Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 6/14/11

Good morning, day late again, here is the news:

Team Meeting—Sunday, 10 July.  We plan to meet at our rally point, in Mira Mesa Park near the Recreation  Center, New Salem Drive just East of Mira Mesa Blvd.  We plan to start at 9:00am, end about 10:30.  I realize this is a Sunday Morning.  If you already know you can't make this, please reply to this email.  We can move to the afternoon, but I think we'll want to move the location also if we do that.  I just don't see our whole group being able to park anywhere near that place on a Sunday afternoon in July.  We'll just hit the rally point in August instead, the 10th falls on a Wednesday.

For our new people, we are usually a little slow in early Summer.  I'll have more on that in the Battalion news.  All for this week, any questions you know how to find me.

-Steve

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Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 6/7/11

Good morning, here is the news, Battalion news follows:

New Members—A big welcome to our new members:

Steve Domowski

Onepeng Khongkham

Mark Wright

Really pleased to have you all on board, and looking forward to training with you!

Graduation—Special thanks to Karen Nicholson and Stewart Migdal for being really good troopers; they showed up for a team meeting and were promptly shanghaied by a certain mustachioed Fireman/Paramedic, who put them to work in Logistics.  You guys plugged a big hole in our manpower picture.  Thanks.

Team Meeting—Sunday, 10 July.  Let's meet at our primary rally point, our new members can get a chance to see the place.  Near the Recreation Center on New Salem, just East of Camino Ruiz, we try to meet in the open air gazebo if it is available.  I think we'll go for something pretty early in the morning, maybe 9:00am?  Any later and  we probably won't be able to park within a mile of there.  We are way overdue for some ICS practice, so plan for that.  I will cook up some scenarios, hopefully we can play through 3 scenes, may take up to 1 1/2 hours.

All for this week, Battalion News around Noon today, I have a few things going on this morning.  Questions, Comments, you know how to find me.

-Steve

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Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 5/31/11

Good afternoon, I hope everyone had a nice holiday, here is the news.  Battalion news follows:

Team Meeting—We are moving this from the 10th to this next Saturday.  Meeting will be down at NTC, starting at 8:30.  Don't be late for this one, the Academy class gets there for graduation and there are a lot of them this time, so parking will be a challenge.  Carpool if you can.  We'll take a look in the trailer, check out the equipment available, and watch the HAM guys set up their own drill in the trailer,  We'll probably be underfoot, which may draw accurate small arms fire from the HAM Team, so a little cardio may be involved also.  If anyone feels like being a victim for the graduation drill after that, they might take you without the moulage and all that, we can ask.

Training Hours for May—Due today by 7:00pm.  Again, even if I saw you at our Team Meeting, you need to report it.  Don't worry about SPAMMING me, it's ok.

All for this week, questions, comments, you know..........

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 5/24/11

Good morning, here is the news, Battalion News follows:

Team Meeting—I'm giving serious thought to changing our meeting to Saturday, 4 June, down at NTC, starting about 8:30am.  It's graduation day for the Academy, so parking might be tight, but they will have the CERT trailer out and open.  If I can work this out, we can spend a few  minutes going through the contents of the trailer.  Most of our newer grads don't get to see the trailer at graduation, and many of you have not seen it in a long time (hint: if you still think we have axes, you need a fresh look).  Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in this, if I get more than about 5 people, we'll move the date.  Otherwise we'll stick with our 10 June date, Friday at the Senior Center, starting at 6.

Training Hours—It's time to pull together your training hours for this month, I'll ask for them next week.  Even if I saw you at some qualified event, including our Team Meeting, you have to send me a note.  You are responsible for tracking and reporting everything you attend for CERT, to include Date, Time, Title of the class, Instructor and number of hours.  Generally Red Cross approved classes such as CPR/AED and First Aid qualify for Continuing Education, for anything else if you are taking it solely for the credit, please ask me first so I can get it approved.

That's all for this month.  Questions, comments, you know how to find me.

