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CERT Program
Minutes for
Attendance: Thomas Smith, President, presided. Twenty CERT members signed the Roster. Chief Brian Geraci, who has full administrative and organizational responsibility for the CERT program, was in attendance.
New Business:
New
The new Montgomery County Maryland CERT website was presented to the membership. The address is www.MontgomeryCERT.org (upper or lower case letters do not matter) We also secured www.MontgomeryCERT.com to avoid any possible misuse of the .com domain (It will take you to the .org automatically). We purchased a secure certificate to allow encrypted transmission of information to and from the website. We are expecting this site will improve communications and keep all CERT members (both old and new) up to date with events and information they may find useful. The site is "under construction". First year fees for hosting, domain name and secure certificate costs came out of the pockets of Thomas Smith (President), Anne Culver (Vice-President) and Rafael Ameller (Secretary). All voluntary donations from the membership are welcome to keep this site alive. Those interested in donating can contact Rafael Ameller, Montgomery CERT Secretary.
Personal info needed from CERT Membership can be filled out on the website under a secure (encrypted) area Thanks to the website we now have a way for our members to submit the information we need for our databases securely. On the homepage there is a secure link to the membership info submission page. All information entered by CERT members is sent encrypted over the Internet and securely stored on the web server. An email will be sent out with this news.
Collection for the Sulley District,
At the next Montgomery CERT meeting Thomas
Smith, Montgomery CERT President, will be collecting voluntary donations for the
family of the Sulley District,
Cash and check (payable to Thomas Smith) donations are accepted. A receipt will be handed over to each person donating. The collected money will go as a donation from Montgomery County CERT to the trust fund for the Armel Family.
Montgomery County CERT representatives will be at the National CERT conference in Los Angeles – May 15-17, 2006
The conference is being
held in
Thomas Smith, Montgomery CERT president, and Chief Geraci will attend this conference.
Old Business:
Committee Chairs
The group consensus was that Committee Chairs
would not be elected positions but would be named based on member interest.
Committee Chairs are needed for these positions: Contact Rafael Ameller, Montgomery CERT Secretary, to participate.
CERT custom embroidered clothing EmbroidMe of Rockville, MD www.embroidmeMD.com Call for availability and pricing 1032 Rockville Pike
Phone (301) 315-0488
Interested in an Amateur Radio License? Contact William Hatfield at a CERT meeting.
CERT Members ID Cards: Chief Geraci distributed CERT Identification Badges to members who had been processed. CERT IDs must be picked up at the monthly CERT meetings. 2 IDs are distributed now. One is your ID and the other is the PASSTAG. The PASSTAG is used at the scene of an emergency for accountability. When you arrive you need to hand over your PASSTAG to command. This way command knows at all times who arrived at the scene (and who may be trapped or hurt). Only more recent graduates have 2 CERT badges. For those CERTs with only one badge (the ID), the Chief is working on getting new IDs produced.
Addresses for regional service centers: An email will be sent out.
Training: John H. Fluharty, Jr. from Washington Gas gave a presentation on natural gas safety More information can be obtained from their website: www.washingtongas.com
Upcoming Events:
Next CERT Meeting:
EmbroidMe of
Ride along with Fire and Rescue Those interested should contact Rafael Ameller so we can schedule rides. Please send Rafael your geographical area and preferred dates and times. Those of you who have already sent your information are on the list and do not need to send a request again. Chief Geraci has the list and is working on it.
July 2006(?) Weekend training on new regulations for CPR and first aid It is important for CERTs to attend this training.
National Home Safety Month Free Home Safety Literacy Project and other materials can be obtained at: homesafetycouncil.org
Community Outreach: Chief Geraci and Thomas Smith would like to see more CERTs involved in community outreach activities. There is a video, CERT and ERC brochures and a banner for distribution in upcoming events.
Chief Geraci could use the help from the team for the following events:
Emergency Preparedness Fair
May 13, 2006 - 12 ( 11700 Falls Road
Taste of
Quince Orchard Library Community Day
This is an important event for CERTs
September 2006 Emergency preparedness month
Corrections to
Under: Upcoming Events - Next CERT Meeting The following information was changed:
Corrected:
Other items:
Equipment:
CERT Go Bags and
CERT Vests were distributed to CERT Members who had not received their bag at a
previous meeting. Each Go Bag comes with a few items but needs to be
supplemented. If you do not have a Go Bag please let
Alert
Alert
To enroll in the Alert Montgomery system, go to http://alert.montgomerycountymd.gov First, you need to register as a new user (on the left side menu, just under the log in area) and establish a password to set up your account. Once into the system, select your status as a CERT volunteer by choosing the group name CERT; then enter the registration code (contact Rafael Ameller).
You can also elect to receive notifications about severe weather or traffic. NOTE: Subscribing to severe weather and traffic alerts will increase the number of messages you receive.
Alert
- e-mail account (work, home, other) - cell phone - text pager - BlackBerry - wireless PDA |
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Montgomery County Maryland Community Emergency Response Team website |
