MINUTES OF WELLINGTON BRANCH TRAINING AND NETWORKING EVENT
Time & Date: 3:00pm, 17th April 2024
Room: Wellington Region Emergency Management Office
Location: 2 Turnbull Street, Thorndon
Welcome:
Emelia introduced herself as the recently elected Wellington Chair, Rosie Chote as the new Wellington Secretary and Hazel McColl and James Trotman (absent) as the new Branch Executives. Emelia thanked everyone in attendance and welcomed everyone to the first Wellington Branch BOINZ Meeting of the year.
Attendance:
Apologies:
None received
Guests:
Clare Botha, Principal Advisor, Building System Delivery and Assurance at Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Liz Ashwin, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Matt Hodgkinson, Team Leader Operations, Wellington City Council and Tier 2 RBA
Patrick Cummuskey, Senior Building Emergency Management Specialist, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Previous Minutes:
Nothing raised
Matters Arising:
Nothing raised
Correspondence In/Out:
Reminder about the BOINZ conference in May – a great group of speakers are presenting this year and it is a prime opportunity for face-to-face networking being that the conference is being held in Wellington.
The Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony is being held at Te Papa, with great entertainment for the evening.
The new 2024 Building Controls Essentials Handbook is now available on the BOINZ website to purchase.
The Board Elections deadlines have been extended. Please send nominations to ea@boinz.org.nz.
Celebration of registration of the new BOINZ constitution under the new legislation which incorporated the Societies Act 2024.
General Business:
Nothing raised.
Board Representative Update:
Nothing raised.
Building Code Issues:
● Unresolved smoke alarm requirement issues in commercial buildings (F7).
● There’s an issue with outstanding lack of clarity on requirements of plumbing pipes i.e. lead being used.
Guest Presentation(s):
Emelia introduced the meetings topic: An image of disaster and the Rapid Building Assessment journey. Emelia presented a slide show of photographs from the aftermath of the devastating weather events in Hawkes Bay in 2023.
Clare Botha from MBIE presented on Building Emergency Management:
Clare introduced herself via Teams, telling attendees about her role at MBIE and her previous experience in council. Clare outlined MBIE’s role in the civil defence system, the Civil Defence Act and Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM). The main role of MBIE being to process designation, provide guidance to TA’s and government, and administer the deployment of additional response resources to disaster affected areas.
MBIE also advises and provides consultation regarding heritage buildings, assesses preparedness and capability across the country for emergencies, completing internal processes aligned with BCP’s for emergency response. Clare explained how education and training is provided internally which provides support in these events.
Clare then described the current Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) structure and scenario planning that MBIE conducts. MBIE holds the register of Rapid Building Assessors (RBAs) and Tier 1 Technical Leads, ensuring that New Zealand has the right capability and distribution of resources across the nation.
Clare discussed modelling for the likelihood of repeat events and advises further information can be found online on the Building Performance website.
Liz Ashwin discussed the review of the 2023 incident response and improvements made to the system including commissioning of research from Gravitas, a review of the response to cyclone Gabrielle.
Over 40 responses, including longer qualitative surveys, were received. Findings were that the response was generally good and those who were prepared were less affected. They found that the former placards were not fit for purpose and there were large challenges on the front line in dealing with affected persons. There was a requirement for clearer key messaging and accessible information for homeowners to access. MBIE are refreshing field guides and some reference to Geotech advice will be included as well as guidance for decision makers and Territorial Authorities (TAs).
MBIE implemented new placards and assessment forms, refreshed the RBA Competency Framework and reviewed the RBA system.
MBIE is providing training in the Canterbury region in May as well as maintenance of skill sets across the country. A community of practice is being set up to support Tier 1 technical leads. A competency framework has been developed for publishing alongside the other guidance on the building performance website, and further refinement and development of resources has continued.
Next steps for the team are to finalise the external reports, RBA field guides and digital forms connected on the building emergency management website. Liz promoted the buildingemergencymanagement@mbie.nz for any further questions.
Patrick Cummuskey presented on the front-line Building Emergency Management Response in Auckland and Hawkes Bay 2023:
Patrick introduced himself, his current role at MBIE and experience working in CDEM events prior to Auckland 2023 including working for St John‘s Ambulance. Patrick discussed his experience leading into standing up the National Coordination Centre (NCC) in Auckland at the time of the event.
Patrick discussed that the response system had to be created on the fly and discussed how GIS data from FENZ was used to develop clustered areas of call outs which needed immediate attendance. A key learning was that the IT was not formally set up to support the team. In future more information could be called upon, including flood mapping information from an Auckland clean water organisation.
Patrick described the aerial surveying completed to establish data about ground impacts and degradation to the cliffs. After the initial events in Auckland, lessons learnt were being completed when Gabrielle hit which halted the rounding out/decommissioning. Still, improved systems have either been implemented or are in development such as the digital building assessment forms and data management.
Matt Hodgkinson spoke about his experience on the front line in Auckland and Hawkes Bay after the 2023 weather events:
Matt spoke about his experience of being deployed into Auckland. Matt discussed the challenges of being on the front line and in some circumstances being the first official person that the public had seen since the event. Some experiences were positive, and others were challenging due to disgruntled house occupants and hundreds of stressed civilians.
Matt then spoke about his experience in Hawke's Bay. Matt told of how there was a lack of communication and growing local concerns about security and lack of action. Engaging with locals to ensure they were aware of the work the team was completing was critical to decompress tensions and ease the community. Matt noted that in some cases this meant tapping into the local community hubs to make themselves available to answer questions. Matt said that in some circumstances, they were the first officials’ locals saw and were asked questions that were beyond their scope of knowledge. Matt notes the importance of being the ear for those who are just seeing you as the link to the response team. Giving RBAs access to further information which can be provided to the public so they can be directed in the right direction would be helpful.
Matt noted that a key learning was that there is a greater need for training on communications and welfare for RBA’s. Following these events, it is important to be cognisant of the effects the social encounters have on the RBAs and ensure that they are prepared and provided support to deal with the aftermath.
Matt shared thanks to the councils impacted, and community groups that rallied to support the rest of the community during extremely tough times.
Questions:
Q. How much was the debrief about the welfare of people?
A. Not enough, debriefs were not focused on the welfare as much as the effect on the infrastructure.
Questions were cut short due to time constraints. Emelia offered her email address for anyone who had further questions.
Emelia thanked all presenters and invited those in the room to a snack and hot beverage.
Next Branch Training and Networking Event: TBC
Special thank you to:
Clare Botha – MBIE
Liz Ashwin – MBIE
Matt Hodgkinson – Wellington City Council
Patrick Cummuskey - MBIE
WREMO for providing the meeting venue.
Emelia for providing food and beverages.
Emelia closed the meeting at 4:50pm.
Rosie Chote
Wellington Branch Secretary
Rosie.chote@gmail.com
