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Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service CERT Program Minutes for July 13, 2006
Attendance: - Thomas Smith, President, presided. - Forty-two CERT members signed the Roster. - Chief Brian Geraci, who has full administrative and organizational responsibility for the CERT program, was in attendance. - 7:00 PM through 9:30 PM at the Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA), 9710 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850
New Business:
Montgomery County CERT was activated in response to flooding in Montgomery County, MD during the week of June 26 to 30, 2006 CALL-OUTS: · Support of Montgomery County Fire/Rescue and Police for evacuation notification in area of Wheaton Dam, Monday June 26, 2006 · Support of Montgomery County Animal Services at Pet-Friendly Shelter at Montgomery County Fairgrounds, June 26-28, 2006 · Support of American Red Cross at shelter at Wheaton High School · Support of American Red Cross at shelter at Walter Johnson High School · Support of Montgomery County Police Department in notifying returning residents in the Lake Needwood floodplain of contingencies in case of dam failure
After Action Review of CERT Response to Flooding in Montgomery County, MD CERT members are requested to complete a report for any deployment to help the team improve its operations and its operating environment. A web form was prepared so the membership could submit their reports. The web form is available on the Feedback section of the website, under the Flooding June 2006 button. A first draft of the After Action Review was made available to CERT members before the meeting and printed copies were taken to the meeting. Updates to this document will be made available in the Resources section of the website.
Montgomery County Department of Homeland Security Director Gordon Aoyagi was at our CERT meeting to address the group and observe the after action discussion Director Gordon Aoyagi expressed great appreciation for our service in behalf of Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, the County Council and himself. Over 500 people signed up for Alert Montgomery by the end of the flooding event. Director Gordon Aoyagi handed out appreciation certificates to CERT members who had volunteered for the activation calls. The after action review draft was shared with the Director and the floor was opened to questions. CERT members are requested to complete a report for any deployment to help the team improve its operations and its operating environment.
Montgomery CERT website The Montgomery County Department of Homeland Security will pay for the first year fees for hosting, domain name and secure certificate costs. We will start using the Montgomery CERT web site more and more as an effective means of getting information out to members. Please visit it frequently. The address is www.MontogomeryCERT.org (upper or lower case letters does not matter) 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.
Committees Help was asked from the membership to identify the required committees and their tasks. All members were asked for input and ideas. A few members volunteered at the meeting to work with CERT VP Anne Culver to “digest” the feedback and prepare a list of requirements for committees. If any CERT members have any suggestions or ideas please submit them via the Feedbcak form on our website. Once available, the results of the first round of feedback will be made available to the membership.
CERT Training A system to recollect what training our CERT members has received will be put in place on our website. emails will be sent out when this feature is available.
Old Business:
Personal info needed from CERT Membership can be filled out on the website under a secure (encrypted) area 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.
CERT custom embroidered clothing EmbroidMe of Rockville, MD www.embroidmeMD.com Call for availability and pricing 1032 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 20852 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. An email will be sent out to identify which members have only one badge (the ID).
Addresses for regional service centers An email will be sent out.
Upcoming Events and Training:
Next CERT Meeting: Thursday, August 10, 2006, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA) 9710 Great Seneca Highway Rockville, MD 20850
Weekend Refresher in September During two days, on Saturday September 16 and on Sunday September 17, 2006, there will be trainers at the Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA) for CERT refresher classes. Training starts at 9:00 AM. CERT Refresher Training to cover CPR, Start Triage and basic first aid. All Montgomery CERT members are requested to attend one day. No pre-registration is necessary. Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA) Classroom # 2 9710 Great Seneca Highway Rockville, MD 20850
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.
Practical classes in August Leisure world and Bethesda new CERT graduates will have their practical on August 12. Montgomery CERT members are encouraged to attend.
WMATA Metro Citizen Corps August 2006 training There is still space for the Montgomery County CERT WMATA training in August 2006. The course of training is three consecutive Wednesdays, August 9, 16 and 23, 2006 at 6:00 PM (to 9:00 PM) We have set up a secure webpage on our site for our CERT members. A reminder email will be sent out.
Community Outreach: There is a banner, video, CERT and ERC brochures for distribution in upcoming events.
Chief Geraci could use the help from the team for the following events:
Montgomery County Fair Monday August 14 to Saturday August 19, 2006 Fairgrounds on Perry Parkway A volunteer sigh-up page with more information has been made available on our website https://www.montgomerycert.org/fair_2006.htm
September 2006 Emergency preparedness month
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 use the Feedback page on our site.
Alert Montgomery: Alert Montgomery is the communication system Montgomery County will use in the event of an emergency to communicate with CERT Members. It is imperative that all CERT Members register. 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 (use the Feedback page on our website to obtain the code). Montgomery County will send a text message to activate volunteer responders. 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 Montgomery delivers important emergency alerts, notifications and updates to you on any or all of your devices at once (your choice): - 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 |
