Good morning, here is the news:
Bad Information—is almost impossible to get out of
the system once it is in there, and bad info breeds more bad info. Last
week I announced that there would be no meeting in November, then in the same
news item I covered December's meeting. Bad formatting, those two things
should have been separate items. Then I put out a "Mark Your
Calendar" announcement for January's meeting, but called it the December
meeting instead. From my subsequent correction email, some of you got the
impression that there is no meeting in December. Thus it goes. So,
please read the following meeting announcements carefully, I will try to get it
all straight this time.
December Team Meeting— Our next meeting is on Monday,
10 December, 6:00pm—7:00pm. We will meet in the Mira Mesa Senior Center,
8640 Mira Mesa Blvd. That's between New Salem/Reagan Rd and Camino
Ruiz. The Senior Center is on the North Side of Mira Mesa Blvd., so you
must be going westbound to get into the place. Enter the first of two
driveways, it is one way going in the first drive and one way coming out the
second. If you miss it, you should to go up Camino Ruiz, turn right on
New Salem and make another pass. Of course you could also try to get
across four lanes of traffic on Mira Mesa Blvd., make the U-turn at Camino
Ruiz, then the U-turn at Reagan/New Salem, just before 6:00pm on a weekday when
it's dark out. Your choice. DO NOT park at the IHOP, your car will
not be there when you return.
This meeting will be mainly an orientation for new members,
so I especially hope our new people can make it. We will go over what you
need to do to qualify for DSW, and some good strategies for doing that.
We'll also cover basic PPE and other gear, you don't need to spend a fortune to
be effective. You Veterans please bring Go-bags if you want to share
them, and any tips for getting hard to get gear like gloves that fit and such.
If we've got time (which I doubt) we'll take a look at the meeting calendar for
2013 and answer questions.
JANUARY Team Meeting—Please mark your calendars for
Thursday, 10 January, 6:00pm. We'll be meeting in the Senior
Center. Assistant Team Leader Jennifer Tang will be doing a wound care
review. If I know Jennifer, this will be very fast paced and
informative. We should have the Academy training kit, so it isn't
necessary to bring your own supplies, however, if you'd like to try your own
stuff out please do bring it along. Basic wound care is one of those
things we can't practice too much. In a real situation, we'll need to be
very competent and extremely efficient. I hope you can make it.
Occasional Rant—the Rant is my little space for the
occasional editorial. Opinions are mine, and do not express the views of
our CERT leadership or the City of San Diego. This time I want to talk
about situational awareness in light of my giving out bad data last week.
Information is like that, one minute it's a fact, the next it is wrong.
Having good information and regularly checking what you think you
"know" is essential to maintaining your own safety and your group's
safety as well as ensuring a successful mission. Here are some essential
items to remember:
·
Read carefully/listen well
·
Do not proceed if you are uncertain about what
you just learned. Ask for clarification.
·
Talk about what you are doing with your Team
·
Always ask "is it safe?" Your
safety is your personal responsibility
·
Always ask "it was safe the last time I
asked, is it still safe?". Things change.
Two of you caught my error last week before I printed a
correction. I'm sure some of you noticed it and wondered, then let it
go. That's fine for our current circumstances. In an emergency
I should have received a question from every single one of you who read it
before my correction. For you new folk, I think our Veterans will tell
you that I don't make too many mistakes in the News, because as I said I know
how hard it is to kill bad info, so I check my facts carefully. Mistakes
still happen.
That's all for this week, questions, comments you know how
to find me.
-Steve
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