Report from the National Commodore
April 2006
- IMRF
- WA VMR
- AVCGA Canberra
- Honda Agreement
- Environmental Policy
- Additional Sponsorships
- NMSC presentations
- ANZSBEG membership
- AEMVF Questionnaire
- Member Biographies
- Contributions to Corporate Governance
Dear Commodores,
I welcome you to our National Board Meeting in Adelaide. I thank the SA Squadron for hosting this meeting and Commodore Dalling for arranging the organisational details.
The International Lifeboat Federation is an international organisation that promotes cooperation between the world's lifeboat and marine rescue services, both volunteer and military. At the first conference in London in 1924, it was unanimously decided by the attendees that an organisation be established to promote sea rescue services around the world. In 1985, the ILF was formally registered as a "non-governmental consultative organisation" at the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The IMO is the United Nations specialised agency for international maritime affairs.
I reported to the Board in November that the International Lifeboat Federation (ILF), of which we are members, has changed its name and structure and will now be known as the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF). This reflects a modern name that more clearly describes the major function of the members.
The Federation has already published a list of common competencies for rescue vessel crew that is very close to our own standards of training. This was presented at the NATRAC meeting in January and accepted by the Training Commodores. This allows us to formally indicate our agreement with these International standards. I will be asking for formal approval for the Association to maintain our continuity of membership by joining the IMRF at this meeting.
Our approaches to VMR WA with the idea of forming an alliance through an MOU has been accepted in a positive spirit by a meeting in February and the President, Keith Shadbolt, has indicated that he would like us represented in Perth at their AGM in August this year to formalise an arrangement. Between now and then we need to put together a document that expresses our mutual agreements and intent for the future. In general we seek to promote the coming together of like organisations to better promote the objectives and benefits of volunteer marine rescue volunteers and to share experiences and resources for our mutual benefit
In like manner, I approached the Federal Water Police in Canberra with the intention of Coast Guard establishing a boating safety education and licensing unit in the ACT. They were very positive in their support of this and gave an undertaking to assist us in any way in establishing this service. The ACT does not have powerboat licence requirements but a very large number of their residents travel to the coast, or to lakes, for fishing and their attitude to boating safety and overall knowledge is of concern to Police. A flotilla is in the process of being established. The establishment of an education branch in Canberra would be the first stage in ultimately establishing a small flotilla for safety and assist patrols on Lake Burley Griffin.
There will be much said about this in other publications in the next few weeks but we have a major international company that is excited to be linked with us and which will not only save us hard dollars on the sale and maintenance of outboard motors but will provide us with previously unsurpassed national publicity in press, magazine and on TV. More details will be sent to all members very soon. The Association owes a very great debt to DNACO Tony Holmes who has been the driving force behind this program.
In conjunction with our arrangement with Honda, a multi-national company with a clear commitment to a clean environment, it is timely to introduce an eco-aware environmental policy for Coast Guard. This has been on the backburner for several years and we have simply not gotten around to making any positive statements on this issue. To this end, a clear and simple environmental policy with practical applications, which can be implemented with little effort at the flotilla level, will be placed before the Board for consideration and, hopefully, adoption at this meeting.
Rightly, much has been made of the agreement and partnership of Coast Guard with Honda Marine but there are some additional, if smaller sponsorships that have been brokered in the last few weeks.
Extravision Australia, part of York Optical, has agreed to provide a pair of marine binoculars for every boat in the Association along with a small donation from the sale of every pair of binoculars that the company sells bearing our logo. The fine details of the arrangement along with some other benefits the company is willing to provide to us will be available in a few weeks as we sign the agreement.
BCF (Boating, Camping and Fishing) which is essentially a Queensland company with stores from Cairns to Coffs Harbour, is expanding their operations into other states and wishes to promote Coast Guard by selling floating key rings with our logo on them. Coast Guard will not only get the publicity but also a $1 for every key ring sold.
