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| Montgomery County CERT Newsletter |
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Next Meeting
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Date: 6/14/2012
Start Time: 7:00 PM
End Time: 9:00 PM
Location: EOB Auditorium
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CERTCON 2012
Saturday, June 9 &
Sunday, June 10
Keynote Speaker: Rachel Jacky, Director of the National CERT Program at FEMA
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From the Program Manager
Greg St.James
It's been a busy May so far, and things are really beginning to heat up for MC CERT. First congratulations to the newest CERT Basic class on a job well done, and we look forward to seeing all of you at CERT events this summer. A well done is also in order for our CERTs who took part in the Baltimore City CERT Olympics taking first place in some friendly competition with teams from the area. Thanks also to our excellent Moulage team for some bloody good work! I also want to thank all the CERTs who turned out for the dedication of the Public Safety Memorial at our new Public safety HQ in Gaithersburg.
Please make sure you sign up NOW for CERTCON 2012 at Georgetown University June 9-10. This will be a great free and fun event, and includes Saturday's sessions with Rachel Jacky, FEMAs National CERT Director, hands on skills workshops, and a big combined field training exercise on Sunday. We will have more details and car pool info soon.
REGISTER for CERTCON 2012
Please read about the other training and service opportunities listed in this newsletter, and take part in as many as you can.
One again I remain proud to be a part of such a fine group of men and women.
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Our New 2012 CERT Officers
Left to Right: Treasurer Trica Laut, President Denise Gilmore, Vice
President Steve Peterson and Secretary Marcy Fine
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Training
CERTCON2012 - Montgomery County will be a co-host to the National Capital Region CERTCON conference for the second year in a row. CERTCON 12 "Ready Anywhere, Anytime" is a two-day conference to promote cooperation, coordination, and information-sharing among CERT teams in the Metropolitan Washington area. CERT-CON 2012 will help participants improve the readiness of their CERT teams and increase the resilience of their communities by making contacts, building relationships, and increasing knowledge and skills. This year, the conference will be held at Georgetown University in DC. The conference will feature plenary speaker Jackey Rachel from FEMA National Preparedness Directorate and Office of National Citizen Corps which oversee the CERTactivities and grants. Other speakers from around the region will stress topics on CERT readiness. The conference will end on Sunday with a functional exercise to test our capabilities and operational readiness to work with other jurisdictions for a mass casualty exercise. All members of CERT are strongly encouraged to come.
CERT TTT - CERT Train the Trainer class has been confirmed for June 2nd. The 20 hour class includes a 12 hr series of classes for existing instructors with an additonal 8 hours of classes for new instructors. Everyone starts the program on June 2nd from 9-4 pm at EOC at Quince Orchard Blvd 9-4pm. Pre-registration is required, so contact Kathee Henning to sign up at training@montgomerycert.org. Successful completion of CERT Enhanced, including the online IS100 and IS700 classes and CPR is mandatory.
Summer Refresher Classes - The emphasis this year is on strengthening our CERT skills, and we will be holding a skills refresher class in the summer. So watch for the notice and join us! We especially want to extend a hand out to the members who took CERT training years ago and can benefit from skills refresher training and getting the latest information on the newest updates for mobilization. Everyone, no matter your skill level, is encouraged to attend! Hope to see you all there!
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Outreach
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
May 20 - Taste of Wheaton
Downtown Wheaton
Wheaton's biggest annual event is coming up on May 20. The Taste of Wheaton features local restaurants offering low-cost "tastes" of their specialty cuisine, live music performances, Wheaton Idol Karaoke, arts and crafts, face painting, and more!
Cert volunteers are needed to man the booth and hand out brochures from 11:00 to 5:00.
Contact Georgianne at Outreach@montgomerycert.org
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
May 19 - Olney Days
Olney Manor Park, Olney MD
This year's theme is "Olney - It's A Green Thing"
We see people everywhere doing things to take better care of our environment from the simple effort of changing light-bulbs to recycling to composting to creating our own farmers and artists market to paperless offices to businesses running on wind power, and more.
Cert volunteers are needed to man the booth and hand out brochures from 11:00 to 5:00.
Contact Georgianne at Outreach@montgomerycert.org
May 26-28 - Rockville's Home Town Holiday
Rockville Town Center
Rockville's Home Town Holiday this year is May 26-28. We could not get enough interest of volunteers for the holiday weekend. However if you would like to attend and enjoy Rockville: http://www.rockvillemd.gov/events/hth
- More than 40 free concerts and shows on eight stages
- A Taste of Rockville from local restaurants
- The Market Place Craft Festival
- Kids and teens entertainment and activities
- 68th Memorial Day Ceremony and Parade
Rockville's Town Center is just one block from Metro and plenty of parking is available.
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CPR Classes
As part of our 2012 commitment to MC CERT being ready "anytime, anyplace" we have instituted a program of refresher CPR/AED classes for all CERTs. The course is taught by our MC CERT CPR Director Cynthia Halota using ASHI current standards. I strongly urge every CERT to take advantage of this opportunity to improve your lifesaving skills. Research show that the person you are most likely to perform CPR on is a family member, friend, or colleague. The class is free to all MC CERTs (with the option of purchasing the ASHI text book to keep for $10).
