Blog

Who: Santa Clara County Operational Area

What: Shelter Fundamentals provided by the American Red Cross

When: This is a four-hour course being held twice in October. The course runs from 0830AM to 1230PM.

Where: County Emergency Operations Center
55 W. Younger Ave., 4th Fl. Ste. 430 San Jose, CA 95110

Why: We are as a community operating in an increasingly dynamic threat environment to include, as necessary, the openingof shelters to avoid threats from potential wildfire under PG&E’snew Community Wildfire Safety Program.

Care and Shelter is a foundational capability in advance of, and in response to, disasters and emergencies of all types. It is with this in the mind that we offer this training opportunity to build greater depth within the Santa Clara County Operational Area.

Pre-requisite(s): None

Date	Registration Link
Thursday October 10th	https://bit.ly/2Zt1ky5
Wednesday October 16th	https://bit.ly/2Pjl6wp

FLYER: http://saratogacert.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Shelter-Fundamentals-Flyer-.pdf

What a great success, for what will likely be the “First Annual SARA/CERT Family Picnic”.  The venue was great, the food was yummy, the weather was pleasant, the activities were interesting and folks seemed to have a good time.  Saratoga Area hams, their families and friends, along with CERT graduates, families and friends thoroughly enjoyed the Picnic and spending time with each other.

Thanks to Ron Jones, the venue was at an amazing location, the Warner-Hutton House (next to City Hall), Saturday, August 17, 2019. That was with Crystal’s support from the City of Saratoga, along with her cohorts, Nina, Thomas and Matt. A major ‘shout-out’ to each of you.

Ron also planned at the venue, the  Santa Clara County 3Q2019 Emergency Drill for the City of Saratoga and CERTS had the opportunity to experience a real drill (a fascinating) experience. In his Agenda he planned tours of key locations for us to see and learn from, ALL found that very valuable. 

As with any effort, the ‘front loading’ to garner inclusion and staying focused on bringing the groups together was Brent, a member of both organizations. He proposed the idea of CERT joining the Picnic of SARA with the Chair of Events, Membership for CERT, Jessica, who worked in creating momentum for the idea and logistics. Brent and other CERTS talked with the Master Orchestrator, Ron Jones, who orchestrated the SARA team for most of the implementation. Those that had questions jumped in and supported the union when we had a mutual meeting between the organizations to see how this would work out.

A HUGE thank you to ALL the SARA and CERT (MANY) people who attended and contributed to the successful ‘First Annual SARA/CERT Family Picnic” A special thank you to folks that spent some, or ALL of their picnic time serving others.

Jessica Fullmer

Event/Membership  Chair

CERT Saratoga

We just held what will likely be the “First Annual SARA/CERT Family Picnic”.  The venue was great, the food was yummy, the weather was pleasant, the activities were interesting and folks seemed to have a good time.  

We want to recognize those that performed significant tasks in preparation for the event or at the picnic to make sure things went smoothly and everybody had a good time.  

Though the “Above and Beyond the Call of Duty” list is at the bottom, they are the picnic heroes to me. Make sure you read to the end and forgive me if I missed anyone.

What:              SARA/CERT Family Picnic

                        Santa Clara County 3Q2019 Emergency Drill for City of Saratoga

Who:               Saratoga Area hams, their families and friends
                        Saratoga Area CERTs, their families and friends

Date:               Saturday, August 17, 2019

Time:               12:00 noon – 4:00 pm

Venue:             Warner-Hutton House (next to City Hall), 13777 Fruitvale Avenue, Saratoga, CA 95070

Price:               Adults – $5.00, Kids 18 and under – Free
                        
Photos:           http://k6sa.net/wp/2019/08/2019-joint-sara-cert-picnic-photos/

Tours:             

• Warner Hutton House
• Saratoga Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
• CERT Emergency Trailer – portable emergency warehouse
• CERT CorpYard Base – 40’ Container – fixed emergency warehouse
• SARA K6SA 2 meter repeater in the City Yard

Demos:           

• 2m mobile rig – Peter
• 2m mobile rig – Jeff
• HF rig – Morris

County Drill:   Twenty (20) ham attendees checked into the Resource Travel Net as they were ready to depart home for the event.

