OFFICIAL MINUTES FOR:

RBCERTAA   BOARD MEETING

August 14th, 2003 - 6:30 p.m.

Cimmaron Café 

5160 W. 190th St., Torrance, CA.

 

 

Board Members Present:

Board Members Absent:

Guests:

Randy Stacy

Jared Van Sloten

Captain Bob Engler

Valerie Heath

John Moawad

Captain Rick Martinez

Pamela Hoole (in @ 6.41pm)

 

Pete Villasenor

David Hoole (in @ 6.41pm)

 

Janet Johnson

Mike Grady (in at 8:45pm)

 

Laurraine Caruana

Bob Heil

 

Gary Horn

Garth McWhorter

 

Paul Weavers

Michelle Sayre

 

 

Alisa Zells

 

 

 

Meeting called to order by Vice President Randy Stacy at 6:31p.m. (6 board members present.)

 

Motion to approve minutes for July 10th was made by Valerie, second by Alisa. 

 

Note:   RBCERTAA monthly board meeting have changed to the first Tuesday of the month, next meeting will be on Tuesday September 2nd, same location (6:00pm social – 6:30-9:00pm meeting)

 

Agenda order/Additions: Public Safety Commission, special recognition to Firefighter Pete Villasenor, and Pam & David Hoole.  Please be there by 6:45pm.

 

Randy introduced guests:  Pete Villasenor, Janet Johnson & Laurraine Caruana.

 

Neighborhood Watch:  Janet presented to the board members the latest Neighborhood Watch brochure.  This program is not just to prevent crime it is also to connect with people within our community and get to know our neighbors.  Although e-mail is our primary form of communication, here are some examples of things that NW did recently:  National night out on August 5th, distributed flyers at school districts, sign ups at the safety fair and Citizen Corps meetings.

 

Six-Month Strategic Objectives - Citizens Corps Council: “By January 15, 2004, Don Herr and Janet Johnson will develop strategies for mutual support between Neighborhood Watch, CERT, VIPs, Police Academy and the Medical Reserve Council to make each entity more successful."

 

Janet reviewed our last email draft and asked if we could include an application as an attachment to our email, to which Randy didn’t feel it was appropriate. It was asked whether or not we could ad a hyperlink so people can download it from the city website.

 

Pam made a motion to have the email and Newsletter article about the Neighborhood watch sent to our alumni, second by Alisa.  Passed by all 8 board members present.

 

Awards:  Randy presented an award to Pete for his outstanding work as our CERT liaison the last three years.  Pete stated that at the National CERT Conference, he was pleased to see that from all the ideas that were thrown out there, Redondo Beach has done it all.  Our website made us known statewide.  A personalized gift was also given to Pete from the entire RBCERTAA alumni.

 

Randy also presented an award to Garth for his support as a vice-president last year and secretary the year before.  Thank you for everything you have done for this board Garth!

 

Procedural Changes: Pam distributed final copies of the bylaws changes as well as the elections procedures.  After everyone’s review, motion to approve changes to the bylaws was made by Pam, second by Garth, passed by all 8 members.  Motion to approve the proposed changes to the election procedures made by Pam, second by Garth, passed by all 8 members.

 

Old Business:

 

Treasurer’s Report:  Monies deposited this month:  $452 from apparel.  Monies still to be cleared $320 set up cost & $100 canopy purchase.  Monies to be paid at this meeting: $45 for caps, $39.17 for certificates & $48 for annual P.O. Box rental.   Balance available:  $2906.48. 

 

Vons trailer donations have slowed down a bit, net contributions $3,436.  Asset Report:  $13,194.85.  We have no more yellow jackets, and only 44 backpacks.  Valerie mentioned to add the $100 purchased pop-up into the asset report for redistribution with the minutes.  Revised Asset Balance: $13,294.85.

Motion to approve the August 14th financial report as amended made by Pam, second by Valerie.

 

Master Calendar:  No changes since last month

 

Current Activities:

 

Drills & Trainings: Captain Engler will run field Transportation & Lifting training on September 13th, 9:00am at the Knob Hill Community Center.  Gear requested:  Gloves, helmet and good shoes.  Valerie will contact Kelly and Jared to arrange for muffins and coffee set-up.

 

Website:  Aloha Smog just paid a $50 sponsorship add on our website, Valerie gave the check to Pam to deposit.  Valerie posted pictures taken at e following events:  2003 bi-annual LA CERT drill, meet the new Fire Chief, WMD Police Drill, Relay for Life and Class 22 drill, and the award given to Officer Dan Richey for providing our last training on Traffic Control.

 

Randy has created a sponsorship renewal letter as well as a solicitation letter, it will go out by end of next week. Originally he was to receive half the amount donated to CERT from sponsors for soliciting new sponsors and creating an ad on our website Randy never got compensated for his time nor will he, this is by his choice.  Any money received will go a 100% to the RBCERTAA funds.  Thank you Randy for your generous offer and hard work.

 

Discussion about sponsorship brought up that some local business offers discounts without being sponsors. We will discuss this at next board meeting, maybe we could post a list of these businesses once confirmed with owners.

 

La Boutique CERT:  Baseball caps are not going fast enough, we need to lower the donation amount for the baseball caps from its original $15.  Pam made motion to drop the price to $10, second by Michelle.  Pass by all 8 members.  Pam will include a special promo in the next drill article.

