Hello Fellow Saratoga CERT Members.

Saratoga CERT has a new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/certsaratoga/ – we will post all relevant news items there.  Please use it along with our webpage (http://saratogacert.org) which has a full calendar of Saratoga CERT activities through the end of 2017, as well as related calendar entries from Santa Clara County Fire and SARA/SVVE Ham groups. Thanks to Reshma Hyder for organizing our new Facebook presence.

The next Saratoga CERT group event is our CERT Leadership Meeting on July 27th from 5-7pm at the Saratoga Recreation Portable @ Joan Pisani Community Center.  All Saratoga CERT Members are welcome and encouraged to attend.  The July event will be a key organizational meeting for our group.  This month we will review and approve creation of new operational districts for Saratoga CERT and fill leadership roles in the city and division CERT organizations.  We will review our IT/communication/recruiting efforts since our last leadership meeting.  We will also begin our budget planning for 2018.  Details can be found at the calendar entry: http://saratogacert.org/event/saratoga-cert-leadership-meeting/ – we ask that you RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/saratoga-cert-leadership-meeting-tickets-35899683921  so that we can have the right number of seats and handouts available.

As you all know, communications is the backbone of any effective CERT group.  Towards that end there will be another Ham Cram course to get your entry level Technician Class Amateur Radio License on July 15th, 2017 at the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Operations Center (EOC/Classroom), 15900 Los Gatos Blvd. The Ham Cram course is sponsored by LG/MS Cares.  Calendar entry: http://saratogacert.org/2017/07/01/july-ham-cram-course-get-your-ham-license/ – and full details can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/lgmsar/monthly-membership-meeting/our-classes/ham-cram .

On June 22nd, 2017, we had participation from Jeff Walker, David Dornblaser, Stephen Ng, Aviva Garrett, Tom Baker, and Brent Hailpern for a skills building course taught by our own Madelyn Lipford on Radio Communications.  We reviewed procedures for using our FRS radios and practiced being part of an FRS radio net.  We also discussed CERT activation procedures in the period before our new divisions are operational.  Thanks to everyone who showed up and especially to Madelyn for organizing and presenting an excellent exercise.

Planning ahead for this fall, we will have another skills building class on August 24th – this time on “Triage/Medical Ops”. There will be another leadership meeting on September 28th. Our annual Saratoga CERT drill is planned for the morning of Saturday, October 28th – details to follow, but please hold the date.  As always you can keep up with events on our calendar at http://saratogacert.org/events/ .

This Saratoga CERT newsletter comes out monthly from Michael Taylor, Director of Recreation and Facilities and Risk Manager for the City of Saratoga.  If you are not receiving this email directly from Michael, please check your spam mail folder to make sure the message is not being lost there.  If still not, then you are not on the active CERT membership rolls and you should immediately contact CERT at info@saratogacert.org to get you back on the active mailing list.

Best wishes for a great and safe summer!

s/Michael Taylor