• Travel was tracked and, as appropriate, Health and Welfare checks were conducted in route.
• Participants also checked into the Travel Net when they arrived at the site. Data was recorded.
• After arrival, 12 hams performed and documented a simulated emergency task on site.  Data was recorded.
• Drill will be reported to Santa Clara County to fulfill Saratoga’s 3Q requirement for a quarterly drill.

Food:               Hamburgers, turkey burgers, veggie burgers, cheese slices and buns, Hot dogs and buns,                         Mustard, catsup, relish, Tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, Assorted bags of chips, Potato salad, 8 different topping large pizzas, Appetizer trays, Cookies, Soft drinks, water, ice

WH House     

• Quaint 1890’s Queen Anne style house
• Air conditioned
• Modernized kitchen with fridge/freezer, stove, microwave, generous counter space, convenient serving area
• Dining room with large table and chairs
• Multiple indoor restrooms
• Surrounded by mature shade trees
• Large grassy back lawn and patio
• Outside tables and benches for dining                    
• Gazebo was used as an outdoor ham shack
• Electrical outlets for AC power
• Nearby free parking

Attendance:   

• 56 adults total
• 30 ham only & family 
• 15 CERT only & Family 
• 11 ham/CERT combo & family 

Reservations:  58 RSVP’s prior to event

                        56 actual attendees . . . most RSVPs showed up.  Had a few walk-ins

Above & Beyond the Call of Duty

• Peter               Net Control for the Resource Travel Net County drill, set up 2 meter mobile demo, purchased food 
• Jeff                  Net Control for the onsite Event Net, trailered his barbecue to the site and provided cooking tools and propane
• Morris             Set up HF mobile demo with low power (QRP) rig, listened to contact in Hawaii and spoke to contacts in other states 
• Brent               Tour guide
• Jack                 Barbeque wrangler
• Rick                 Barbeque wrangler
• Davina             Check-in Queen, brought ice chests and ice
• Paul                 Check-in King
• Robina            Last cleanup person at WHH
• Rebecca          Photos
• Jessica             Food prep and photos
• Chuck              Food prep
• Others             Food prep and cleanup
• RJ                     General overseer

City of Saratoga Support

• Crystal             Pizza
• Nina                Facilities booking and support
• Thomas           Facilities manager
• Matt                Facilities onsite support

Thanks to everybody for attending and a special thank you to folks that spent some of their picnic time serving others.

See ya’ next year . . . probably before.  

rj

Ron Jones, AJ6EG

SARA President

14355 D Saratoga Avenue |  Saratoga, CA  95070

408 872-1301  land  |  408 316-0854  cell

ron.jones@n-ablegroup.com

by Jessica Fullmer

AGENDA – (no Radio Practice this time)

NEW LOCATION – hosted by Sussane Von Stern, across from West Valley College

19149 Oahu Lane, Saratoga (Allendale, Portus, to Wendy, to Oahu)

Call Jessica cell if any questions (408 348 3201)

Attendees:

Jessica Fullmer (West Valley-Quito Division Leader)

Susanne von Stern -Meeting host

Charles Rader (Cox Division Leader)

Tom Galbraith

Rashad Wiley

Doug McFarlin (West Valley-Quito Division)

Meeting Notes:

CERT had a booth at the Saratoga Classic Car Show on Sunday, July 28^th, to promote community awareness of the Saratoga CERT program and recruit new volunteers.

Jessica talked about lessons learned from incidents reports.  We are instructed not to use FRS radios in an emergency and instead call 911 for Saratoga.  911 staff will sort the type of response, not CERT team members.

