Office?

[rescue5271]

We are all allowed to have a view and I have had my say on this matter and had my butt kicked but that is life life goes on the new officers are in and they are doing a great job......

[Mike]

The brigade tried something different this year....

A few weeks before the AGM a list of elected positions was written on the whiteboard, and the crew encouraged to write up who they thought was suitable for the job. (they were asked to discuss it with the person first of course)

That was everyone had a chance to think about the possibilities before the time rather than haveing to make a snap descision.

This wasnt to replace the actual nomination process, just give people a 'heads up' as such.

Seemed to work reasonably well i thought.

[oz fire]

In my brigade - we close nominations a couple of weeks before the election - allowing nomination on the night only for those positions that are yet to have people nominated for them.

It was a hard slog many years ago with our constitution howver it has been worth it as it allows people to think about their choices - the down side, you almost get pre election campaigns - but so be it.

I am aware of other brigades who do similar

[strikeathird]

The brigade tried something different this year....

A few weeks before the AGM a list of elected positions was written on the whiteboard, and the crew encouraged to write up who they thought was suitable for the job. (they were asked to discuss it with the person first of course)

That was everyone had a chance to think about the possibilities before the time rather than haveing to make a snap descision.

This wasnt to replace the actual nomination process, just give people a 'heads up' as such.

Seemed to work reasonably well i thought.

We have also done this for a number of years, works quite well.

[corocfs]

well we had our "elections" just the other night, and of coure it was the usual popularity contest... (for the positions that had multiple nominations that is)

and the one time every two years when we have a chance to change things, and 9 members fail to show up and cast a vote.. if they had, things would have been extrenmely differant.

[rescue5271]

would it be nice if we could do postal votes as long as the names where in for positions 30 days before hand

[CFS_Firey]

It would be nice to have postal votes wouldn't it...

One of the problems in my brigade isn't so much to do with a popularity contest, but rather the different times peope respond - meaning that the day crew vote for different people to the night crew, simply becausethey don't work enough together (eg, someone who can can only respond during the night, doesn't know that so-and-so is an excellent firefighter who knows their stuff, because they don't work together enough...) I think thats a problem which can't really be dealt with though....