Newsletter

Saratoga CERT September 2017 Newsletter

By in Newsletter

It is hard to believe that September is here…autumn is just around the corner! We have a busy couple of months for Saratoga CERT coming up.

September Saratoga CERT Events

We have two major activities in September: a county emergency drill and our regular membership meeting. We must also start our planning for our city-wide CERT drill in October.
On September 14th, Santa Clara County is having an emergency drill. Saratoga will open up its EOC and radio communications room on Thursday, September 14th from 09:00 AM until 11:30 AM. Michael Taylor will send an alert to all Saratoga CERT members via EVERBRIDGE the morning of 9/14. 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 check-in / out (between the hours of 09:00 to 10:00) and get some guidance on what other items your backpack should have. 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. (Calendar entry: http://saratogacert.org/event/saratoga-cert-participation-in-santa-clara-county-emergency-drill/) SARA ham members should plan on signing into a drill net on K6SA repeater at about 9am on 9/14 – more details will come directly from our Emergency Coordinator, Don Steinbach. We are looking for some volunteers to help with this drill at two locations – please contact info@saratogacert.org if you can help out.
Our regular bimonthly Saratoga CERT membership meeting will be held on Thursday, September 28th at 5pm at the Saratoga Recreation Portable @ Joan Pisani Community Center. Topics on the agenda this month include an update on our new CERT divisions, planning for our October Saratoga City emergency drill, a review of our performance on the September County drill, and preliminary discussion of our end of year holiday party. The full agenda will be posted in our calendar at http://saratogacert.org/event/saratoga-cert-leadership-meeting-2/ later in September. Please click on the RSVP button in the calendar entry so we can get a count of attendees for handouts and the like. Please save the date.
Saratoga CERT will be holding its annual emergency drill on Saturday, October 28th from 8AM until 1PM. We are in the initial planning for this right now and would very much appreciate one or two CERT members to volunteer to help craft the objectives and assist with the planning. If you can help us out that would be greatly appreciated. Please call Jeff Walker (408) 621-5853 if you can help make this a fun and successful exercise.

Getting your Saratoga DSW Cards

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 to get a current card.
• If you have a current Saratoga DSW card, please 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 Lori McKenna (lmckenna@saratoga.ca.us) and arrange for her to get you a card between 2:00 and 4:00 on Fridays when City Hall is open.
• 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.
Note that the opportunity to get a card if your credentials are more than 4 years old closes at the end of September!

Distributing this Monthly Newsletter

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.

August Saratoga CERT Training Session

Thanks to Lori Stafford for leading our MedOPs training session in August. Kudos to our attendees: Bryan Knysh William Brooks, Susan Schwaderer, Tim Harris, Tom Baker, Wendy Lynn, Donna Dittrich, Jeff Walker, Karen Burley, Candy Brooks, Jessica Fullmer, Stephen Ng, Caron Whitacre, and Lori Stafford. A very special thanks to William Brooks and Jeff Walker for all their help in prepping and set-up/clean-up! Also, Lori is working on getting access to videos that were created so we can provide a link to the YouTube or other websites for Triage and Med Ops refreshers (triaging video and head-to-toe assessments) for our CERTs.

Update on our New Saratoga CERT Divisions

We have identified 5 proposed divisions and have them represented on a map with the corresponding CERT members: http://saratogacert.org/app/  As we confirm that the CERT members are still in town and interested in participating in both real emergency and exercises, we will refine the divisions as needed. The next step will be to get an organizer to set up a preliminary division meeting to discuss topics like: leadership teams, is the rally point a good choice, can an Incident Commander bag be placed with someone in the division, and when should we reach out to the corresponding neighborhood watch groups to recruit new volunteers. It is still our goal to use the Neighborhood Watch neighborhoods as a basis for our CERT divisions. Please contact Jeff at info@saratogacert.org if you can help in any way.

Santa Clara County and Bay Area Activities in September

If you just cannot get your fill of emergency planning activities, there are a bunch of other activities nearby that you (or your family and friends) can be part of during September:

Heads Up! on Activities in October

As mentioned above, our annual CERT drill will take place on October 28th – Jeff is looking for two volunteers to help with the organization and leadership – http://saratogacert.org/event/cert-drill/
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 – http://saratogacert.org/event/cert-refresher-training-haz-mat-terrorism-awareness/ , http://saratogacert.org/event/cert-refresher-training-haz-mat-terrorism-awareness-2/ , http://saratogacert.org/event/cert-academy-los-gatosmonte-sereno/

Staying UP TO DATE

You can keep up to date at the
Saratoga CERT web page (http://saratogacert.org)
Saratoga CERT Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/certsaratoga/)
Have a great September!

Saratoga CERT August 2017 Newsletter

By in Newsletter

Please note that the original newsletter had an incorrect email address for Michael Taylor – the correct address is mtaylor@saratoga.ca.us

===================================

 

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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).

 

July 6, 2017 – Saratoga CERT Newsletter

By in Newsletter

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

1 2 3 4