In any organisation, change is inevitable. Sometimes it’s gradual, sometimes rapid, but all entities evolve over time.
It is my immense pleasure to have been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer, FPA Australia. I’ve come to the Association following two years of uncertainty for all businesses and the broader community caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. I’m sure our members, supporters and staff are relieved finally to be coming out the other side.
Now it’s time to take stock, to revisit our role and what is important to us, and to make plans for the future.
FPA Australia has a lot of potential. It has dedicated employees, committed members and a wealth of content and expertise.
For the benefit of our members, the industry and the community, we need to maximise our opportunities to ensure that we are delivering the right materials and appropriate services to support those who support us.
Over the next few weeks the team and I will be doing some introspection, looking at our ‘value proposition’ for members, the services we provide, and what positive impacts we have been having on community safety.
This will allow us to identify where we need to focus our attentions, and this will feed into the strategic direction for the organisation over the next three years.
The stages of this work will be:
- ‘build the base’ – engaging with FPA members, staff and stakeholders on what services are valued, what we do well and where we need to improve;
- ‘change the game’ – delivering continuous improvement in the ‘way we work’ and our service delivery to members, supporters and the community; and
- ‘keep the pace’ –embedding these new processes, new relationships, and refining as appropriate.
However, while we already have a roadmap for this journey, the detail of how we need to act will come from identifying ‘what we stand for’ and our engagement with members.
I plan to unveil some of these future strategies in May at Fire Australia 2022.
As the largest fire-protection conference and tradeshow in the Southern Hemisphere, Fire Australia 2022 gives members and supporters an opportunity to hear from some of the leading thinkers in the industry.
In a session on day 1, I look forward to sharing my initial investigations and how we can focus our attentions to deliver tangible benefits for our members and stakeholders. This will feed into the development of our 2022–2025 Strategic Planning session set for May 2022.
For this year’s conference we’ve pulled together a programme of topics designed to prompt thinking about the future of the industry.
We’ve already set up presentations from key regulators, practitioners and supporters of our industry, and there are a few more surprises in the pipeline.
Some of these topics cover:
- the future of fire protection regulation and research;
- changes to the industry over the next ten years;
- workshops on addressing skills gaps in the sector and increasing the participation of women in fire;
- mental health challenges;
- safety versus sustainability;
- innovation;
- risk management and duties of care;
- developments with residential sprinklers; and
- a discussion about coronial inquiries by Hugh Dillon, the Deputy Coroner who investigated the Quakers Hill Nursing Home fire and the Bankstown apartment fire.
- We’ve also got technical sessions looking at sprinkler developments, megastructures and dealing with interfaces, amongst other topics.
We’ve even lined up demographer Bernard Salt to give us some insights into where the Australian community is growing and how it might affect our industry.
The programme is a good opportunity to take stock, assess where the industry is going, and provide your views on what you want from the Association.
I am pleased to be able to provide my ideas about the direction of FPA Australia, but it is important that we hear yours. Fire Australia 2022 is your opportunity to have direct input and I look forward to catching up with you all at this important industry event.
