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Hub Exercise: This was held at Wilford School in Petone. We had an overview of the principles behind the hubs - very strong emphasis on communities and self management (interesting with the HCC view on Community Boards). We then ran an exercise, and I volunteered to operate the radio - a really worthwhile process, with some basic and perhaps obvious conclusions which I think are worth repeating here.
The radio was in a school hall - echoing and noisy, which made hearing and speaking difficult. Also a constant stream of people interrupting me to ask for help, information etc. which was impossible as the radio was constantly getting messages, so I couldn't talk or listen to anyone. Finally managed to get someone to sit with me and deal with any/all interruptions.
Have post-it notes to take messages so people can take these off to be processed, ditto on messages to be sent. Potentially a few colours to differentiate between incoming and outgoing, plus urgency etc. A notebook/diary could also be useful for your own reference.
Call signs need to be short (we do that ok in the Bays) but it's hard to call "Hutt City Emergency Management Centre" all the time, or remember to answer "Wilford Primary School" - so "Hutt Control" and "Wilford" worked.
The hub kits come with a call log but they don't have room for messages, just time, station etc. - hence the post-it notes.
Suit case for radio needs the station name in big letters inside the lid so we know what to call ourselves, I called myself Eastbourne out of habit quite a lot.
Summary - try to get into a separate room, must have some help so you don't end up trying to operate the radio and talk to someone at the same time, have books of post-it notes.
We may be running hub exercises in the Bays, in which case I recommend anyone who can, get involved - it's quite revealing.
No test in December unless someone wants to just try - I'll be away. Thank you everyone for being involved. It's probably too late to organise anything social this year, but I'm happy to just meet at the Pavilion for a coffee if anyone wants.
Ngā mihi
Bruce |
I know some of you have been away but I'd like to be sure everyone is still getting these, that you are happy to stay involved, and confirm your contact details (address, phone) - so if you could just reply to this that would be great - and of course any feed back is welcome.