Services Update
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Fale Kotuku
The team at Fale Kotuku are well and truly settled in their new South Auckland office and have been hosting a number of member and staff events. The 'Seeing the Possibilities' Pilot Project involved new members and ran from August to October with 9-12 members participating at each session. The pilot will assist the Foundation in finding new ways of delivering services to members.The feedback has been very positive from members and staff.
Other events being held at Fale Kotuku so far include member assessments for equipment, Manukau Community Committee meetings and events, Pacific Island Support Group meetings, Pacific Island craft groups and Cultural Awareness Training and several staff meetings/functions. There are plans to hold Equipment Displays days at Fale Kotuku from April 2007. Updates on this will be shared as they come to hand.
To remind you, the following services and staff are now based at Fale Kotuku: Māori Services, Pacific Services, Needs Assessor - South, East and Central areas, and Rehabilitation Services.
Key contacts: Veta Endemann, Manager Pacific Services/Needs Assessor, Ph 09 264 0112; Fatima Akehurst, Pacific Services Coordinator Ph 09 264 0113; Daniel Te'o, Pacific Services Coordinator Ph. 09 264 0114; Charles Tauhore, Needs Assessor Ph 09 264 0117; Liz Quarrie, Service Coordinator Ph 09 264 0109; Vaughan Dodd Ph 09 264 0108. More staff will be based there in the near future.
The address is Gate 1, Cnr Browns Rd and McVilly Rd, Manurewa.
International Visitors
On November 6 Mary Schnackenberg, Divisional Manager Adaptive Support hosted Andrew Furlong and Natarajan Swaminathan from Vision Australia. Andrew is from Vision Australia's Information and Library Service and helped guide our studio and production staff from the analogue to the digital DAISY world. Natarajan is from their IT department.
Also welcomed were Masahiro Shigeoka, Masaru Omoto and Hiromitsu Fujimori from Plextor,
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manufacturers of digital talking book players. Masahiro and his team were here to demonstrate an internet capable talking book player they have developed and which they are taking to 11 other libraries around the world. Plextor currently make DAISY CD ROM players and DAISY streaming software. They also make approximately 60 percent of the world's CD ROM drives for computers. Both parties were here to learn more about our Digital Talking Book Pilot Project.
RNZFB Focus Groups
Nearly 130 members attended 16 focus groups around the country in August and September, providing their views on how the Foundation is doing.
"I have to say that it was really heartening to hear from so many members. As you'd expect, we covered a lot of ground. Generally people were very pleased with our services, but they also gave us food for thought," says Adrienne Henderson, Divisional Manager, Quality Assurance.
Each year since 2002, the Foundation has held focus groups that were designed to give feedback about our services in small group settings. This year members were randomly invited from two "pools" - general membership and guide dog handlers.
"Each year I am struck by how appreciative members are that we are asking for their opinions. Really, members were generally very positive," she said.
But the focus groups were not a complete "love in". The Foundation received a lot of suggestions, constructive criticism and the occasional brick bat. We have already started to address some of the issues that members have raised.
Themes from the general membership sessions included:
- The Library was excellent and responsive.
- There was a desire for more local "nuts and bolts" information about Foundation services and equipment days, etc. Several members said they wanted this additional information in Outlook, which in their view was devoting too much space to matters of interest to non-members; local newsletters were valued.
- The general public's awareness of the white cane was, if anything, worse than in the past, and more effort needs to go into public education.
- The Foundation should be providing more sighted guide training to employers, government departments and
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- social groups. (Members were advised that this training is offered by the Technology, Employment and Awareness division).
- Transportation was a major problem for many members, and they wanted the Foundation to either provide it or lobby government for better transportation funding.
- Adaptive technology training courses were highly praised, but they needed to be more available to more members.
- Members strongly believed that the Government should provide far more funding for services, and the Foundation should devote more resources to lobbying government.
- Most of the participants in the focus group advised that they would be happy to pay a membership fee - $25-$35 was commonly given as a reasonable fee. New members, especially, expressed surprise that they hadn't been asked to pay a membership fee. Concern was expressed that members should still receive service if they were unable to pay.
- A common complaint in focus groups was that staff were slow to respond to voicemail messages that members left. Similarly, members said it would be a great help if staff updated their answer messages to reflect whether they were in the field, on leave or whatever.
- When a member moves to another town, this can be stressful and the Foundation should be more pro-active in providing support and relevant local information (the Foundation has already implemented this change).
Feedback from guide dog handlers
- There was generally high praise for Guide Dog Services.
- The residential training camps were valued.
- Guide Dog Services were asked to improve communications with members. For example, many handlers said they did not know of management and staff changes or about the latest dog information, and they want Guide Dog Services to be more proactive in keeping them informed.
- There was desire for more informal get-togethers for handlers, to share knowledge and socialise.
"The focus groups were really helpful, and member comments are already being fed into the new Strategic Plan. I'd like to thank everyone who was involved for their time and contributions," says Adrienne.