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 5/17/11

Good morning, here is the news, Battalion News follows:

Team Meeting—The tenth falls on a Friday in June (yippee....).  We are in The Senior Center again.  This time I'm pretty sure we'll be in the Library, they'll be doing things in the main hall.  We'll shoot for 6:00 again, that seemed to work out well.

it is almost June—Yes, halfway through the year.  I don't have that many ICS certificates yet.  I know, it's a big chunk of time to get one of these done, I'm just giving up some mindless TV nights (Law and Order Criminally Redundant will just have to go on without me).  Please don't let it wait, that won't make it better, trust me.   If you have some technical issue I might help with drop me a note, I'll do my best.  Some of you are falling a bit behind on your training and/or team meetings, if you are having a lot of scheduling conflicts with CERT functions I need to know, we'll try to work something out.  You are all valuable to our program, and I want to keep everyone on board.

That's all for this week, questions, comments, you know how to find me.  Battalion News follows.

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 5/10/11

Good morning, here is the news:

ICS/NIMS Online classes—I took my first one last week (IS-100b), and was really very impressed by the quality of the instruction, it's a thoroughly professional presentation that was very informative.  They walk you through successive screens of information, then ask a few review questions that are answered on the spot, and you get a chance to re-answer the question if you get it wrong.  Sometimes you are asked to simply type in your impressions or answers, then they give you possible answers, there is no "right" or "wrong" on these.  Then there is an occasional video.  They manage to provide a learning experience that works for nearly everyone without being overbearing, it's a pretty good trick.  A few technical issue, sometimes their feedback is short, sometimes there is quite a bit of it, you have to be sure to scroll down on every screen whether or not it looks like there is something there.  Also, once you get started, you can't drop it and come back later unless you leave your browser open to where you were in the instruction, this is one time I would have appreciated it if they dropped a session cookie on me so I could come back to it later and start where I left off.

I strongly urge you to get started on these if you have not, they are required as you know, and there is good reason for that.  Pretty much every First Responder in the Country is required to know these concepts.  They will be invaluable when the Day comes.  Here is the list of required classes:

100b

200

700a

704

800b

You can access these courses here:

http://training.fema.gov/IS/NIMS.asp

There is no signup on the CERT web site.

It's good stuff, trust me.  get on it.  Do remember to save your certificates as PDF files, so you can send them electronically to your Team Leader.

SD CERT Refresher—Still taking registrations, Saturday, 25 June 10-2, at our training facilities at NTC.

https://apps.sandiego.gov/ereg/cert/courses.php?grp=SDFD+Refreshers

If you aren't sure if you need a Refresher, drop your Team Leader a note today, please don't wait on this.

Volunteer Victims—Still needed for Academy Graduation, 4 June.  Know any Sumo Wrestlers?  Sign 'em up, these guys need a challenge, right?  Seriously, all types and ages wanted.  The makeup is really cool, but as I understand it if you really don't want the makeup, that's good too.  Have them go here:

https://apps.sandiego.gov/ereg/cert/courses.php?grp=Team+Trainings/Activities

to sign up.

Academy 27, Register for Notification—No, we don't have the next Academy on the Calendar yet, but if you know someone who  is interested, have them go here:

https://apps.sandiego.gov/ereg/cert/courses.php?grp=Team+Trainings/Activities

where they can register to be notified as soon as the next Academy opens for registration.  Registering for notification does NOT register Candidates for the Academy, when they get the notification they have to follow the link to sign up.  I think this is probably the only way to get in to the very popular Thursday night session these days, so tell your friends and co-workers this is the way to go if they want to join CERT.

That's all for this week, questions, comments, drop your Team Leader a note.

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Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 5/4/11

Good morning, a day late, here is the news:

Team Meeting— Tuesday, 10 May.  At the Senior Center, Mira Mesa Blvd. between Westonhill and Camino Ruiz.  I intended to swing by there yesterday to confirm our reservation and get the time moved from 5:30-6:30 to 6-7, but that didn't happen.  If I get in there today, I'll send a confirming note this afternoon.  I think we will discuss ICS as opposed to having a drill.  It might be good to talk about the thinking behind the model, and how we would relate in a larger organization during a large incident.  I know some of you have taken all or some of the required online courses, feel free to come and share your experience.  See you there!

