Members and volunteers of the New Zealand Red Cross converged in Tauranga today to brainstorm how they would help the vulnerable people of the Bay of Plenty for the following year.

Waikato/Bay of Plenty Red Cross area manager Sue O'Donnell says they all get together once a year to try and come up with fresh ideas.

Red Cross disaster welfare support team leader David Horgan and training coordinator Rick Hopcroft with a Rotorua Red Cross disaster welfare trailer.

Brainstorming ideas for the next year.

'Vulnerable means anybody in need. I guess at the time that could include any of us with things from meals on wheels to hospital transport and disaster management.

'We have just taken under our umbrella the curtain bank in Tauranga, so families who would not be able to afford curtains in winter can be referred and we will provide them with curtains.” She says today was really about the sharing of ideas and coming up with new ideas of moving forward.

'Red Cross is an aging membership and we are looking at ways of introducing youth into Red Cross.

'We have the emergency management side of things which is highly active and tends to attract youth.”

Sue says if there is a disaster in like, like a tsunami, the Red Cross would send out a response team who would work with Civil Defence.

'We have the capacity to set up welfare centres with beds and food and all the emergency gear to help with safety.”