NOTE JOINT PICNIC SARA (RADIOS) AUG 17 12:00-4:00-CERT DETAILS BELOW- DO RSVP- COME AND ENJOY

Active shooter incident led to a recommend by Charles for all CERT members to take “Stop the Bleed” training course prepared by FEMA.  Charles will arrange to have Michael Gordonbach(?) provide “Stop the Bleed” training for Saratoga CERT probably late Fall or later.

CERT refresher training courses are scheduled starting in September.

Radio class 8/24 at LG Police Station. There is a YouTube video of the class.

Charles is a member of a group testing a neighborhood damage assessment application for Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Management Services.  The application uses ESRI ArcGIS mapping and location software along with maps provided and maintained by the City of Saratoga.  The application provides a standardize means for activated CERT team members to enter assessment information using their mobile device that is automatically communicated to the City’s Emergency Operations Center over the cellular network.  If the user’s mobile is unable to connect to a cell tower or the cellular network is down, the report is sent when the mobile reconnects to a cell tower.  The application is called the Santa Clara Damage Assessment Report Application.  Should CERT teams have a FirstAlert capable cellular radio that remains connected to a cell tower during an emergency when devices other than those used by first responders are dropped to alleviate congestion.

Chuck attended the California For All CERT/LISTOS Conference, May 30 – June 1, 2019.  The topics covered were CERT Mutual Aid Program, Animal Response and Sheltering, and CERT Emergency Communications.

The concept of mutual aid is gaining traction in CA.  It is modeled after the CERT mutual aid program in deployed statewide in Florida (championed by a former governor with state funding). Organizations are harmonized across the state with the same uniforms, equipment, training and procedures, such that a CERT team can be deployed anywhere they are needed in the state and be able to effectively support the local first responder units.  CERT has a seat in the Office of Emergency Services to call up and dispatch CERT volunteers. Orange County has a similar mutual aid program for its 38 CERT organizations. To remain in active status all CERT members are required to attend the American Red Cross Shelters Fundamentals course and all CERT refresher training courses.  Governor Newsome is supportive of a CERT mutual aid program.

Saratoga has a pact with American Red Cross to provide shelters in the City, where ARC provides equipment and the City provides staffing.j  The Tier 1 shelter is located at West Valley Community College, Tier 2 shelter is at Redwood Middle School and Tier 3 shelters are at Joan Pisani Community Center and Friendship Hall in Saratoga Prospect Center.  The City will decide which shelters to open in response to an emergency.  CERT members should be trained to staff these shelters.

Other shelters in the City are the American Red Cross operated shelter at Saratoga High School and the independent shelter at Prince of Peace Church.

Listos is a parallel organization to CERT in California with communication and training materials in the Spanish language. FEMA is translating CERT training materials in Vietnamese and Chinese.

Animal response and animal sheltering for pets is gaining interest after experiences during recent wildfires where people would not leave their pets to go to shelters.  FEMA offers on line training. Shelter layout and understanding animal behavior are key topics covered. Sacramento Fire has CERT trainers specialized in animal sheltering.  Charles will arrange animal response training and co-ordinate with SCC CERT in Spring 2020.  Meanwhile, he has sent out links to the FEMA training modules:

Animal Response Module I: https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/27983

Animal Response Module II: https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/27990

As divisional lead for Saratoga Cox CERT division, Charles has written a draft Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) for his division.  This supplements materials in the FEMA CERT training binder.  He handed out sections from the EOP, Section 3.0 “Status as a Recognized State of California Disaster Service Worker Volunteer,” Section 3.1 “Legal Protections for CERT Members…,” Section 5.0 Hazards Assessment,” Section 6.0 Activation of City of Saratoga CERT Members,” Section 6.0.1 “CERT Member Identification, Apparel,…Upon Activation,” Section 6.1 “Specific Actions…After a Major Earthquake,” Section 6.2 “Potential use of Saratoga CERT …,” Section 7.0 “CERT Incident Command,” Section 8.0 “CERT Emergency Response Supplies,” Section 9.0 “CERT Disaster Communications,” Section 10.0 Establishing and Manning a Field Medical Treatment Area,” and Section 12.0 “ CERT and Spontaneous…Volunteers.”  He reviewed Section 9.0. at the meeting.

