Bristol CERT Meeting
January 26, 2008
9 am @ Bristol Fire Department
Present: Jim Richardson (CCNTR), Elizabeth Corrow, Donna Quinn, Tom Winn, Norm Skantze, Les Dion
Tom opened the meeting at 9:10 am.
Donna introduced Jim Richardson from CCNTR. She reports that we do have a couple of other people interested in becoming involved with CERT. We had held a meeting with interested parties that included the Amateur Radio Group. Norm said he thinks the personal invitations really helped. There were some that were interested but could not make the meeting. Now we need to put together a training schedule. Donna has spoken with Volunteer NH and they will sponsor a couple of trainings. The dates are March 8th & 22nd from 8 am – 4 pm. These will be ICS trainings. Donna thinks that much of the training that we will be doing can also be done on-line but she is hoping it will be jazzed up by doing it in person. The first two trainings are ICS 100 & 700 and First Aid/CPR. Norm suggests we may want to have some of our own trainers do some of the training as it keeps a local face to it.
Donna said her hope is that we can pick dates and she can start advertising this. She feels that we have people interested and if we don’t get them started they will lose interest.
Norm said that at the meeting with LGC they learned that our volunteers are covered with liability and medical but not workers comp. This is still in the works. If it was a declared emergency it would be different. Elizabeth said that we can vary the way we do our CERT team to make it more our own. Norm agrees that we want it to be more locally led and tailored to our needs. Norm thinks that we should do NIMS and ICS before we do Crisis Management. Donna said the way Laconia is doing their training they do Wednesday evenings for six weeks for two hours with a different topics each week.
Donna thinks that the reason they encourage us to do their trainings is for the grant purposes. Elizabeth asked if we can open our trainings up to other community members that may just be interested in the training but not CERT. Donna said our trainings would be open to any community member. Elizabeth said she has a problem with eight hour trainings as you are asking a lot of people to give up a Saturday. Donna said she already has two people signed up but we need a minimum of ten.
Tom asked if we are required to do the long trainings due to the grant. Donna said that she does not think that there are. He suggests that we go with CPR and AED in separate sessions. The person that we have that will do it all in one day is free and part of the grant. Norm said that he thinks that CPR/AED is important for the CERT people to have. Elizabeth thinks that the First Aid piece is good as well. The NIMS and ICS will each take four hours. Norm likes the idea of touring the different town facilities to have volunteers familiar with those areas. Donna said that Traffic Control is another one that she thinks is important. Norm suggests a class on sheltering in the future as well. We need to find out if Gene’s classes are a requirement of the grant.
Our training calendar might look like four hour blocks of:
Elizabeth suggests we could check with them and explain that we want to break it into smaller segments and if they can not do it that way we can use our own instructors. Norm said that we have people that can do many of the trainings in-house.
Donna asked which training we can do in February so that we get started.
February 16th: Orientation – 8:30 am – 1 pm
March 8th – NIMS - 8:30 am – 1 pm (Norm, John Fischer, Jim can run this if needed)
March – 22nd – IMS - 8:30 am – 1 pm (Norm, John Fisher, Jim can run this if needed)
Norm suggests having different instructors for different trainings to keep it interesting or they could work as a tag team. Donna will advertise these dates in the paper and anyone is welcome to attend.
Orientation: The first day we could have an hour at each of the Fire Department, Police Department, Water/Sewer/Highway, and the Bristol schools. We will start at the Fire Department with coffee and refreshments. We do not have to spend any time at Water & Sewer but just need to show them where it is. Norm will set up stations at the Fire Department for them to go to. They will tour the Police Department and then go to the meeting room for a brief talk with Chief Clark. Norm suggests we start at the Fire Department, go to PD, then Highway shed area and end at the School with lunch. Les suggested speaking with the HS Cafeteria regarding catering the lunch. Jim said he would be available that day to speak as well.
Tom asked if we will be keeping a training database. Donna said we will.
Jim said that he and Donna had spoken about a Regional CERT. He is working to identify the resources that are out there. CCNTR would like to work together to accomplish this. He is working to put together a Medical Reserve Corp. which is under public health. They have been given guidance from the State and Feds to do this. Donna said that the nice thing about that is that we won’t have to worry about this area as much if they have one established. Norm said we might find that some of our community members might be interested in being a part of that as well. Tom said that with a Regional group there has to be one person in charge and not multiple people jockeying to be in charge.
Norm said that if CCNTR is going to have a MRC then we could be steering our retired medical professionals their way. Norm said that if Franklin and Tilton had their own CERT teams that we could convene the Boards once a year for a table top drill and to discuss common issues. Donna said that eventually she could see each of the Newfound towns having a CERT and our towns make up a Newfound Region CERT. She thinks it is important to get a plan in place for this. Norm said District 6 is working on getting a grant to get a trailer for carrying beds, supplies, etc. and it could be used for multiple purposes depending on the emergency.
If Gene cannot shorten his training Jim is willing to do the 8th and Norm will do the 15th with John Fischer if he is available.
For the training on 2/16 Elizabeth will follow up with the Town Departments and Donna will follow up with the School.
Norm suggests that Donna ask each of the presenters to give her an outline by a deadline prior to trainings. Donna would also like to set a deadline for registration.
The meeting adjourned at 10:15 am.
Respectfully Submitted,
Leslie Dion