By Shamsiya Hussainpoor
Monbulk CFA long-time serving captain Simon Schroder has decided to step down from his role after 12 years of leading the team.
Mr Schroder has dedicated his time volunteering with Monbulk Fire Brigade for the past 30 years, starting as a junior brigade member in 1994.
Just after two years of joining the team, he ranked up to a senior position and became an active firefighter in 1997.
“My highlight is probably people skills – being a self-employed carpenter, I’ve got a lot on but certainly, you learn how to speak to people and how to manage people,” he said.
“I’m going back to being a regular firefighter, I’ve decided that I didn’t want any commitments for the next two years, where we have our election cycle again – just to have a breather.”
Due to the rise of cost of living, people are doing more paid work than volunteering and hence volunteerism has declined not just for the CFA, but across the board.
For Mr Schroder stepping down as a captain would mean more reflection time.
“More time with the family, whom sadly, and probably felt neglected,” he said.
“It takes a lot of time, on an average three nights a week out at meetings and trainings and then on top of that, there’s the daily chores such as answering phone calls and emails – having that weight off my shoulders is fantastic.
“While I’m looking forward to having a breather and spending more time with my family, I encourage people to ask questions and investigate and give volunteering a go, because what you get out of it can be very, very rewarding.”
When Mr Schroder joined the team three decades ago, his leadership skills shone within the room, and he became Fifth Lieutenant in 2003 – responsible for equipment maintenance.
He remained as a lieutenant for a further eight years filling the roles of third and second lieutenants.
In 2012 he was elected as captain of the Monbulk Fire Brigade, a position that he has held for 12 years and now passed on to the new captain, Glenn Hickingbotham.
Mr Schroder’s experience as a captain has been relatively positive, but the split of CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) was a challenging time for him.
On July 1 2020, a new fire services organisation was created, Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV), this resulted a separation between staff and volunteers, making FRV career service and CFA a volunteer only organisation.
Mr Schroder has been an exceptional Captain, providing strong leadership on both the fire ground as well as in the day-to-day running of the brigade, his highlight has been the outcomes of his decisions and training up new people into the brigade.
“Seeing members flourish and been able to stand on their own two feet has been a joyous thing to experience,” he said.
He sends his best wishes to the new captain, Mr Hickingbotham and he’s looking forward to spending more time with his wife Bec and three young daughters Tilly, Lucy and Emily.
Glenn Hickingbotham has been with CFA for over 33 years, a lieutenant with Monbulk CFA for about 15 years and his role as a captain commenced on 1 July.
Every two years, there’s an election where members can nominate for different positions via a secret ballot voting – the only caveat is that in order to nominate and be elected as a captain, you have to have done at least two years as a lieutenant.
“I’m both humbled and honoured to lead the team,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to working with the management team and members of the brigade to ensure we are maintaining a high level of skills in the areas of firefighting, rescue and rope rescue.”
“We have a number of different disciplines that we have to maintain skills in which is challenging for us but we’ve got a great team, and we will continue the high level of professionalism that we showed in our work and in the community.”
Mr Hickingbotham said Mr Schroder’s strength was in his charm, the way he led the members, and he would listen to everyone’s points of view and encouraged others to speak up and collaborate.
“He’s been a strong mentor to others within the brigade, myself included, about how to lead people – because it can be complex, given we’re a volunteer group, it’s quite different than leading staff in a workplace and Simon’s found that balance between the people looking after the people, and also ensuring we’re meeting that high standard of service delivery to the community when it comes to emergency response,” he said.
“He’s been highly regarded and respected within the brigade and also the broader CFA community around the hills, he’s not going anywhere.”
On behalf of Monbulk CFA, Mr Hickingbotham extends his gratitude to Mr Schroder, especially to his family because it takes a lot of support from family to do this.