 

Communications:   Bob Heil gracefully accepted to take over the communications committee.  Don Herr has mentioned that the City will be reviving its DCS program.  Bob recently went to the South Bay Amateur Radio Club; they are supporting the Torrance CERT.  He would be interested of gathering information of who has access to a HAM radio.  How can we reach them?  Would they be interested to have a monthly networking to see if they are ready in an event a disaster should occur?   Valerie mentioned for Bob to contact Mike since some of the questionnaires that came back have some of this information that could be useful to him to build a network.  Bob will work on an article he would like to add into the next Newsletter.

 

Fire Department Corner:  Captain Engler stated that our November quarterly drill will be combined with a citywide large-scale disaster drill, he will have more details in a couple of weeks, it will be held during a weekday.  CERT deployment will be done via phone-tree.  CERT members will set-up a rehabilitation area, a treatment area, and will have about 6 to 7 teams formed.  We would also like to use CERT alumni to play victims.

 

Captain Engler asked if we were content with all the training and other events CERT gets to participate in.  The answer was YES!  Maybe next year we can get some training in the evenings or on Sundays since people work on Saturdays.

 

Captain Martinez said that the Fire Department will most likely have an additional training class on Wednesdays for the King Harbor Yacht Club next month, providing that they have a minimum of 24 people enrolled.  Graduation drill for KHYC will one week prior to Class 23 graduation drill. Valerie will contact George & Karen Anderson to see if they will be available to conduct a graduation drill on October 11th as well as on October 18th. She will contact Lisa Burke since moulage will be needed to make victims as realistic as possible.  Michelle and Valerie will be assisting Lisa.

 

Next year the Fire Department will include an additional classroom night to each original eight-week training program instead of one full training class to provide a better program for our community.

 

The City Attorney has approved a new waiver that CERT members will sign at the first day of class; it will be given at class 23.  Valerie asked to have a copy to add to her files for future reference.

 

New Business:

 

Email vote:  Robert’s Rules guidelines allows email voting as long a it is in an emergency and the issue can not wait to be voted on at the next board meeting.   It should not be abused.

 

Memorial Day Parade:  Paul Weavers accepted to chair this committee next year.  The city has waived our entry fees.  The parade path has extended all the way to the Riviera Village, so longer route and more exposure.   We were one for the largest group represented there.  All we have to do is show up; there is nothing else to take of.

 

Refreshment Trailer:  RBCERTAA is relinquishing their interest in the trailer to the Fire Department.  Jared will give all the information gathered by Gary Horn to Captain Martinez in case the Fire Department is interested in getting the trailer for future storage, may be even for CERT training materials etc…?  

 

Safety Fair:  Annual Safety Fair will be on Sunday October 5th, between 9:00am to 3:00pm.  Garth spoke to Mike Diehr since they have remodeled the courtyard, he asked us to bring our own pop-up as they might run short of canopies. Motion to email the membership ask for volunteers to help man the booth, and recruit new members made by Michelle, second by Alisa.  Please contact Valerie at rbfdcert@yahoo.com. Set-up will start at 8:30am, and tear down after 3:00pm.We will also need some sort of give-away to raffle, as it is always a popular item. Valerie and Randy will chair this committee and assign shifts throughout the day in a one or two hour increments so everyone can enjoy the festivities. 

 

Committee Revision:  Valerie handed out a list of all our current committees based on Pam’s original dated 2002.  Anything in red needs a new chairperson and members to assist with that committee.

 

Welcome Packet.  This could be given to all new members attending the class, information about our website, various benefits available to CERT members, apparel items, discounts, board meeting, trainings etc….  We could work on it at next board meeting and set-up a welcome committee.

 

Resignations:  Pam announced that her and David are officially resigning their positions on the board, as they must return to Australia next month.  It is reluctantly that we accept their resignations.

 

Valerie took nominations from the floor:  Margot Hoffman, Paul Weavers, Gary Horn and Lisa Burke.  We will elect two new board members then vote for a new treasurer at our next board meeting.

 

Pam added that she trained Alisa this week on how to do the CERT accounting and tracking of money received, paid and the Vons trailers tracking, and she could be the interim treasurer.   Randy didn’t think that much will happen within the next two weeks that we will need a financial report for our the next board meeting on September 2nd.  We can wait till we have our treasurer elected then and go from there.  Pam will turn in her mailbox key, check books, official documents, forms etc… to Randy in the meantime. 

 

Announcements: EMT Training, Bob handed out some flyers of various EMT Classes available.  If anyone is interested to take an EMT Class, please let him know.  Some schools will not let you take the course unless it is a requirement for your current or future job.

 

Relay for Life, Mike stated that the CERT team raised $4,200 and his photo Club $2,300.  This year the event collected $173,000 in comparison of $93,000 last year!!!!  It was a huge success, looking forward to next year.

 

Reminder everyone, please order some food when attending this board meeting. The Cimmaron Café is reserving this meeting room at no charge as long as we need purchase food and beverages.

 

Having no further business the Board Meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:58pm.

 

                                                                                          Respectfully submitted,

 

                                                                             Valerie Heath,

                                                                                          RBCERTAA Secretary

 

 

Minutes approved by Board on: _____________________________________