June 2009

Having my first day on the phone on 23rd May 2009 was a good day to jump into the deep end. There was nowhere I could go without a snorkel and flippers and it was likely to be a day of wet critter calls. Although there are experienced phonies out there to help if necessary I felt it was best to try and do without them.

As a starting point I decided to organise a 2 ring binder with the appropriate sheets of information that I would need. They were also kind-of in the order I would need them. Before putting the forms in the book I went through the Phonies Notes for May and updated my callers list, which is an Excel spreadsheet. For any who were not available on my day I highlighted their name in a different colour so that it was obvious that they were not to be called.

My list came from Ian Williams who had started putting in the map references from the local directory maps against each name. I had also cut out the Maps and Index from my directory and filed them in the back of the folder for matching the closest rescuer with the caller.

The following is the list of forms, which I put in plastic sheet protectors:

	The Callers Schedule (so that I would know who I was taking over from and who I was passing it on to).
	The Phone Redirection Procedure for transferring the Wires phone number (6643-4055) to my phone.
	The Phone Referral Help Page with other numbers that might be needed (eg Vets, RSPCA, NPs etc).
	The Injury and Cause Codes page.
	The Fate Codes page
	The Referred to Organisations (which I included on the Fate Codes page).
	The Animal Coordinators page (which I copied from the Clarence Valley Critter contact Info page, after my shift was completed).
	The Members List, which was grouped by location so that it was easier to find a rescuer who is close to the caller.

Then came the Phone Roster Day Sheet, which I took out of the book. It is also an Excel spread sheet and has been designed to allow all the necessary information to be entered in one row. The bottom of the sheet has been formatted to write in fate numbers from earlier rescues. The hand written sheet was typed into the spread sheet at the end of the shift – I find scribbling the info down while talking to the caller is easier than typing as I go. I also used the back of the form to keep track of the number of phone calls I made.

It was a varied day with horses trapped by the flood, a snake on a hot water heater keeping warm, some wet birds and a small animal that was looking for higher ground. And in most cases a rescuer could not go out because of the flood waters. It all seemed to work ok but if any of you have ways of improving the procedure let me know. By being organised (by my standards anyway) the day went without a hitch. If the first is the worst my future call days should be a breeze.

John Ibbotson