Our next two classes will be:
Wednesday, May 30 from 1830 to 2100.
Wednesday, June 13 from 1830 to 2100.
If you want to register, please e-mail registrar@montgomerycert.org with the following information: Your Name, Phone Number, E-mail, Current CPR card-holder? Y or N, If so, from whom (ASHI, CERT, MCFRS, Red Cross, etc.)?
A reminder with location information will be sent a week or so before the class begins. Be sure to bring knee pads if you need them; you will be doing compressions on the floor.
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Collaborative Effort amongst County Groups
Montgomery County CERT in collaboration with Montgomery County's Department of Permitting Services and Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security is in the process of developing a pilot program where CERT members can be utilized as a cost-effective solution for the County in doing damage assessment. The concept calls for CERT members to take mobile devices out into a disaster area of the County, during the recovery phase, and do an assessment of the damage, if any, to pre-identified buildings. This information would be communicated to the Emergency Operations Center for real-time posting. Additional information on this collaborative effort will be provided once it extends beyond the early stages. For more information on the program, please contact Dan Hennessey or Steve Peterson.
Potential Future Partnerships and
Community Outreach Events
 Vice President, Steve Peterson was a guest speaker at the 2012 All Hazards/All Stakeholders Summit in Washington, D.C. on May 10, 2012. The summit was attended by several hundred emergency management officials from the National Capital Region. Mr. Peterson presented on the topic, "Lessons Learned: Social Media Usage during the Holiday Point Marina Fire" and shared both the benefits and challenges of using social media as a communication means during a crisis. Following his presentation, several attendees reached out to seek additional information, and potential partnerships or assistance, with Montgomery County CERT. It is anticipated that additional community outreach events will arise due to these discussions. More information will be provided once formal meetings have concluded.
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Free Deck Maintenance Inspections Offered in May
To help raise awareness of building safety, Montgomery County's Department of Permitting Services (DPS) is celebrating Building Safety Month by offering free deck maintenance inspections for single-family detached homes, townhouses and duplex dwellings.
The inspections are available to all Montgomery County residents -- excluding those in the City of Rockville and the City of Gaithersburg -- and include a checklist for homeowners to help them maintain a safe and sound structure.
Residents interested in scheduling a deck inspection should contact Montgomery County during the month of May by calling 3-1-1 or by faxing at 240-777-6258.
Homeowners will be contacted before the inspection is performed. All requests will be honored as the inspectors' workloads permit.
For more information about Building Safety Month, visit the DPS website at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/permittingservices. |
| Recognition
Tricia Laut
Anne Culver retires as President. Anne has been the CERT President for Montgomery County for the past 2 years. With the just completed elections, she has retired from the office, but still hopes to keep her hand in with MC CERT. Anne was an invaluable leader and resource and we appreciate all she has done to help create the best trained CERTS in the area.
Haiti Trip for final training session: Some of our M.C. Cert members (Jeff Alderdice, David Smith) are in Haiti's Port au Prince again for a final leg of CERT medical training. Their dedication to training Haitian's to train and help other Haitian's has been a huge commitment and a very successful process.
On the mend.... Georgianne Mitchell, our Outreach Director, is on the mend from her shoulder surgery in March and is back as an instructor for the new CERT class as well. Now if she'd just stop putting Greg in a headlock!
On a very sad note - Anne Culver's husband, Bob Hawkins, passed away in April. His memorial service was held Saturday, May 12th at the Kensington Masonic Lodge, in Kensington, MD. Bob's passion was teaching young people how to fly and finding the funds to help make that possible. Our hearts go out to Anne and her family.
To all CERTS of Montgomery County. While there are a lot of shared trainings, outreach and other opportunities together, I don't get to speak directly with many members who may have recognition moments in their lives, births, marriages, awards, and so on. If you, or a CERT member you know, is doing something special, hitting a special milestone, or being recognized for something they did, both as a CERT or in their personal life, please drop a line to me so we can include these nuggets in our next CERT Newsletter. I can be reached at tlaut4479@gmail.com, or 301-897-9029. We'd really like to recognize the efforts and special events in the lives of Montgomery County CERT members!
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Tech Reminder
REMINDER: If you change your email addres or phone number (or other contact info) log in at iamresponding.com and update your information.
If you don't know your log in information, email Tech@MontgomeryCERT.org to have it sent to you again |
About the CERT Newsletter
The Montgomery County CERT Newsletter is one of many tools we are utilizing to engage and communicate with our members and the community at large. Published monthly, the newsletter will deliver items on upcoming events, CERT news and activities, training schedules, and relevant educational messages. If you wish to contribute please email Patrick Benko at patrick.benko@gmail.com.
We encourage anyone to subscribe and please feel free to share this email with others. If you wish to unsubscribe or change your email address you can manage your email preferences via the links at the bottom of this email.
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