Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 8/2/11

Good morning, here is the Team news:

Team Meeting—10 August 6:00-7:00pm.  We'll be at the Senior Center on Mira Mesa Blvd, Between New Salem/Reagan and Camino Ruiz.   Discussion/ideas for National Preparedness Month.  I think I will cook up a triage exercise also in case we have some time left, so please take a moment to look at your manuals and refresh your memories.

Reporting your hours—Several of us did not report attendance at last month's team meeting.   Please remember to drop me a note reporting ANY training you took or other volunteer time you put in, even if I saw you there.  We need this redundancy to ensure that there are no mistakes.  Thanks

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

-Steve

USAR Drill

I just got this in, the USAR is conducting a drill and we are being asked to participate.  This is a wonderful opportunity, because it emulates a potential real situation, where CERT would be the first to arrive, set up ICS, perform light rescue, triage, wound care, all of our skills, then we do the handoff to elements of USAR as they arrive on scene.  CERT will do this for the first few hours of the drill, then after the handoff most of the participating CERT will act as victims for the USAR at least part time during the rest of the drill.  CERT will probably not spend the whole time in the victim rolls, it appears that there will be some opportunity to shadow the drill proctors and observe the ICS operation.  Assignments will be on an as-needed basis, so you don't really know what you will be doing during the drill.  All in all this looks like it might be a good opportunity to observe the USAR in action and show them what we can do.  And, it is good for a CE.

Please download and read the agenda carefully:

http://www.sitetuneups.biz/CERT/CERT_Agenda_for_USAR_Exercise.pdf

Note that this is a LONG exercise, 7am-6pm,  and there will be some physical challenges, as well as possibly long periods of waiting.  Also, it is NOT a refresher, you will be expected to know the things you are supposed to know, so take another look at that manual.  If there are parts of CERT  operations you really don't like to participate in, this is not your drill.  I don't know if there will be a lunch break, or many other comforts (a lot like the real thing).  This is on a Thursday, August 11.  Location is Chula Vista Fire Station 4/Training facility.

ALL OF COUNTY CERT CAN PARTICIPATE IN THIS DRILL.  Sign up early for this if you want to go:

https://apps.sandiego.gov/ereg/cert/register.php?id=391

-Steve

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Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 7/26/11

Good morning, here is the news:

Training Hours Due—Please have your hours in to me by this Sunday Afternoon.  You should include the full name of the class, the Sponsor if it was not CERT, the Instructor's name and the number of hours you were engaged.

Team Meeting—10 August 6:00-7:00pm.  We'll be at the Senior Center on Mira Mesa Blvd, Between New Salem/Reagan and Camino Ruiz. Bring your ideas for reaching our Community during National Preparedness Month.  Every family that gets prepared makes our job easier when a disaster strikes.

Street Fair—17 September.  Morning and afternoon shifts will be available.  Please plan to spend some time with us that Saturday, we need you.

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

-Steve

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Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 7/19/11

Good morning, here is the news:

Team Meeting—10 August 6:00-7:00pm.  We'll be at the Senior Center on Mira Mesa Blvd, Between New Salem/Reagan and Camino Ruiz.  It's on the North side of Mira Mesa Blvd., so you have to be Westbound to turn in to it, unless of course you do some really creative off-roading (not recommended, they just got some decent landscaping in that center divide).  I'd love to get some triage work in, but I think we'd better get our story nailed down for National Preparedness Month, it will be our last meeting before that happens.  Please bring your good ideas, we need to reach the Community.

National Preparedness Month—This is a National Effort, sponsored by the Ready Campaign (a FEMA program) and the Citizen Corps.  So we can expect some Public Relations air cover.  Our objectives locally are to encourage more citizens to be prepared for disaster, and recruit members to our Team.  Preparing Mira Mesa is fundamental to our success.  It's a simple formula, every family that is prepared to deal with disaster is one more family we don't have to rescue.  As you think about how we might approach our Community, assume that we can get you some promotional materials (fliers, brochures etc.) and we may even be able to come up with a tabletop display.  As I'm sure you know, most retailers are not excited about camping outside their doors.  Even if it is your right to do so, I'm not excited about making local store management mad at us, so let's avoid that unless you have some sort of in with management at a local retailer.  I'm talking about putting in a presence at a social or professional group you belong to.  Perhaps they will let you say a few words at your next meeting, or set up a table, that sort of thing.  Public speaking not your thing?  Line up the opportunity, I'll try to make as many of them as I can (I don't lack for a word very often).  If you have an idea, please run it past me, then make the approach, and do it SOON.  September is already well on the radar for most organizations, if you want to get included in something, this really is pretty close to the last minute.  For all that you do, remember these three things:

·         Get buy-in from CERT through me.  SDFR needs to know where you are and what you are doing.  Enough said.

·         ASK PERMISSION from the group or other entity you want to work with.  Get me involved if it helps.  But don't just show up someplace.

·         You are CERT, a proud member of a wonderful volunteer organization dedicated to helping others when disaster happens.  Your dedication and commitment commands respect.  Remember that when you put on the green.

