Saratoga CERT October 2017 Newsletter

The Annual Saratoga CERT exercise is fast approaching. Please mark your calendar for Saturday morning, October 28th from 9:00 AM until 12:30 PM.

We will be using the Saratoga emergency alert (Everbridge) system to notify all CERT members with details of the exercise and when / where to meet. Please plan on arriving within 30 minutes with your backpack and all necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

For planning purposes, the exercise will begin at 9:00 AM at the Saratoga Prospect Center (19848 Prospect Rd., Saratoga, CA 95070).  Please do not begin travelling to the exercise until alerted. Note that a Jazzercise class is also going on at that location on Saturday morning – so please park on Prospect Road.

If you do not receive the Exercise Alert by 9:15 AM on Saturday, please call or text Jeff Walker (408) 621-5853 to ask for an update.

We would very much like to get an accurate head-count of participants, in advance, so PLEASE signup at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2017-saratoga-cert-annual-exercise-tickets-38484843202

Remember that no matter how organized, efficient, or orderly we are, it is still important for us to come together and see how we operate as a CERT organization. We will have an observer from the Santa Clara County Fire Department present. This is an opportunity for us to learn where we are and what improvements can help us become better. In advance of this exercise, we recommend each of you review your training binder or Field Operations Guide (FOG) to re-familiarize yourself with some of the topics we might encounter at this exercise.

We will be publishing a Blog Post every week to http://saratogacert.org/category/blog/ with a topic that will help you make this exercise a success. Please visit this site every weekend and look for a new “Exercise Prep” blog post.

This newsletter comes out each month as an email from Michael Taylor (mtaylor@saratoga.ca.us) to all of our registered Saratoga CERT members. We also post it on our Saratoga CERT blog (http://saratogacert.org/category/blog/), on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/certsaratoga/), and send it to our Yahoo! Group (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/saratoga_cert/conversations/messages)

If you are NOT getting this newsletter directly from Michael Taylor then either his email is stuck in your spam folder OR your email contact is wrong in the official CERT membership list. If you believe you should be receiving this newsletter via Michael’s email, but are not, please contact Jeff Walker at info@saratogacert.org to resolve ASAP.

Santa Clara County FD will provide hazmat/terrorism training refreshers (10/3 and 10/12) and their CERT Academy starts in Los Gatos on 10/16:

There will be a county-side communications exercise on October 14, 2017. If you want to participate at the county level operations, you must sign up by October 5th. Details can be found at http://www.scc-ares-races.org/drills/drill_2017-10-14.html

If you want to get started in Amateur Radio communications to enhance your CERT training and skills, the next Technician class and test will take place on November 11, 2017 in Los Gatos. There is no flyer yet for the class, but details will be posted at https://sites.google.com/site/lgmsar/monthly-membership-meeting/our-classes/ham-cram

You can keep up to date at the

Saratoga CERT web page (http://saratogacert.org)

Saratoga CERT Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/certsaratoga/)

Saratoga CERT Yahoo! group (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/saratoga_cert/info)