Recommended actions for West Valley – Quito CERT Division:

Recruit and train members to establish a core team to support and sustain the disaster preparation activities

Identify location(s) Field Medical Treatment Areas within the division (West Valley Community College, Gardiner Park?)

Develop disaster communications plan and verify Level 1 communication coverage using FRS radios.

NEXT MEETING–AGENDA AUG 26^TH 6:00-7:30 AT SUSANNE’S (ABOVE ADDRESS)

Revisit the following three areas Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) training topics:

   (1) Establishing and manning a CERT Field Medical Treatment Area/Site

   (2) CERT and Spontaneous Unaffiliated/Untrained Volunteers (SUV’s)

   (3) CERT and Vulnerable Populations

New topics:

   (1) Santa Clara County Fire Department (SCCFD) resources in the area / interaction with CERT

   (2) FRS radio usage and communications protocol (radiotelephony procedures, radio terminology, phonetic alphabet, etc.)

by Jessica Fullmer

What a great day, HUGE thanks to Everyone, those that were helping before and from afar.

Some details and action items:

We had several hundred came to the booth, some took flyers, some wanted more information on CERT Classes ect.

200 wanted sunburn spray, the word got around, a lot of thank you’s.  Some are coming immediately to classes/meetings.

Thank goodness Craig had organized the Cache at CYB, our items were in labeled boxes to go over to the Saratoga Car Show. We learned we have to create a LIST of Materials (and Processes) for all Events and Check against it as we come back from an event or leave the Cache for each event, E.G. we are missing the Ham signs.

Alameda  is donating some Body carrying boards for Togo and incidents.

Decide if Saratoga stays as two’s going out (even is it isn’t a DSW covered event).  It’s a Thema regulation for official events.

Several incidents, we learned from each, one written up here: 

Thanks to Chuck for the first leg search, Gary (from the Chamber) who went with me to meet with the Deputy, then help write up this lessons below:

-Create a Report sheet on Public Event Incidents

-What happened, the Chamber notified us that a child was vomiting, near The Basin (not accurate) 

-JF warned the Deputy from the Sherriff’s (we thought) that we would get more details and report back

-Couldn’t find the child. Called back to  update the Deputy on the FRS radio that we were given in the morning, we thought it was the Sherriff, found it was a CERT person has the phone. Because he didn’t answer it bounced to our booth.

-Went the Chamber person and I went to talk with the Deputy and found, the FRS only had static each time.

-He recommended for other events use our cells, call 911, they will sort out if its Fire (health issues) or Sherriff’s (some kind of disturbance) 

-he also said only use those phones for low level (non-life threatening/crime) not if you need help right away

-We need a certified medical person at each event in our booth (another person cut themselves deeply) a suggestion Mon was to have a partnership with Medical students, where they get credit for assisting CERT.

-For Each Event Need numbers/contact info for All those responsible (E.G. Chamber)

Thanks for all the EXTRA items the Chamber did to assist as the day progressed.

Also, Crystal for all the printing, Bill for hauling all the items from CYBase TO the Event and BACK.

And a HUGE shout out to the rest of the team, all were friendly, responsive and recruiting ( :

      Jack Griswold 

      Chuck Rader 

      Brad Silveria 

       Steven Wong 

      Lorna Yamaguchi (and husband)

       Debbie Ellis     

      Tim Ellis

      Bill Brooks

      Jeff 

Jessica Fullmer

Event & Membership Chair

[from City of Saratoga July Newsletter]

As part of PG&E’s efforts to reduce wildfire risk, PG&E has announced their Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) program. PG&E is expected to shut off power on days with a high risk of wildfire, and they suggest preparing for outages that could last longer than two days. Outages can impact any PG&E customer, regardless of whether they live in a high fire-threat area.

