Good morning, here is the news:
*******MIRA MESA*********
Team Meeting— This Thursday, starting at 6:00, my house 10125 Baffin Drive. If you need driving directions, contact me directly. Please bring an FRS radio if you have one. Don't forget to pull it out and charge it before the drill (how about today?) Bring the manual also if you can find it. We'll get some practice on the basics; sending, receiving, changing channels etc. Come anyway if you don't have a radio, you can borrow one for the drill. Next month we are going to do this out in the field to see how well our radios do, so if you need some practice, or have never actually used the thing, please plan to join us this Thursday. If we finish early, we will review utility shutoff. We'll be doing this in my garage, and as always chairs at my place are in short supply, if you have something you can EASILY bring, schlep it along (leave the Barcalounger at home).
*******BATTALION 5**********
Continuing Education—This just posted, but it is coming up soon. Thursday, 17 February, down at the NTC, starting at 6:00pm. Family Preparedness with Brian Kidwell. If you've never seen Brian, and even if you have, try to make this one. His command of the subject material is truly amazing. We all know that our first duty in a true emergency is to ourselves and our families. This is where you can go to learn what you need to know. Sign up here:
Trust me, this one will fill FAST. If you want/need to go, sign up today. Sponsored by Battalion 6.
Continuing Education—This one has been on the site for some time now, but Beach Team only sign-up. It opens for the rest of us TOMORROW, so please wait until then to sign up. Sunday, 20 February, 9am—1pm, down at the NTC. We don't have much more than that. It is billed as a "learning exercise" and "not for everyone". Probably involves rescue techniques, but I'm guessing here, the surprise is part of the training experience. I really don't think that anyone should be scared by the advertising, but you probably want to avoid this one if you are currently mending a broken leg or something similar. You don't really know what your limits will be in a real emergency if you don't test them. Go here to sign up:
Continuing Education, Volunteering and Your Taxes— The first class is already full, if you are waiting on this one, don't. The open class is 26 March, 9am—11am down at NTC. Malcolm Gettman, Battalion Liaison, veteran IRS Agent and straight shooter. Go here to sign up:
DSW Renewals—I made an error in last week's News, the next renewal deadline is end of March, not April.
Occasional Rant—We are wealthy with opportunity this month. Three solid CE's. I can tell you that it is hard to set up a good search/rescue exercise, which is why they don't come very often, and much thanks to Beach Team for putting this together (assuming of course that search/rescue is what they are doing). Has it been awhile since you practiced? Here's a test, if you have not met our Big Heavy Dummy, or don't know him well enough to have an active dislike for him, you need some training. Moving on, the benefit of Kidwell's wisdom is priceless, and it is not often that a professional with Malcolm's background holds forth on a subject that can be very important to volunteers. Either of these guys could make money off of this, but they offer it to us for free. My message is this, don't think we can keep up this three quality CE's a month thing. If you don't have enough CE's RIGHT NOW to satisfy the current qualification period, you must consider taking one of these. Special note for Academy 24 grads, you will need to have two CE's and two Team Meetings by next May, that's coming up SOON, so get signed up and take a class.
I'm Just Sayin—Those of you who read our morning paper The San Diego Union-Tribune probably saw the front-page article about the effect of the brownouts on response times. Our SDFD is doing a tremendous job in the face of continuing adversity, and I salute them. The sidebar on the second page of the article identified four incidents, the implication being that the outcomes might have been different if the brownouts weren't in place. This is unfortunate and disappointing in two ways; first, there is no guarantee whatsoever that any of the outcomes would have changed. Second, while again there are no guarantees, in some of those incidents the outcome MIGHT have changed if anyone present had taken CPR/AED. CPR/AED is not a CERT skill, we acknowledge that our mission does not allow us to spend that kind of time with a patient in a mass casualty situation. However, San Diego CERT does allow CE credit for CPR/AED, as well as Basic First Aid, which is a great supplement to our own wound care training. You can take both in a single day and get CE credit for each. These classes aren't free, but I can tell you from my own experience that the quality of the instruction at the Red Cross is very good indeed. Better still, these classes are given regularly by the Red Cross at their Headquarters just a few minutes from Mira Mesa on Calle Fortunada just off Ruffin Rd. The brownouts affect all of us, let's try to do what we can to help our Firemen. I'm just sayin.
That's all for this week, questions, comments, drop your Team Leader a note.
-Steve
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