Audio Clinic (in 5 states and soon to expand into Queensland) has offered to provide a free hearing test to all Coast Guard volunteers. This follows on from a successful promotion in NSW where they did a similar thing with Rural Fire Service volunteers. Not only do members get a tangible medical benefit but we will also be part of the publicity program generated by the company.
I realise that these are small steps but the reality is that we need to take as many of these as possible and slowly the profile builds. I know of no one out there yet who is waiting to give us several million dollars a year as a benefit or bequest but who knows what will happen as we take every opportunity to become a household word.
DNACO Tony Holmes and myself have submitted proposals to the upcoming National Marine Safety Committee Conference for us to deliver papers relating to marine radio networks and the safety aspects provided to the recreational boating public by the volunteer marine organisations. This is just another small piece of the ongoing effort to raise the profile of the Association in the eyes of the marine industry representatives, bureaucrats and the boating public.
The objective of the Australian and New Zealand Boating Education Group is to identify national safe boating issues, address them through coordinated public education strategies and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and knowledge.
The group brings together those responsible for the implementation of government policy on boating safety, those with a responsibility for the implementation of national/ international training standards, small craft search and rescue and those that have direct communication links with the recreational boater.
The members of ANZSBEG are representatives of State and Northern Territory government boating authorities, Australian Maritime Safety Authority, New Zealand Maritime Safety Authority, Australian Yachting Federation and the Australian Boating Industry Association. AMSA provides the secretariat for the group's bi-annual meetings and develops and assists funding of education campaigns initiated by the group.
The Marine Rescue Association of Australia represented the volunteer sector on ANZSBEG years ago but since its demise there has been no one from our area. I am addressing their meeting in May with the intention of convincing them to give the AVCGA a seat on the group due to our national status.
The Australian Emergency Management Volunteer Forum has recently distributed a survey to randomly selected members of many volunteer agencies, including Coast Guard, which is aimed at gathering reliable data on the true cost of being a volunteer. The results will better enable the AEMVF to structure proposals and lobby government at all levels for a better deal and greater consideration of the plight of volunteers. I urge all of you who receive a copy of the survey to fill it in and return it promptly to the organisers. Those Commodores who have flotillas selected for these tasks please ensure that all details, as received by you, are forwarded to the listed flotillas.
I was recently asked to provide a photo and a short biography on each of a number of Coast Guard volunteers for display on the AEMVF website. This was also being done across other volunteer agencies. These bios, representing young and old, male and female, provide a great insight as to why some people volunteer and what they get out of this. This is especially influential on outsiders who are surfing the site. It would be great to extend this to our website and so I would call for a similar response from each flotilla. I am happy to send out copies of some of the ones I have already received to provide ideas for others.
Contributions to Corporate Governance
It is timely to remind Board members, and state the obvious, that it is not for the National Executive to think of all the problems, think of all the solutions and think of all of the methods by which to achieve these objectives.
It is up to the National Board to determine these tactics and strategies, acting as a corporate decision making body, and then the executive officers can be charged with implementation and action.
When considering the corporate decisions of the NB especially in the way it appears to have imposed costs upon flotillas, members should consider the wider picture. In almost all, and certainly in the majority of cases, the facts presented to members will be, by necessity, only a précis of the discussions and detailed considerations, held over many hours, by the Board members.
Decisions are also taken for the good of the entire Association, considering flotillas with a wide range of resources and backgrounds. A decision may not immediately seem advantageous to your flotilla in its current circumstances but may well benefit a struggling or fledgling flotilla elsewhere. (It is our duty to nurture and protect all of the entities that make up our association.)
The swings and roundabouts of a large organisation most often work out to the total advantage of our units and should rarely be considered in isolation. For example, the necessity to meet our responsibilities with respect to audit requirements may well have cost individual units an extra $1000 pa for their financial reporting costs. While this extra cost is something we can work on to try and reduce we must also consider other positives relating to our corporate accounting and administrative responsibilities. While membership annual fees may rise, to the chagrin of some members, they are in reality only double what we were paying 20 years ago. Income and the price of everything else have also doubled in that time.
Chris Gillett ESM
National Commodore
21 April 2006