There were 19 out of 53 members in attendance.

Great news! We have a fulltime director…

Ed Hickox introduced our new CERT Director, Richard Becker. Richard is willing to take on this task and we thank him for his time and dedication. He will be gone some this summer, finishing up business up north, and then he will be a full-time Creeker. John and Ed and Dave and I will cover for Richard as needed (see how big a job the Director's post is if it takes 4 people to cover it).

Team Leaders found…

Richard recruited volunteers to head up the different teams of our CERT organization:

Les Lowman will head Fire Suppression

Geri Hudak has volunteered to head the Medical team

Duane Shaffer will head Communications

Dave McCarthy remains as Assistant Director

Susan Stratton remains as Secretary

Jackie Yorker is our Treasurer

Dave Haggett volunteered to be "Quartermaster" in charge of ensuring we have ample and current supplies stocked in the POA hangar when that space becomes available.

We still need someone to head Search and Rescue.

The responsibilities of these lead people will be developed over time, documented, and handed out to everyone.

Treasurer's Report…

Richard asked for a monthly update on the balance in our budget. Jackie was not at the meeting, so Ed Hickox reported that there is approximately $1400.00 in our account.

Backpack Show and Tell…

It was mentioned that if there are basic supplies that everyone needs in their backpacks, perhaps some of our CERT budget could be used to purchase these items rather than have everyone spending their own money on them. Then, each member would purchase the unique things that they want for themselves.

Phones, Zones, and so on…

A lengthy and worthwhile discussion was held concerning the effectiveness of the phone tree during an emergency… a safe assumption would be that the phones would be down. Establishing Zone Leaders as a point of contact was proposed, but then concern was voiced about the ability of Security to find the Zone Leader for various reasons. It was concluded that, in the event that the phones are out, instead of Security trying to find a specific person in a Zone, they would use the Members by Zone Listing (which lists name and address of each member in a Zone), find the first person at home, then that person becomes responsible for contacting the rest of their Zone members by going door to door if necessary. Once a Zone has been surveyed, a Zone member will report the findings to the CERT Command and wait for further instructions.

The Phone Tree will continue to be used for announcements, practice assemblies, or when the County needs to get volunteers for another area, etc.

Richard encouraged each Zone Team to meet to get to know each other and to see where each one lives. He also encouraged each Zone to designate a meeting place within their Zone for assembling and reporting status during a disaster. The first to arrive could be the one to report to CERT Command by radio; however, each Zone Team should be able to work out procedures that fit their particular needs.

We will discuss this further at the next meeting.

CERT members in the POA Directory…

It was suggested that the CERT Members names, addresses and phone #'s be put in the next revision of our POA Directory so that our neighbors would know who we are. This has been done and should be in the Blue Pages of the next POA Directory.

Handouts…

Hurricane information sheets, and triage tags and an excellent CERT Field Manual compiled by Carole Pooke were handed out. We will bring more of these to the next meeting. Be sure to get the Field Manual, it is a must have in you package of goodies.

NEXT MEETING is TUESDAY, APRIL 16^th, from 2pm to 3:30pm in Doris Kennedy's hangar (same place as our March meeting). Go down Cessna Blvd. to # 222 and go back to the right corner hangar.