CERT Meeting Notes for January 13, 2004

Thanks to the 20 people who attended this month’s meeting.

  • Dave Munro, SC Flying Club President, gave a special thank you to our CERT for helping with this year’s Toy Parade.  Dave made it very clear that while the Toy Parade format cannot accommodate booths or displays, they certainly encourage floats that advertise organizations like CERT. He is looking forward to working with us in the future.
  • CPR class for January 27th is full.  Security Director, Jim Brenton, said that he has a CPR instructor on staff who will be offering classes to SC Security and residents.
  • Geri Hudak will be giving a first aid class in February.  Date and time will be broadcast soon.
  • To protect assets in the POA hangar, only a limited number of people have keys.  Security has a key at the front gate. The first person dispatched in an emergency should go to the gate and get the key. Also, the following CERT and Airport Committee members have keys:
    • P. Rouse, Airport Mgr. 322-4177 or 451-7870 (cell)
    • R. Becker, Asst. Airport Mgr. and CERT Director, 760-0407
    • R. Russell 760-6188 or 405-6226 (cell)
    • F. Bottoms 760-6163 or 795-1592 (cell)
    • A. Brillaud 761-6409 or 405-0201 (cell)
    • T. Evernham 304-8233 or 679-9702 (cell)
    • S. Whittenberger 760-1058 or 846-5132 (cell)
    • E. Hickox, CERT, 788-9111 or 547-8829 (cell)
    • R. Gage, POA Bd. Rep. and CERT, 304-6808
    • D. Funk 304-6144 or 871-0773 (cell)
    • J. Van Osdol 788-5953
  • Our new general radio frequency is 7-11.   Both gates and the rover trucks monitor this frequency.
  • We have started upgrading our radios with long-range units. The Wings and Wheels donation from our 2003 participation and the donation from the Picard Family allowed Dave McCarthy to provide each Zone with at least one new radio… Zone A: Dick Amell; Zone B: Les Lowman; Zone C: Richard Becker; Zone D: Dave Haggett; Zone E: Dave McCarthy; Zone F: John Stratton.  More radios will be purchased once Dave is happy with how they work.
  • Fire extinguishers placed around the runway have been subjected to vandalism.  To curb this, the Airport Manager is going to place simple combination locks on the doors. Richard Becker will give us the combination once it is agreed upon.
  • It was suggested that the fire extinguisher locations be placed on our Zone Map.  (If anyone would like to research this and markup a map, I’ll get it distributed.)
  • Mike Keemar said that he would organize a “scavenger hunt” sometime after Wings and Wheels to help us all learn more about the locations of fire extinguishers and other emergency resources.
  • There was a lot of discussion about people in our community not knowing what CERT is or does.  (This is a little surprising to John and me, because we have written articles for the Update, advertised classes and events on Channel 2, placed write-ups in the Directory, assembled a booth for Wings and Wheels, participated in an award-winning float in the Toy Parade, handed out literature at Bonfire events, and made arrangements with the POA to have our CERT website linked to the SCPOA website.)  Someone mentioned that a monthly Update article similar to Les Lowman’s informative piece would do a lot to help with CERT publicity.  If anyone wants to volunteer to write this article each month, please contact Dick Becker to work out the details.
  • Mike Keemar made it very clear how important CERT participation is to the success of Wings and Wheels.  By providing volunteers to ferry people (especially the elderly and handicapped) from the parking areas and giving directions to guests as to where to park and walk, CERT adds an immeasurable amount of safety to the show, while giving us great publicity. The Wings and Wheels Committee knows the value of CERT’s help and recognizes this by giving financial support to us. This year’s Wings and Wheels will be March 20th  . The rain date is the 21st. Dave McCarthy, our CERT Asst. Director and Wings and Wheels Ground Boss, will be looking for and coordinating volunteers. Details will be published, as we get closer to the event.
  • Carol Beall, Roland Marchetti, and John Stratton will be working on a booth for CERT at Wings and Wheels. They too will be looking for some help in designing, assembling, and manning the display.
  • If it hasn’t already occurred by the time you get this, be aware that an unannounced mock disaster is planned for January or February.
  • Our First Annual CERT Golf Tournament was a tremendous success, even with the cold weather. At last count, we netted $2,817.54. Ed Hickox, the tournament coordinator, extended a huge thank you to the volunteers who made this all happen. Because of the fun and profit that this event produced, it was decided to have another one October 30, 2004, when the weather is better and we don’t have to compete with the holidays.
  • With new money in our account, Dave McCarthy does not want to rush into spending any of it; Ed Hickox wants to keep a nice reserve in case we do have a real emergency that wipes out our supplies; Mike Keemar thinks we need to develop a budget/plan; John Stratton suggested that we could use an automated telephone dialing system instead of the manual phone tree for alerting CERT and/or the community as a whole. The group liked all these ideas and they urged John to investigate systems and prices.
  • I (Susan Stratton) have offered my services as Secretary for our CERT since our first meeting in November of 2001. It’s time for someone else to take over this roll. Effective March 1, 2004, I will no longer perform this roll. If anyone is interested in becoming secretary, please contact me and I will be happy to set you up with a distribution list. The secretary needs to attend the monthly meetings, publish notes (not minutes), send monthly meeting reminders, publish reminders on Channel 2 and occasionally send out general information notices from CERT Director or Education notices. This service does not have to be performed by a CERT member. It could be performed by a spouse or neighbor who is not a CERT member, but who might like to support our team.  If you are interested, please call me at 304-6128.