...in pursuit of control room best practice
History
In 2013, a number of control room stakeholders attended a Control Room Design and Operation conference in Sydney. It was unique and important and filled a room with 80 people. It was a forum which involved operators, managers, designers, human factors and ergonomics. It held the interest of representatives from oil, gas, electrical generation and distribution, market operators, transport, tunnels, mining and infrastructure; educators and researchers; consultants and trade vendors. It was a forum which had not been convened before in Australia.
It was held again in Sydney in 2014 and Melbourne in 2015.
It was evident that delegates wanted participation and representation – a members' organisation which would continue to provide and manage a members’ forum to support the control room industry.
Following the 2015 conference a few individuals created the Australian Control Rooms Network – a LinkedIn group – which provided an ongoing forum. They designed and produced OZCORONET 2016 – the group’s self-organised three day conference in Brisbane. Not only was the content professional and unusual, but the vitality and networking proved the appetite for this forum. The presentations included live theatre safety training with actors; eight case studies, international presenters and delegates; and eight facility site visits with an insights and lessons learnt panel session back at the conference with the site visit hosts. The Brisbane conference closed with the 73 registered participants voting to sustain this forum and to formalise it.
The Australian Control Room Network Association was registered with ASIC on the 9th November 2017. An Association committee was established with the main aims to seek corporate membership and to hold a conference in mid to late 2018.
Two corporate memberships were established with Jemena and Transurban. The three day conference was held in Parramatta in November 2018, with the Association’s inaugural AGM held on day 3 with 55 people voting in a management committee of 11 and confirming the common goal to share and improve their knowledge of control room operation and design.
The Benefits of Membership
The ACRNA is set up to support members with a resource gathering, sharing and development forum, and to provide a network of individuals and corporates who want to actively participate in pursuing operational best practice.
Membership of the Association provides those connections through the website, enables you to actively participate in gathering, sharing and developing resources, and financial membership enables you to attend the very successful annual conference.
Individual and Corporate Memberships are available.
ASIC and Fair Trading Status
The Australian Control Room Network Association (ACRNA) is a not-for-profit Incorporated Association with the Queensland Department of Justice Office of Fair Trading and an Australian Registered Body with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
It exists to provide and manage a members’ forum to support the control room industry.
ACRNA 2019 Committee
The ACRNA Committee meets monthly.
Geoff McKernan
President
Transurban
Russell Ockendon
Secretary, Treasurer
Control Centres Australia
Mark Holmes
Committee
Circadian Australia
Lena Kimenkowski
Committee
Critical Room Solutions
Steven Riley
Committee
Emergency Management Victoria
Ron Whalen
Committee
Essential Energy
Ron Combey
Committee
Essential Energy
David Ryan
Committee
Tim Bell
Committee
TMR Qld
Brad Collis
Committee
Transurban
Stuart Cariss
Committee
AGL Energy
Paul Lewis
Committee
Viva Energy
Timothy Pullens
Committee
Jemena
Steven Saunders
Committee
Powerlink Queensland
ACRNA 2019 SubCommittees
The ACRNA Committee has formed a number of SubCommittees to distribute the work of the committee.
Administration & Finance (A&FSC)
Russell Ockendon, Mark Holmes
Membership (MSC)
Geoff McKernan, Lena Kimenkowski, Steven Riley
Corporate Membership (CMSC)
Geoff McKernan, Mark Holmes
Development & Resources (D&RSC)
Ron Whalen, David Ryan, Steve Saunders, Stuart Cariss
Website (WSC)
Russell Ockendon, Lena Kimenkowski, Brad Collis
Conference (CSC)
Russell Ockendon, Mark Holmes, Tim Pullens, David Ryan
