1. Introduction#
The RFStag system is a web application that allows RFS members to sign-in and sign-out at their station using a small NFC keyfob tag, rather than writing their details in the Attendance Book.
Tags are issued to all members, and they can sign-in just by tapping their tag on a reader attached to a terminal at the station entrance. They can sign-out when they have finished the activity by tapping their tag on the reader a second time.
All attendance records are stored electronically, and reports and summaries of attendance are available to members and officers through a web portal which can be accessed from anywhere, on any device with an internet connection and a browser (login required).
The system records attendance for all members, but visitors who do not have a tag should still record their details in the (paper) Attendance Book.
1.1. Requirements#
All RFS brigades are required, by State Law, to ensure that all members and visitors record their attendance when participating in brigade activities.
Traditionally, attendance was recorded in an Attendance Book, normally placed at the front of the station. Brigade Officers completed the details of the activity at the top of each page, then members who attended recorded their details, including arrival and departure times and their signature.
This may seem like a pointless chore, but it is in place to protect Members.
The main reason for keeping attendance records is to ensure that there is a reliable record of Member activity that can be used in cases of accident or misadventure, especially when a Workers Compensation Claim is lodged. They are also occasionally referred to in Coronial enquiries.
1.1.1. Attendance Record Keeping#
The paper Attendance Book provided a way to collect and preserve attendance records in a secure, controlled, and organised way, so that these records would be available for future reference whenever needed.
Used correctly, the Attendance Book provides solid, lasting, evidence that a Member was involved in an activity. The following table shows how the Attendance Book meets these requirements, and also how RFStag does the same:
# |
Key Requirement |
Attendance Book |
RFSTag |
|---|---|---|---|
1. |
Unique identification of the Member |
Member’s signature on the attendance record |
Members sign-in with their NFC tag, which is unique to them. |
2. |
Participation in the activity is clear and unambiguous |
Member’s name and signature are recorded as part of an activity described at the top of the Attendance Book page. |
Members sign-in to a named activity/event on arrival at the station. |
3. |
Physical presence of the Member at the Station |
Confirmed by the Member’s signature in the Attendance Book, which is kept at the Station. |
Members can only sign-in to an activity using the Kiosk, which is located at the Station. |
4. |
Official confirmation of participation |
The Officer In Charge (OIC) signs-off on attendance records for activities that they organise, to confirm that they are accurate and complete. |
The OIC reviews any events they run and signs them off electronically using the web portal. |
5. |
Secure storage of the Attendance records, so that they cannot be altered at a later date. |
OIC draws a line under the records, and initials any later changes if they are approved. |
After an event is completed, only the OIC can amend the attendance records for an event. |
6. |
Long Term storage of records so that they may be accessed at a later date. |
Archived by District. Attendance records are State Records, and must be kept for at least 25 years. |
Attendance records can be exported for printing or electronic storage for archiving by the District. |
Why not use RFS ACTIV?
RFS ACTIV is an excellent system for relaying callouts to members, and assisting with forming crews for these callouts.
However, at the moment, it does not have a reliable way of recording attendance at the station.
It can detect your proximity to the station from the GPS on your phone (including when driving past the station), but this is not the same as attendance, and it does not meet some key requirements above.
It relies on all members having mobile phones switched on at all times, and for those phones to have GPS tracking enabled at all times, which may not be feasible, or even acceptable for some members.
1.1.2. Drawbacks of the Attendance Book#
Even though the paper Attendance Book meets all the above requirements, there are some significant drawbacks with keeping handwritten attendance records:
Often written records are messy, sometimes illegible, inconsistent or inaccurate, and require interpretation and follow-up to correct.
The Attendance Book is always physically at the station, and the information it holds is not available anywhere else.
There is no backup - if the Attendance Book is lost or damaged, important records will be lost forever.
Keeping a physical Attendance Book can be unhygienic, as it (and the often shared pen) is touched by many Members, and could be a vector for infections such as flu or COVID-19.
RFSTag addresses all these issues by collecting and storing attendance records electronically at the Kiosk, and providing access to these records and reports using the web portal.
1.1.3. Additional System Requirements#
As well as meeting the above requirements, this is what I was aiming to do with the new system:
Provide an easy and quick way for members to sign-in to activities at the RFS station, modelled on existing procedures used with the Attendance Book.
Capture attendance details in electronic form to eliminate the need to transcribe attendance data.
Simple admin procedures, with minimal intervention required by brigade management to keep the system up to date and running.
