FAQs

To learn more about what we do, please visit www.nsesva.org.au.

Supporters can participate in 3 or 6 raffles a year by joining our regular raffle club. Information can be found at nsesva.org.au/copy-of-support-us, and the raffle enquiry line is 1300 707 344.

The National SES Volunteers Association conducts a raffle as its main source of income, and engages a professional contact centre, OneContact, which also conducts similar work for other charities. OneContact is based in Sydney, so raffle calls will have an (02) prefix. For more information, please visit www.onecontact.com.au.

The national raffle campaign has been running since November 2016. It raises funds for the National SES Volunteers Association which, in turn, uses those funds for specific projects or activities to benefit volunteers. NSESVA has no funding, so the raffle campaign was started to develop a source of income. The NSESVA is a relatively new association, formed in late 2015. All State and territory VAs are member of the national association. More information about NSESVA can be found on the website nsesva.org.au, including annual reports and financial statements.

The raffles are legitimate and comply with all relevant regulations. In the last raffle, a Victorian grandmother won the major prize of $20,000 and is using it to return to her native Scotland for a last visit to see old friends and relatives. Other Victorians regularly win minor prizes, and there has been at least one other major prizewinner.

Funds raised by NSESVA are used to benefit volunteers and volunteer development. An example of an NSESVA project in 2019 was the sponsoring of youth members from each State and Territory to attend the AFAC National Memorial Service in Canberra on May 1, to develop their leadership skills and engagement with SES and the VAs. The youth contingent participated in the memorial ceremony, forming a Guard of Honour for the Governor-General and dignitaries, attended NSESVA meetings as observers, visited Parliament House and the ACT SESVA HQ and gave individual presentations at a formal dinner. A feature article about this trip was published in Phoenix May 2019.

Another recent initiative was the NSESVA’s presentation on Women in the SES: Reshaping Dynamics at the AFAC19 conference, which celebrated the work of women volunteers and advocated for greater diversity and inclusion in the EM sector. The research paper was received with overwhelming support for bringing the cause of volunteers on the ground to this

international conference.

NSESVA advocates for the interests of volunteers in many other forums, including the AFAC Volunteer Management Technical Group and the Fit for Task project; contributing to the development of doctrine which directly affects volunteers, such as the Volunteer Impact Assessment Guideline and the Volunteer Inclusion Model Guideline.

Once you have been contacted by us and pledge your support, you will either receive tickets in the post or via email. There are various options to pay for your tickets and via the website is one of them.

Once your payment has been processed and banked, the ticket numbers you have already received either via email or mail will be validated. Note that you will not receive another set of numbers. NSESVA do not provide returns or refunds after the draw date of the raffle. If you would like to cancel your support or verify your numbers, please call 1300 707 344.

Phoenix magazine is the official magazine of VicSESVA (formerly VESA), published 4 times a year and is available for all individual members at no cost. You can submit articles any time through [email protected]. All members receive Phoenix online. You must register to receive Phoenix. Go to vicsesva.org.au and click on Phoenix-How to subscribe vicsesva.org.au/how-to-subscribe/

All Units are members of VicSESVA and all individual members are welcome to attend VicSESVA meetings. Information about the NSESVA is also reported on regularly at VicSESVA meetings. VicSESVA meeting minutes (listing the activities, meeting notes, working groups, task forces, action items etc. currently undertaken), calls for articles for Phoenix, reports and notifications are sent to Unit email addresses, not individual members’ addresses. If you do not receive this information, please ask your local Unit to ensure it is reaching the Unit inbox or register yourself to recieve these updates on our website vicsesva.org.au/register.

If you need more information about VicSESVA, check out the second last page of each Phoenix magazine, where it explains what the Association is and does, or look at the website, vicsesva.org.au. Better still, come along to VicSESVA meetings and join in the advocacy work and representation already underway. You may be interested in participating as a Unit delegate, or take part in working groups or task forces.