Before a PSPS, PG&E will aim to provide customers with 48 hours advanced notice via phone call, text or email. However, weather conditions can change quickly, and PG&E may be unable to fully execute their noticing protocols. After the extreme weather event has passed, PG&E will conduct inspections and any necessary repairs before power can be restored.

Visit www.saratoga.ca.us/PSPS to learn what you can expect and how to prepare. You can also attend PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Open House on August 7 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the History Club of Los Gatos, 123 Los Gatos Boulevard.

[reprinted from ARRL ARES E-Letter – 17 July 2019]

[This article is from the July 2019 issue of the FEMA Individual and Community Preparedness Newsletter.]

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members know that communication during an emergency is vital. Don Lewis of the Alexandria Radio Club in Virginia wants CERTs around the country to know how Amateur Radio can help.

Amateur Radio is a useful tool. Lewis, who is trained in CERT, explained that ham radios are more powerful than regular radios. They aren’t incredibly expensive, and they have a wide range of uses.

Sometimes CERTs may need to work together throughout a large area. They need to be able to report things that they have found. They sometimes even need to request medical support. Using a radio is easier, safer, and more efficient than sending a person back with messages, says Lewis. Ham radios enable a CERT to communicate over much greater distances than standard radios. This can improve the level at which a CERT can coordinate. CERTs already use ham radios in exercises and they have extended their range and effectiveness.

The City of Berkeley, California’s CERT has already begun using ham radio in city-wide disaster drills. In the winter of 2018, they held a 24-hour mock disaster where they practiced their ham radio skills to better prepare their city. They were able to maintain communications in the whole city for the entire 24-hour exercise. This allowed them to relay critical information to citizens and disaster crews. They were also able to use hams to aid the city during a blackout in November of 2017. The CERTs used solar powered batteries in their ham radios. This allowed them to function even when power and phones were down.

Amateur Radio protocols are also built into Pasadena, California’s emergency management system. The area experiences earthquakes several times a year. The quakes can destroy cell towers and phones lines in an instant. Amateur Radio can be a huge asset during a disaster like this, so Pasadena has a network of radio operators trained to provide communications at any time they need. They can contact hospitals or fire stations to better serve their community. Ham operators can even aide families in contacting one another once a disaster has passed.

Are you interested in learning how to operate a ham radio of your own to serve your community? Then the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) may be for you. They are a group of radio operators who volunteer for various disasters and public service events. They can provide guidance for training, equipment, and licensing.

In attendance: Chuck Rader (Cox Division), Davina Morgan-Witts, Ray Froess, Betty Froess, Susan Schwaderer, Leland Mah, Marion Yager, Robert Yager, William Brooks, Sally Suckow, John Suckow.

Most of the group met at 6.20 p.m. at Bill Brooks’ house so as to review the contents of our division cache, and how to get into it.

The group reconvened at 7.00pm for the main meeting:

• We briefly reviewed upcoming training opportunities. These are updated and detailed in the monthly newsletter sent by City Manager, Crystal Bothelio. Please a) look out for the newsletters, b) read them, c) sign up for training/volunteer opportunities that are relevant and of interest—with the aim of attending three or more a year, so as to keep your skills fresh. And, please do not wait until the last minute to sign up because training sessions may be cancelled if there are insufficient attendees – which is what happened with the shelter simulation workshop which should have taken place recently—2 weeks before the event, 15 people had signed up but 18 were needed to run the exercise, so it was cancelled.
  
  
• Under new business, Chuck Rader (Cox Argonaut captain) spoke about the three-day CERT conference he recently attended in San Diego. Some of the take outs from this are:
  
  
  • California governor Gavin Newsom is very enthusiastic about CERT – as shown by the fact that 425 participants (including Chuck) were fully funded for the 3-night conference, including hotel accommodation.
    