Improve visibility and availability of attendance data to all brigade members and management.
Further reduce admin effort by automatically producing useful reports, based on attendance data.
Provide a low-cost solution, using off-the-shelf hardware, and a modest annual subscription fee.
Provide high availability, reliability, and data security, including regular automatic backups.
Ensure data privacy, with user accounts and passwords required for access.
1.1.4. Unlocking the Value of Attendance Data#
The original Attendance Book is generally fine for the purpose of meeting the legal requirements to record attendance.
However, Attendance Records also contain information that is useful for brigade management, for example:
Gauging participation of members, especially to recognise outstanding contributions, but also to easily identify members who are no longer active.
Gaining visibility on who is doing what in the brigade (and how much), especially for identifying opportunities to “share the load”.
Capacity planning - review the membership and check the brigade has sufficient numbers and skills to meet expectations and commitments in all areas.
Training planning - lack of participation in certain areas can indicate that training is needed, to prevent loss of skills.
Determining who is entitled to vote in brigade elections, if there is some attendance criteria for this (e.g. minimum of 60 hours during the season/year)
Summarising activity for reporting purposes, to identify trends in types of activity, and to inform district headquarters and other stakeholders.
Real time updates of who is at station can be provided to Officers, Members and HQ if attendance records are available on-line.
Real-time updates of Crew Strength, including Field Officers and Response Drivers, can easily be provided to Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems, without the need for stations to repeatedly update Crew Strength with Fire Control over the radio.
To realise the value of attendance data, many brigades transcribe the information from the Attendance Book into a spreadsheet or database, so that it can be analysed and summarised. This is a slow and tedious manual process, which requires a great deal of effort on the part of volunteer members.
RFSTag utilises the attendance records collected at the Kiosk to provide access to all the above data to all members via the web portal, without the need to collect or transcribe any additional data.
1.2. About the Project#
This project to build an electronic sign-in system started in 2018, when I decided to build a web application to help automate some admin tasks that were taking a lot of volunteer time at my local brigade.
It started with capturing attendance records, then grew to include reporting, scheduling, and various other odds and ends.
My background both as a professional software engineer (in a past life) and as a former Deputy Captain, came in handy, but there was still a big learning curve, and I continue to improve the application as the technology evolves, and as I find better ways of doing things.
The system first went live in November 2018, and has been running (almost) continuously since then, including through the major fires of 2019-2020.
The user base started with my home brigade (~70 members), then grew to include another 12 brigades, and it now supports more than 1000 users.
Why not use QR Codes?
I initially started to build this attendance system using QR codes, but soon realised that there were serious limitations to using them.
Some key requirements can not be met with a QR code based solution, viz :
Physical presence at the station can not be confirmed, since it is very easy to copy the QR code and use it anywhere. Similarly, the url represented by the QR code can easily be bookmarked and used later. Either of these would allow members to sign in from anywhere (Bali?), rather than only at the station.
Unique identification of the member is difficult, unless the target url (eg. google doc or spreadsheet) is secured, and requires a login. If the target url is not secured, it will be open to anyone (including non-members), and anyone can sign in, or see who is at the station (and not home), or even possibly change the attendance records, unless it is carefully controlled.
Participation in a specific activity is difficult to determine with a QR code, since the target url is generally fixed. We have the same problems as a Bundy style sign in - i.e. if there are multiple events happening at the station, which one is the member attending? This could be very significant in the event of coronial enquiries or insurance claims, and the attendance records must be unequivocal about what the member was doing while at the station.
Official confirmation and scrutiny of the attendance log is also not clear, unless the OIC is identified in the log, and they have the ability to check and update the log as needed.
1.3. Site Map#
This website describes following aspects of the electronic sign-in system:
This section describes the origin of the system, the requirements (legal and otherwise). There is also a brief overview of the objectives of the system.
The Kiosk collects attendance records in place of the Attendance Book, and is used by most people on a day-to-day basis. This section provides an overview of the Kiosk, along with a user guide.
Events are a key part of the system, analogous to a page in the old Attendance Book. This section describes the various types of events, and the ways they can be defined and updated.
The system runs on a cloud server (the Kiosk is connected to the server using a web interface). This section gives a review of the features available on the web portal, which can be accessed by officers and members of the brigade from any device (login required).
A brief overview of the main procedures used by system administrators to set up and run the system.
A brief overview of the main technologies - both hardware and software - used in the system.