About Us         Contact Us         Our History         Our Area          Our Appliances          Members Info          Members SharePoint

Protecting the Community

A Part of the Community

Community Information

Fire Service Links

Research and Development

The Archive

Home

Home

The Brigade held it's annual general meeting and bi-annual elections recently. The event also served to recognise some members for their service to the Brigade and the districts surrounding Ripley Valley. Another significant year has rolled around with many of the new station enhancements on display. Dignitaries such as Shayne Newman Federal MP and Joanne Miller MP attended as did QFRS Area Director Craig Smith and Ipswich Group Officer John Levack.

With all station projects nearing completion, the Óld Shed' wasn't looking too bad.

The Team Shot of 2011.

The AGM Meeting is the one formal meeting through the year where the Brigade regular members and the community often represented by our federal, state and local politicians come together. It is also a nice occasion where some of our long term support members such as Denise Hanly become one of the team again.

Joanne Miller MP addressing the meeting. Shayne Newman MP also addressed the meeting conveying kind messages of appreciation from the community. The members of the Brigade would also like to thank them for giving up their time to attend.

The unusual part of our AGM's are that every two years we elect in our Operational Officers and Management Team. The Brigade has chosen to adopt a process of Criteria Based Elections for our operational officers from 2011 onwards. For the period of Sept 2011 to Sept 2013, the following members were elected to the following positions:

Management Team:

Chairperson: Dave Morris Mob. 0437 970 624, Email: Chair@ripleyvalleyruralfire.org.au

Secretary: Tracey Olivieri (Mob. 0401 005 430, Email: Secretary@ripleyvalleyruralfire.org.au )

Treasurer: Amy Hartness (Mob. 0402 094 642, Email: Treasurer@ripleyvalleyruralfire.org.au)

First Officer: George Ganzenmuller (Mob. 0417 710 706, Email: RV1@ripleyvalleyruralfire.org.au)

Second Officer: Matt Mulroney (Mob. 0412 403 230, Email: RV2@ripleyvalleyruralfire.org.au)

Other Elected Positions:

Third Officer: Gary Chapman

Fourth Officer: John Bowles

Business Coordinator: Matt Mulroney

Planning Team Leader: Jim Runham

Logistics Team Leader: Dave Morris

Training Team Leader: Amy Hartness

Safety Team Leader: Tracey Oliveri

Public Education: John Bowles

As part of the AGM, the Brigade recognises members service to the Brigade and the Community. For example, Clayton Coutis was presented his first year Brigade Pin by Dave Morris, Chairman and John Levack, Ipswich Group Officer. Other first year recipients included Tracey Oliveri, Danni Chapman and Reggie Shellard.

Daniel Feeney was presented his five year pin and certificate.

Peter Lambert also received his five year pin and certificate.

Brendon Weber also received his five year pin and certificate.

Brian Evans received his 10 year pin and certificate.

Steve Woodbridge also received his 10 year pin and certificate.

John Eagleton received his 15 year certificate.

Jason King joined the service in 1995 with Fernvale RFB and transferred to Ripley Valley RFB five years ago. Jason was presented with his 15 year certificate.

The next part of the meeting identifies members who contributed exceptional service to the Brigade over the previous year as either Rookies, Firefighters or Leaders of one form or another. Awards were presented by George Ganzenmuller, Ripley Valley RFB First Officer and John Levack, Ipswich Group Officer. The Rookie of the Year for 2011 was Tracey Oliveri. Tracey has been a member of the brigade for a little over a year but has already completed all training available, actively attends incidents and has stepped up to become the Secretary of the Brigade.

The Firefighter of the Year for 2011 was Jason Smith. Jason has been actively involved with all aspects of the Brigade from operations to Community Support roles and brings boundless energy and enthusiasm to his brigade team mates.

The Leadership Award for 2011 was presented to Gary Chapman, aka Chucka. As well as being an active Operational Officer; Gary actively supports the maintenance team and gets involved with nearly all aspects of the brigade including special projects. It was as a result of Gary's dedicated coordination that the Ripley Valley ISU trailer project was completed and so the Brigade presented a plaque entitled "Chucka's Wagon" as a sign of appreciation.

As part of the membership review, a number of members were identified as having made a significant contribution to various aspects of the Brigade. Matt Phillips received a Letter of Commendation for his considerable efforts during fire fighting operations over the past year and stepping up when required.

Clayton Coutis was also presented a Letter of Commendation for his active participation in various operational support roles. Whether it is manning the station radio or attending hazard reduction burns, Clayton never misses a chance to help out.

Tony Hartness was presented a Letter of Commendation for his active participation and significant hours donated in numerous organisational support roles such as public awareness, fund raising and also the station maintenance area.

To finish off the meeting, we also celebrate the 'Not Awards". In the Rural Fire Service; sometimes things do not go right. The winners of the 2011 Not Award were Daniel Feeney, Jason Smith and Matt Carter, the crew of RV52 one fateful night in July who got the truck buried to the tray. Unfortunately Matt, who was the driver was AWOL for the celebrations but a picture of the event will be on display in the Bora Room for future laughs.

Thank you to all who came along.

To review our previous AGM's, please Click here.

 

Return to Home