    
  • The vision at the state level for CERT is that each county will have an organization similar to Orange County’s, which regularly makes use of their CERT volunteers—for example, during the recent wildfires, CERT members were tasked with providing food etc. to the firefighters (obviously at a safe distance from the active fires), thus freeing up the emergency services to focus on the core matter in hand.
    
    
  • There is a movement to standardize equipment, training, forms etc., across all CERT in California, and to better link the many individual city/county groups, so that CERT members could be efficiently mobilized to work in other parts of the State, if a need arose. The model here is Florida.
    
    
• Chuck Rader led the training element of our meeting, discussing the key elements of the division level Emergency Operation Plan (EOP), including:
  
  
  • Activation: We must wait to be activated by an official channel such as Alert SCC, City of Saratoga emergency responder telephone tree, or emergency broadcast radio communication; but this does not prevent us assessing our immediate areas as concerned neighbors (but until activated, we should not be wearing CERT vests, etc.)
    
    Please make sure to have fresh batteries in your radio and keep FRS radios tuned to Channel 11 as communication will likely come down from the central emergency operations center (EOC) to the licensed ham operators and then to the members of the division by FRS. (FRS back up channels are 10 and 12; if your radio has a code option–the little number to the top right of the larger number on some radios–set it to 0.
    
    
  • Setting up and operating a field CERT Incident Command Post (ICP) and Overview of CERT communications:
    
    Our default meeting location is Bill Brooks’ house, where the cache is located (address removed for public minutes), but the reality is that the location of the incident command post in an emergency may need to move close to where the emergency is—which is why it is important to be able to communicate by radio (on the assumption that mobile communications could be either out of action or overwhelmed).
    
    Chuck encouraged us as a group to follow Cox division’s lead and hold regular FRS radio check-ins to make sure that we know how to use the radios and understand how to relay messages from person to person, thus enabling messages to be passed across a wider distance.
    
    Optimally, we should have more hams in the division. Currently there is just Ray and Betty Froess, Bill Brooks and Davina (Madelyn Lipford is also a ham operator but is traveling for the foreseeable future).
    
    If you are interested in becoming ham licensed – contact Davina for information – in addition to the one day “ham cram” that many take with a test at the end of the day; there are plentiful resources online, including YouTube video talks and interactive test papers to help you learn in your own time, and then you can take the quick multiple choice test on any of the many testing days.
    
    
  • Establishing, staffing and operating a field medical treatment site, including how to best utilize spontaneous unaffiliated/untrained volunteers (SUVs)
    
    Chuck asked us to consider how we would function as a group and in teams during an emergency, and how we could best utilize unaffiliated/untrained people if they volunteered their services.
    
    Some of the considerations for a field medical treatment site include: the need for one centralized site vs. multiple decentralized locations. Also, the site(s) should be easily accessible by ambulances and/or other emergency vehicles, and should provide for rapid expansion, if required. Leadership of a field medical treatment site takes special knowledge and skills in closely managing attending personnel in a dynamic, high-stress environment. Head-to-toe assessments should be conducted expeditiously (and always with permission when the person is conscious); and, optimally, always by two CERT members working together, both to ensure a thorough examination and to avoid harassment claims. Documentation of incoming patients and their ongoing status while under treatment or observation is a critical element in exercising leadership of a field medical treatment site.
    
    Spontaneous, untrained/unaffiliated volunteers (SUV’s) may provide an additional source of manpower to assist with post-disaster response, but there are some key caveats associated with their use. They must be “locally vetted” to ensure they will not be put in a position that exceeds their knowledge or skills. They must be closely monitored in execution of any assigned duties. They should be provided a clear, concise briefing of what CERT expectations are of their use. Finally, it must be remembered that they are not covered under the liability protections of the DSW-V program, unlike CERT members, so they must never be placed in positions where their safety and health are at risk.

