Commissioner's commendation for service - Inspector Robyn Anne Favelle
Published Date: 04 May 2014
Summary
Inspector Robyn Favelle has, over recent years, identified communication difficulties involved in fire response activities in the remote area of Far Western NSW.
She has committed herself to providing an improved level of service to the NSW Rural Fire Service brigades that protect these remote areas and has developed a close and effective relationship with and understanding of these brigades, their members and the extreme operational conditions under which they operate.
Inspector Favelle has taken responsibility for bush fire related operational management and communication across the entire north west corner of NSW and has actively embraced new and innovative technologies to do so.
The introduction of Facebook and the possibilities that this technology provided was quickly recognised by remote brigade members, with the support of Inspector Favelle a number of closed brigade Facebook groups have been developed.
These groups now provide timely, accurate and relevant fire and brigade related information directly to the localRural Fire Service.
This has allowed for an enormous increase in the District's ability to support remote brigade activities and manage ongoing fire reporting and resourcing requirements.
Inspector Favelle has shown a deep commitment to the remote brigades and has developed strong relationships and a level of trust that has never existed in this area before, all of which have assisted the brigades and the Rural Fire Service organisation to provide a much more effective service to their communities. None of this came about easily and is still not well understood or valued by many in the organisation.
It has taken many hours of travel and brigade liaison to achieve this outcome and a commitment well in excess of the requirements of her position.
With the success of the closed group process, and to allow other less technologically advanced members the opportunity to participate in the use of Facebook as an effective operational communication tool, Inspector Favelle has developed the Far West Operational Facebook page for the posting of any relevant information.
This is available for use by all brigade members across the Far West Team and Inspector Favelle also developed the extremely popular Far West General
Facebook page which is constantly updated with as much relevant and topical information as possible.
All of these developments have greatly improved Rural Fire Service communications across a vast area of remote NSW.
