Please note that the original newsletter had an incorrect email address for Michael Taylor – the correct address is mtaylor@saratoga.ca.us
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To all Saratoga CERT members:
We hope you are having a great summer…and are looking forward to digging back in this Fall into our reinvigorated CERT activities!
Our next Saratoga CERT Skills Building class will be on August 24th and will cover Triage / Medical Ops. It will be taught by our own Lori Stafford. Details can be found at http://saratogacert.org/event/skills-building-triage-medical-ops/ and we ask that you RSVP (so we can plan for handouts/supplies) at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/saratoga-cert-skills-building-triage-medical-ops-tickets-36629923086 – we hope you will all come to keep your skills up to date.
On July 27th, we had our summer “Leadership” meeting – and the first thing we decided was to replace the future monthly “leadership” meetings this year with “general membership” meetings. We need ALL the CERT members to come and to stay involved. There are a lot of topics to discuss and work to do! Thanks to the following members who attended the 7/27 meeting: Jeff Walker, Michael Taylor, Brent Hailpern, Wendy Lynn, Ray Froess, Stephen Ng, Lori Stafford, Irene Change, Karen Burley, and Jessica Fullmer. You can see the full meeting minutes on our blog at http://saratogacert.org/2017/07/29/minutes-saratoga-cert-general-meeting-27-july-2017/
We have divided Saratoga into 5 formal divisions and an “at-large” group: Downtown, Saratoga High School, Cox Avenue, Quito North, and West Valley. You can see the map at http://saratogacert.org/map/ and our initial organization chart is at http://saratogacert.org/files/Cert-OrgChart-20170727.pdf. You should expect a phone call from one of our volunteer division organizers. They will be asking if you are still interested in participating in CERT and if your contact information is correct. Please answer when they call…and give them the information they request. Thank you.
We know that some of you have had difficulty getting your Saratoga Disaster Service Worker (DSW) cards. Michael Taylor has finally received almost all of the CERT Academy paperwork for the last few years, so the Saratoga city offices should be ready to issue cards. Cards are issued in the City Planning Department between 2:00 and 4:00 on every other Friday (when City Hall is open).
To get started, we encourage you to act ASAP during August and September to get a current card:
- If you have a current Saratoga DSW card, please tell your division organizer when they call OR email info@saratogacert.org with your name, your contact info, and your DSW expiration date.
- If you have a Saratoga DSW card that has expired in the last 4 years, please contact Michael Taylor (mtaylor@saratoga.ca.us) and arrange for him to get your card renewed.
- If you do NOT have a Saratoga DSW, but you graduated a SCCFD CERT Academy within the last 4 years, please contact Michael Taylor (mtaylor@saratoga.ca.us) and arrange for him to get you a card
- If you have a Saratoga DSW card that has expired MORE than 4 years ago, or you do NOT have a Saratoga DSW after graduating more than 4 years ago, please contact Captain Denise Gluhan (denise.gluhan@sccfd.org) before the end of September to arrange for her to interview you.
Some coming attractions:
On September 14th and 15th, Santa Clara County is having an emergency drill. Saratoga will open up its EOC and radio communications room (9/14 09:00 – 12:00). Michael Taylor will send an alert to all Saratoga CERT members via EVERBRIDGE. The alert will ask you to respond to the alert message, and also if you are free it will ask you to visit a defined rally point with your backpack to simply check-in / out (between the hours of 09:00 to 10:00). We ask that everyone respond to the alert…and we hope that many of you can come to the rally point for the quick check in. SARA ham members will get further information from Don Steinbach on the county drill.
The Santa Clara County Fire Department will hold a CERT Refresher Training Course on “Basic Search & Rescue Method” in Los Altos (http://saratogacert.org/event/cert-refresher-training-basic-search-rescue-method/) on August 28th and again on September 6th at the Saratoga Prospect Center (http://saratogacert.org/event/cert-refresher-training-basic-search-rescue-method-2/). Another great way to keep your skills current!
Our next general membership meeting will be on September 28th. Details will follow in the September newsletter.
SAVE THE DATE: Saratoga CERT will hold our annual drill on October 28th (8am-1pm) – details will follow in a future newsletter.
You can keep up to date at the Saratoga CERT web page (http://saratogacert.org) and at the Saratoga CERT Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/certsaratoga/). We are still using the CERT Yahoo! group to send notes and reminders (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/saratoga_cert/info).