LIWA Aquatics hit the road again in October to “Maintain the Network” in our Great Southern and Wheatbelt regional areas of WA. This year LIWA and its delegates where privileged to visit the towns of Gnowangerup and Cunderdin.
Gnowangerup is a four (4) hour drive (350km) south east of Perth located in the Great Southern Region of WA. 30 Delegates were registered for a day of networking, professional development and collaboration on various topics presented on the day.
The day kicked off with LIWA Aquatics Vice President Chris Blankley welcoming delegates and to introduce the Shire of Gnowangerup President Cr Keith House to say a few words about the Shire and to officially open the seminar.
The first session of the day was a facility tour of the Gnowangerup aquatic centre. Pool Manager Andre Tion provided delegates with a snapshot of the facility and the upgrades they did a couple of years ago. Gnowangerup pool is split into 2 very distinctive pools one for lap swimming the other for programs and leisure whilst still being connected as the same water body with bridge access across the 2 pools.
After the tour of the pool, grounds, plantroom and change room facilities the delegates head back to the room for morning tea before settling into the first presentation of the day.
Peter Leaversuch CEO of Royal Life Saving WA and LIWA Aquatics committee member, kickstarted the day off by providing delegates with an update of Royal Life Savings safety hub and changes to the Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations online. Peter then spoke to the delegates to get them to start to reflect on their emergency and evacuation procedures and when they last put these to the test for evaluation. Whilst we all might have a good idea of what needs to be done during emergencies and evacuations, we, in most cases do not get to execute the practice of these to test their efficiency and highlight the improvements that may be required.
Royal Life Savings Senior Manager Lauren Nimmo then provided the delegates with an update of Watch Around Water and WAW week starting 14 – 21 December.
It is great to have the support of Royal Life Saving at these events to get out and speak face to face with industry about important safety issues and up and coming programs and developments within RLSS.
We had some great support of traders attend the event with Ed from Sigma Chemicals, John from Commercial Aquatics Australia and Rob from Aquatic Services WA all taking time out of their busy schedules to drive down to meet and greet with delegates in the southern regions of WA.
With the wealth of knowledge in the room it was only appropriate to host a Q&A session with the traders which allowed delegates to ask questions relating to issues they may have their facilities directly to the industry experts. Lunch was then served, and time was made to future network with other delegates, LIWA committee members and traders.
The afternoon sessions were centralised around changes in the industry with Chris Blankley leading the conversation about the new proposed standards for Chlorine Gas.
Steve Good briefly talked about training in the industry with some of the temporary changes that were forced upon RLSS due to qualifications in the Code of Practice now being out dated and what the future developments and goals of RLSS will be in the near future for Training.
Llew Withers a former Department of Health Manager and now LIWA committee member lead the last session of the day which was an important one with a workshop being held to discussed and collate feedback on the recent Department of Health Aquatic Regulations Review and Survey that is being conducted. It was important for LIWA Aquatics to get on the front foot with this and provide an information session about the discussion paper that was releases and to gather evidence on what the views are of delegates and traders regarding the New Regulations.
Cunderdin was the second round for the country pool managers and last seminar of the year that LIWA hosted. Cunderdin is approximately 160km (2 hour drive) East of Perth in the Wheatbelt region of WA. The Cunderdin War Memorial Olympic Pool is operated by Contract Aquatic Services and has recently undergone some minor works and maintenance.
37 Delegates were registered for Cunderdin and several traders again took the time out of their schedules to attend. Again, thank you to Sigma Chemicals, Commercial Aquatics Australia, Aquatic Services WA, Sue from AUSTSWIM, and George from Ixom. We were please to have the Shire President - Dennis Whisson open the seminar and welcome the delegates.
The same format was run in Cunderdin as it was the previous week and LIWA Aquatics would like to extend a big Thank you to the following presenters, committee and traders for making these seminars a great day of professional development and maintaining the network.
Thank you, Chris Blankley, Peter Leaversuch, Lauren Nimmo, Steve Good, Nick Wilkinson, Llew Withers, Wendy Cole, Dale Morrissy, Ed Mordarski, Robert Kirkpatrick, John Mandelt, Sue Warner & George Lech and all the delegates.
We look forward to the summer period and hope you are all busy and have a safe season ahead.
Article Courtesy of LIWA
Comments