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Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service CERT Program Minutes for August 10, 2006
Attendance: - Thomas Smith, President, presided. - Thirty-seven 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 9:00 PM at the Public Safety Training Academy (PSTA), 9710 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville, MD 20850
New Business:
The Montgomery County Emergency Preparedness Volunteer Center One of our CERT Members, Jeff Levine, talked about the Montgomery County Emergency Preparedness Volunteer Center and the Emergency Action Team (EAT). It is a county government agency that registers volunteers and volunteer organizations, such as the language bank used by Montgomery County for volunteer interpreters. The Emergency Action Team is the "untrained" version of CERTs - Volunteers interested in helping during emergency situations but not actually trained for first response. The center is always looking for volunteers. They are in dire need of sign-language interpreters. If you know of anybody who can help please point them to their website.
American Red Cross training Course information, dates and registration links are available on our Montgomery CERT website under News - Training - ARC training The Shelter Operations and Simulation courses have two pre-requisites: The Introduction to Disaster Services Course (which can be taken on-line) and the Mass Care Overview class. For more information go to our ARC Training page.
Committees Anne Culver, VP, presented the latest committees draft document and help was asked from the membership to volunteer for the committee positions that have been identified. Many members had comments on the draft document.
Based on the discussion during the meeting, the
committee structure was simplified to reflect groupings of tasks with the idea
that committees of people interested in the tasks outlined get together and form
committees, with one person as the lead. This would result in provisional
committee chairs and the team would basically try out the structure. An email will be sent out with information on how to apply for these positions.
Addresses for regional service centers A document with the regional service centers was handed out and has been made available on our Montgomery CERT website under Resources.
Mandatory National Incident Management System (NIMS) training for CERTs
Training and education resources available
from FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) is available on our website
under News - Training -
FEMA Training
Old Business:
Montgomery CERT website We are 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.
CERT Training A system to collect 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.
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
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).
Upcoming Events and Training:
Next CERT Meeting: Thursday, September 14, 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
Damage Assessment class taught by Mr.
Stephen King. 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.
Community Outreach: There is a banner, video, CERT and ERC brochures for distribution in upcoming events.
Check our
Montgomery CERT website under
News - Outreach for
the latest info and links. Chief Geraci could use the help from the team for the following events:
September 2006
Sunday 9/10/06 1100-1830
Check our
Montgomery CERT website under
News - Outreach for
the latest info and links. 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 |
