Meetings/20190119

BCERT Meeting Notes 1/25/19

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Attendees: Lisa, Casey, Cotton, Rob, Kevin, Barbra, Mark, Joan, Michael, Cathrine, William, Christine, Wendy, GateDon, KenH

Long re-introduction / new introduction. this is often the most free-form part of the meeting.

Discussed fiber-optic installation and conflicts with potential tree removal for CalFire. Contact Ken if you have any questions about how to get those little flags moved around. The installation crew has to calculate cable lengths so they have to have an idea of where this stuff is running.

Described our Neighborhood Coordinator roles to the new attendees. While the wiki has all this documented, some folks don't have easy access so ?William? offered to print out the maps & current volunteer assignments and distribute.

Discussion about how much the Prevention aspects of BCERT cover formal Fuel Reduction. How much is part of this group's self-chosen charter? It seemed that the group was comfortable with some Prevention, but more focused on household Preparation at this point. The common felt intersection is emergency access.

It was pointed out that now is a great season for hikers & ramblers to explore the old & grown over trail systems for exit routes ( remember, we have 1 escape route - that's the road. we have a lot of exit routes for slow-moving emergencies ) All who wander are not lost! If you do go hiking use your phone to track via its built in GPS thingsy. write down what you find! Take a radio!

Radios: Discussed day/night use. no consensus reached, really. we need to use them to know how to use them, but conversely don't' want the 'boy who cried wolf' syndrome to set in. Casey checked the radios brought over; the most recent programming should briefly display your name on the top line, and 9-2018 or later when you turn it on.

Casey needs some radio volunteers for a wider-area south county emergency radio check on the morning of Feburary 9th. This check is to look at coverage when the repeaters emergency batteries run out / or are damaged. It would be great if these were the NCs.

the volunteers just need to listen to the radio for an hour in the morning and fill in some boxes in a spread sheet. ( probably no one will hear anything but ... it would be great to know. ) Casey is in a WCompany meeting during the test; they are looking for hams to transmit as well...

CalFire grant work. Group agrees to have a representative from SMRDC come to our next meeting to talk about the current CalFire chipper program & future CalFire grant work. Our next meeting - which is the 15th? should be interesting. SMRDC would also like to send a person to talk about the Creek, but BCERT members said this was not the proper forum for that. Casey is to look for the proper forum for the creek health / watershed discussion.

Escape Drill. It was agreed that we need to actually run a physical escape drill this winter/sping - before the grasses dry out. This will involve people, cars, and other vehicles. We're contacting the CEC & LaHonda fire to discuss plans & gather advice. We will have a 'paper drill' or two before-hand. "staaay toonod." ( we'll use the smaller email list for planning, and document it in the wiki )

CERT TRAINING: one had started in Menlo Park before the this meeting, so we couldn't get the word out. It's not clear when there will be another one coming up. However contact them about the next 2 sessions - perhaps you can get some of the certification covered & it can't hurt to get exposed to this information. If you are already CERT qualified you can always attend these sessions if there's room http://www.menlofirecert.com/training

CalFire Mapping: Lisa et al will try to get this going again. For sure we have permissions to do the GS camp & the Pool area & Water Company infrastructre. 2 points - this is not the COUNTY ( they already know everything via helicopter, FLIR, and satellite mapping, and actually don't care ) doing maps, this is CalFire doing mapping for emergency access. This complements our own mapping.

OK that's it from my notes. there were mounds of tasty snacks. Wendy is a spectacular hostess.

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Next BCERT Meeting is the 3rd weekend of the month. So Feb 15, unless you hear otherwise. Next Butano Radio Check is the 1st weekend of the month. TOMORROW, Feb 2nd. Fire em up and keep track of who you can hear. move to different channels. learn how to change your 'squelch.' South Skyline Ham Radio Checks on B UP / Butano Up are every Monday at 7:30pm. anyone can listen in, it's good practice.