Street Fair—17 September.  Mark the Calendar, and plan to spend a few hours, we really need the help.  Morning and afternoon shifts will be available.  This is probably our best opportunity to have a real impact on our Community for National Preparedness Month.  I really want to get a group together before the Fair and practice some demos we can do to demonstrate our purpose and skills.  We could do this in our regular Team Meeting slot the Saturday before, but that's two Saturdays in a row, so maybe we'll schedule some time in the evening during the week.  Still working through the details, I'll have more next week.

That's all for this week.  Questions, comments, GREAT IDEAS, drop me a note.

-Steve

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CERT - START - RPM (Part 2).mpeg

CERT - START - RPM (Part 2).mpeg: "

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QuickTips for July – Important Information Needed After A Disaster

QuickTips for July – Important Information Needed After A Disaster: "

Think of what information you will need to carry on after a disaster. Much, but not all, of our important information today is stored in our computers. Copies of this information should be kept in a safe place such as a safe deposit box, at a relative’s house, outside the house with other disaster supplies or in a go-bag. Thumb drives could be very useful to store this information. If you are not computer capable, make do with copy machines.

Here is a list of items to get you started:

• Wills, insurance policies (home and autos), mortgage papers, deeds, Passports, driver licenses and credit cards (both sides), social security and medicare cards


• Birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates


• Bank and Brokerage account numbers and institution names


• Important phone numbers and addresses


• Health policy numbers and immunization records

You will also need information to file claims with FEMA and insurance companies. The sooner you can file, the sooner you will receive funds to begin rebuilding. This advice can save you MAJOR time and money.

To help support your claims you should have:

• Photos of every room, every closet, cupboard, drawer and cabinet as well as the exterior of the house and autos. These are the “before” photos so you can prove damage.

While you are gathering all of these “official” items, you might also want to store a copy of all of those digital family photos to protect family memories.

"

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 7/12/11

Good morning, here is the news:

Team Meeting— 10 August, 6:00pm—7:00pm.  We have space reserved at the Senior Center.  I'm thinking we will work on triage fundamentals, excepting those who just graduated from Academy, it has been awhile for many of us.  We'll do a review of the procedure, various marking methods, and then get right to practice.  I'll try to come up with something creative for practice, but I'll be going for brain-numbing repetition, this is one of those things that we all need to be able to just do without thinking about it too much, and for most of us there is only one way for that to happen.  Finally we'll try to squeeze in more time talking about National Preparedness Month.  If we have enough good ideas to discuss, then we'll put off the triage practice for October I think, and just work on our plans.

National Preparedness Month—Great meeting last Sunday, but we didn't get to put a lot of time in on this.  September is National Preparedness Month.  I understand that there is a media campaign being put in place for this.  Basically we have the opportunity to go out in the Community in our gear and promote personal/family preparedness as well as recruit for CERT.  With any luck at all we will have an Academy on the schedule by then (so I'm told) that we can use as a call to action.  There are a ton of possibilities, here are two to think about; if you know of an organization that is having a gathering, like a harvest festival or block party, perhaps we can set up a table there.  Or, if you are a member of a community-based organization, we might be able to get a few minutes at their September event/meeting to say a few words about preparedness and CERT.  If you want me to address your group, I'm happy to do that if I can squeeze it on my calendar.  Whatever you do, it needs to be approved in advance.  This won't be a big deal, the point is you should not pop up in the Community in your emergency kit when the SDFR/CERT doesn't know about it.  That's a bad thing.  Please remember we already have the Street Fair on 17 September, probably our best chance to hit a large local audience, so I hope you will mark your Calendar and make plans to join us then, we need all the CERT people we can get to really put on a show.  With any luck at all, we can get some decent rescue practice in with the deal.  Please send your ideas in, I'd love to see the next Academy start with about 40 locals in it, and remember, every person we can convince to do basic preparation is one more individual/family we may not have to rescue on the day.

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

Mira Mesa Team Newsletter 7/5/11

Good morning, I hope everyone had a nice holiday, here is the News:

Training Hours—I have attached our training hours report to this email.  Please let me know if you cannot open it.  We are trying this in the entire organization to make our training reports more accurate.  Please review this TODAY if at all possible and let me know if you see any issues with regards to the training you took in June.  Sorry for the short notice, but I need to get our hours in TOMORROW first thing, so please jump on this for me.

Team Meeting—Sunday, 10 July, 9:00am at our rally point, near the Recreation Center on New Salem Drive, just East of Mira Mesa Blvd.  I think I will give a short talk to get us all on about the same page, then we will run at least two scenarios.  I urge everyone to at least take the first of the five online ICS classes that are required of everyone before this meeting, you'll find it invaluable.  Also, we will be looking for fresh ideas for this year's Street Fair (more in the next item).  Should be a fast moving meeting, see you there.  I think this one will run a bit over, but we should be done by 10:15-10:20.  BRING a CHAIR or something to sit on, we'll be out in the park.  Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is NOT required for this meeting.  Lots of water and sunscreen (even at that hour) are good ideas.

That's all for this week, Battalion News follows.  Won't be a lot in there, things should pick up moving into August.

-Steve

First Aid Shopping

First Aid Shopping: "

Just in time for Skills Day training, I was in REI yesterday and saw these two items on the rack. They are probably the items that we get the most questions on regarding where to buy them.

"

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.