Battalion News follows.  Maybe not right away, but I'll get it done.  Questions, comments, drop me a note.

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 4/26/11

Good morning, here is the news, Battalion News follows:

Training Reports Due—Any training you took this last month, or anything you have scheduled on Saturday, please let me know via email by this Friday close of business.  As always, I need the title of the course, instructor, date and the number of hours.

Team Meeting—Tuesday, 10 May, Verne Goodwin Senior Center, 8460 Mira Mesa Blvd.  Between Westonhill and Camino Ruiz, remember you have to approach this place from the East (traveling West), unless you have a very substantial vehicle and a contempt for median barriers (and little regard for local traffic laws, let's talk about this).  I'm going to check in with management there about having our meeting from 6:00 to 7:00, as several of you come from a ways away to get here.  Of course, if you have a problem going until 7, now is the time to weight in.  I should have some news on what we are doing next week, a little busy this one.  Your ideas are always welcome.

That's all for this week, questions, comments, you know how to find me.

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 4/19/11

Good morning, here is the Team News.  Battalion News follows:

Team Meeting—Tuesday, 10 May.   We'll be meeting in the  Verne Goodwin Senior Center, on Mira Mesa Blvd. between Camino Ruiz and Westonhill.  These great people found us some space, really hard to come by these days as so many of our City facilities close at night.  Meeting starts at 5:30.  I know a few of you have told me that you have a problem with the 5:30 time slot and would prefer 6-7, I might be able to get this changed for subsequent meetings (I'll have to ask the folk at the Senior Center, we have four more meetings scheduled there this year).  Please let me know if you have a vote one way or the other.  Not sure what we will do yet, but I think we are way due for some ICS work, so that will probably be it.

Cinco de Mayo—We have a booth at the Old Town festival.  Saturday and Sunday, 4/30-5/1.  No, it's not on Cinco de Mayo, never is unless the day falls on a weekend.  I'll have more on this in the Battalion News.  It's a pretty good recruiting opportunity, if you have some time for this, please give it some thought.  We don't have much detail yet, but as I remember shifts are usually two hours.  Sign up here:

https://apps.sandiego.gov/ereg/cert/courses.php?grp=Team+Trainings/Activities

Roster Update—I am churning through a long-overdue roster update.  If any of your contact information has changed over the last year, please drop me a note.

That's all for now, questions, comments, you know how to find me.

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 4/12/11

Good morning, here is the news.  Battalion news follows:

Team Meeting— Tuesday, 10 [May], at the Mira Mesa Senior Center, starting at 5:30.  We'll be in the Library/Media Room, not a huge facility, but it should hold us.  Frankly, I haven't thought a lot about this one, last Sunday's drill ate up a lot of "volunteer" hours.  I think maybe I will cobble together an ICS table top drill, other teams have been doing this, and it works.  I'll have more next week, as well as directions to the Senior Center.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the drill/meeting last Sunday, I thought it went pretty well.

That's all for this week (hey, they can't all have content like the New York Times).  Questions, comments, you know how to find me.

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 4/5/11

Good morning, here is our Team News.  Battalion News follows:

Team Meeting—This Sunday, 10 April 2011.  Carmel Valley Recreation Center:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=3777+Townsgate+Drive,+San+Diego,+CA+92130&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.891082,135.087891&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=3777+Townsgate+Dr,+San+Diego,+California+92130&z=17

Please RSVP for this meeting.  If we need more equipment, we can get it.

