Report from the 12th Meeting of the Women in Fire & Rescue Commission

The 12th Commission Meeting for the Women in Fire & Rescue Services was arranged in Berlin, Germany, on November 1st and 2nd, 2017. Here is the Official Report from their meeting.

(Commission Group Picture taken at the 11th Meeting in Ljubljana 2016)

Conclusions                                            

The meeting started with a presentation by Tillman Holbe, Digital Transformation HHP Berlin, Fire Safety Engineering Company,  about modern and future technology in FRS. He demonstrated how virtual-reality glasses can give the firefighter vital information when fighting fires (during smoke-diving).

The Commission discussed that it is important to get more women in fire and rescue services and keep the women also in work. Each country presented good examples of how they are working with this issue.

We can see from the survey that the member states are in different stages with equality issues in fire and rescue services.  We revised some of the questions in order to get clearer answers and more detailed information. We also talked about developing new questions for a future survey.

The Commission discussed the #metoo movement in relation to FRS. We can conclude from the survey that there is a need to work with attitudes and inclusion, so that women feel welcome and safe.

We see that there is still a great need to recruit and retain women in FRS.

The commission can support this aim by sharing best practices from the different countries in terms of, for example, action plans, education/training, campaigns, design of facilities and development of equipment.

Decisions

The Commission decided that each country should collect information about cancer research related to FRS and present it the next meeting.

It was further decided that each country should gather and present information about any changes in equipment design since women began working in FRS

The Commission also decided that each country should complete the revised survey by 15th February 2018. The chair and vice-chair will provide feedback by 15th Mars and the final survey report will be available on the website by the end of March. The report will highlight best practices. Also by the end of Mars, we will send the survey to the other member countries.

The commission also decided that each country should make new questions for the next survey.

Next steps                                              

The Commission will send out the revised survey for member states in January. The member states have until 15th February to answer.

The Commission members are reminded to deliver as soon as possible a photo and a short introduction of themselves to Vice-chair Mona Hjortzberg mona.hjortzberg@kommunal.se . These introductions are going to be on the CTIF Women in Fire and Rescue Services new website.

The member states are remained to send to the Chair and Vice-chair good examples of PR tools and campaigns on recruiting women in fire and rescue services. Also, other examples of good practice are requested to be sent out.

The commission requests that each member country prepares for the next meeting by:

Gathering information about cancer research and changes in equipment since women began working in FRS to be presented at the meeting.

Thinking about and writing questions that can be used in the next survey.

Participants              Mira Leinonen (Chair), Finland

                                    Mona Hjortzberg (Vice-chair), Sweden

                                    Nicola Lown (Secretary), United Kingdom

                                    Saskia Pouw, the Netherlands

                                    Viktoria Zechmeister, Austria

                                    Ruzica Belanovic, Serbia

                                    Marinka Cempre Turk, Slovenia

                                    Susanne Klatt (Host), Germany

Date                           1st – 2nd November 2017, 09:00-17:00

Location                    Berlin, Germany

Upcoming meetings:                                        

• 13th meeting: Spring (22-23 May 2018) Fairfax, Virginia USA
• Autumn 2018 Austria
• Spring 2019 Hungary / Portugal
• Autumn 2019 The Netherlands
• Spring (15-20 June) 2020 Interschutz, Germany

Agenda                      

Day 1                         

• The meeting starts (09:00)
• Welcome speech
• Introduction of participants
• Approve the minutes of the meeting in Ljubljana 2017
• Election of chair, secretary and adjudicators of minutes for the meeting
• State of the meeting
• Short presentation from private sector (Germany)
• CTIF News
• Short presentation from each country (5 minutes per country)
• Lunch
• The survey: answers
• Future development of working equipment
• The meeting ends
• Dinner

Day 2

• Start of the meeting (9:00)
• Cancer issues within fire and rescue services
• Any other business
• Next meetings 2018 spring and autumn
• The meeting ends
• Dinner                                

Stockholm 2017-11-05

Mona Hjortzberg

Vice-chair