Reposted from Santa Clara County ARES/RACES Mutual Aid Communicators (MACs) digest:

AUXFOG and NIFOG on your phone
From: Walter Underwood
Date: Sat, 08 Jun 2019 20:33:25 PDT 

Homeland Security has made mobile-friendly versions of the Auxiliary Communications Field Operations Guide (AUXFOG) and National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG). Here are the info pages at DHS, but they don’t have links to the stores.

https://www.dhs.gov/safecom/eauxfog-mobile-app

https://www.dhs.gov/safecom/enifog-mobile-app

To get the apps, search Apple’s App Store or Google Play for eAUXFOG and eNIFOG.

Updated DSW Card Process 

Crystal informed the meeting that going forward she will be responsible for issuing disaster service worker (DSW) cards, and that it will be possible to get a card either by emailing/calling her (cbothelio@saratoga.ca.us / 408-868-1269 ) for an appointment, or by emailing her a current photo ID card and she will be able to create a DSW card from that – details of the revised process should be posted on the website soon and will be announced in the June or July newsletter.  The new cards will carry no expiry date. 

Graduation Update 

Due to a scheduling error, Craig was not able to provide backpacks to all the new graduates at the recent Saratoga CERT Academy.  Brent will reach out to all the new graduates to welcome them, connect them with Craig for equipment, connect them Jessica for membership/event scheduling, connect them with Crystal for DSW, etc.  Their names have already been given to their division leads. 

Division updates

• Chuck reported that Cox division is holding monthly meetings and radio checks, and is on part 3 of the EOP training – last meeting minutes are at http://saratogacert.org/2019/05/23/meeting-minutes-cox-cert-divisional-meeting-monday-evening-13-may-2019/
• Vineyard reported that Thomas Schmidt will be the division’s new logistics lead – welcome Thomas!
• Nothing to report from Argonaut. 
• Chuck gave brief update on West Valley/Quito which was that regular meetings are happening

Summer Social 

Ron reported that the Saratoga Amateur Radio Association (SARA) will be hosting a potluck family picnic in August – date to be determined, most likely at the Warner Hutton house, noon to 4pm (drop in). Saratoga CERT agreed to collaborate and make this a joint social event. 

Brainstorming 

Most of the meeting was dedicated to brainstorming on how to take Saratoga CERT to the “next level”, given that we finally have leads for all the necessary organization positions and have 4 divisions in place and active.  Many tactical issues keep coming up:

• How much training to plan? how much new training should we expect members to take on? what outside groups/efforts should we cross train with?
• How much effort to grow Saratoga CERT – what venues (car show, blossom festival)? what groups (neighborhood watch, religious institutions, schools, PTAs)? 
• How to encourage/support additional CERT leaders
• How to manage drilling/practicing with Saratoga EOC, with our ham colleagues in SARA, with Santa Clara County, and with neighboring CERTs?

It was agreed that we will review our existing mission statement and, once agreed, we can use it as the lens through which to prioritize the many activities/goals available to us.  Between now and our next meeting we will assess candidate mission statements – original, or “borrowed” from other CERT groups, or FEMA suggestions. At the next meeting, we plan to: (a) create/confirm our mission statement, and (b) prioritize our activities/goals.  Details will follow via our newsletter.   

We also added to the end of our “to do” list the goal of exploring formal non-profit 501(c)(3) status. 

Saying Good Bye to Michael Taylor 

The final item of business was to celebrate Michael’s upcoming retirement from the City of Saratoga – we all thanked Michael for his dedication to and support of Saratoga CERT – and we welcomed Crystal as our new contact with the city – and then we ate cake!  

Michael will be in his job for the next week or two, so please reach out to him to wish him well if you were not at the meeting (mtaylor@saratoga.ca.us)