We will start PROMPTLY at 1:00, and go until about 3:30.  Yes, that's 2 1/2 hours, as we all know practicing rescue techniques takes time.  This is a Battalion 5 meeting, so we'll have people in from Teams North Coastal and Carmel Valley.  We've got a good mix of skills training planned, including:

* General rescue principles (just a few things they don't tell you in Academy)

* Effective size-up

* Transporting on litter

* Transporting with backboard

* Other carry techniques

*  Extraction with cribbing

*  Extraction when you don't have cribbing

* Common knots

Several of you have been after me for awhile to throw some knot practice into the mix, so we'll give that a try here.  I know some of you really aren't crazy about the Rescue practice, yes, it can be hard.  But really, if you don't want to practice Rescue, then you need to be at this meeting.  Remember our unofficial motto at CERT "Bring all you  have, do what you can".  We'll need you on the Day, and that will be the wrong time to find out what you can and cannot do.  My solemn promise, you will NOT be required to do anything you don't feel comfortable with.  So drop me a reply email and plan to be there.

That's all, questions, comments, drop me a note. Battalion News might be a bit later today (why yes, I DO have  a day job), but I should get it out before COB.

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 3/22/11

Good Morning, here is the Team News.  Battalion News later in a separate mail:

DSW Renewals—These are due in at the end of them month.   I'm going to grind through the requirements in the Battalion News that will be coming out later this morning with any luck at all.  Those of you who are recent graduates, I should have all of the info you need in there.  If you have questions or need my help with this, drop me a note.

April Team Meeting—10 April, Sunday, 1:00pm at the Carmel Valley Rec Center.  We're doing a joint meeting in April with the other teams in Battalion 5, North Coastal and Carmel Valley.  We'll practice basic search and rescue skills, and possibly utility shutoff.  I will ask for RSVP two weeks before the event, we'll want to plan our activities for the size of the crew we have.  Great chance to meet people from our sister teams in the Battalion and work with them.

Communication Plan—We did a bunch of work on this in our meeting two months ago, and I have not touched it since, so of course now it's real fresh.  I may have some time over the next week to write that up.  For those of you who participated and are waiting for the result, sorry for the delay and thanks for your patience.

That's all for this week, questions, comment, you know how to find me.

-Steve

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 3/15/11

Good morning, here is the news.  Remember, you'll get another email from me later with the Battalion-wide stuff in it.

April Team Meeting—10 April, Sunday.  We're doing a joint meeting in April with the other teams in Battalion 5, North Coastal and Carmel Valley.  Right now we're planning to have it at the Carmel Valley Recreation Center.  I'd like to shoot for a 1:00 start time, plan on two hours.  I think we will need RSVP for this one, we'll want to be sure to bring enough equipment to keep everyone busy.  We'll practice basic rescue skills, including extraction, stabilizing the patient, loading, unloading and transport.  Please get this one on your calendar if you possibly can, I would like to have you all meet our other Team Leaders  Greg Hom (North Coastal) and Preston Drake (Carmel Valley), one of them could be at the helm on The Day, and you should get to know them.  I'm going to get moving on coordinating this one with Greg and Preston over the next few days, and should have most of the details next week.

Last Month's Radio Drill—Somehow I don't think we got quite as good a coverage, but it wasn't bad.  here's what I think we learned:

·         We can still cover most of Mira Mesa with FRS radio, and buildings don't seem to make much of a difference, but if you are behind even the slightest terrain feature, you need to move.

·         Antenna position is important, straight up and down is best, and it seems that standing actually helps, the higher the better.

·         If you are in  a car, even stopped (you guys did STOP right?), it's probably best to get out of it to transmit

·         I was wrong about the radios, the $10 ones don't seem to work as well.  You probably need to invest over $20.

·         I have talked to the Teams on either side of us East to West (Carmel Valley and Scripps Ranch) and in those areas FRS is nearly useless except for close proximity work such as a search/rescue.  They are going HAM.  Expensive, but much, much better.

Upcoming Meetings—I was finally able to book the Senior Center for several of our meetings this year.  Great people in that place, they are all-volunteer.  I admit it's not on the top of my list, but I'm going to try to get the rest of the Year's Calendar for our Team finalized by the end of this month.  Next week I intend to post a preliminary plan in this Update with dates, times, locations and tentative subject for your review and comments.  Who knows, I might even get it posted on the CERT web site (Whoa, easy there Steve).

That's all for this week, questions, comments, you know how to find me.

-Steve

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