Mission Statement "Recruit, train and coordinate volunteers wishing to prepare themselves, their families, their neighborhoods and their businesses to be self-sufficient in the aftermath of future disasters and other emergencies affecting Benicia." Meeting Date: October 27, 2004 Attendees: Lance DuPuis, Monty Castillo, Leslie Kvasnicka, Doc Uhlman, Art Mayoff, Marion McKown, Len Corbaley, Ken Hanley. Next Meeting: November 17, 2004, 3:30, EOC Agenda Items: 1. Chairman's Report 2. BERT Support Group (BSG) Report 3. Red Cross Report 4. ACS (RACES) Report 5. BCCC Organization 6. Other Business Minutes and Actions: 1. Chairman's Report a. The chairman reported for duty and was very pleased to see his colleagues once again. 2. BERT Support Group (BSG) Report a. A total of 127 BERT members were called and invited to the 11/15 muster, approximately 70% said they would attend. b. "Welcome packages" will be prepared for those attending the 11/15 muster. Zone assignments, call lists and name tags are among the items that will be handed out. c. ACTION: Review content prior to final construction of the handouts. (Hanley) d. ACTION: Meet with Capt. Smith on 11/4 to finalize the zones/teams being assigned. (McKown, Mayoff, Smith) e. NOTE: Until bigger populations of BERT members are more evenly distributed across town, members will work with other team members residing in other "Thomas Brother" map blocks to allow for more folks to "belong" to reasonably sized BERT teams. As the population grows, some members will change teams to be assigned to groups residing within their map block. f. Status of the phone tree was requested. All known members are listed, only the primary/first level of callers have been assigned. The second and subsequent level are next to be assigned. g. ACTION: As soon as practical, the phone tree assignments should be completed and the tree retested to work out bugs. Important to work through issues before a crisis hits and we're caught unprepared. (McKown, Mayoff) h. The BERT newsletter is approaching completion and is targeted for distribution on 11/3. i. Distribution currently planned for quarterly mailings. j. Size of the documents over time will depend on content. k. ACTION: All planned and potential content contributors will be informed of and expected to meet/beat deadlines for submissions. (Various) l. NOTE: This publication will be very important to a lot of interested and motivated volunteers. The folks working on its publication should not be placed in the position of having to harass people to get half-page contributions to the newsletter. Contributors should be urged to do the right thing and submit material on-time, or they should refrain from promising to do it. 3. Red Cross Report a. Veteran's Hall and Senior Center have had their shelter surveys completed. i. All city-provided sites are complete; YIPPEE! ii. Eight city buildings and two schools (BMS, BHS) b. Data packets for all of the sites will be completed by the end of the year. c. LATE UPDATE: Jerry Pollard has received positive responses from seven churches and hopes to hear a yes from the Mormon church also. Say it with me; YIPPEE! d. ACTION: Schedule/complete church surveys. (Kvasnicka, Hanley/Fiori) 4. ACS (RACES) Report a. One more operator trained for the EOC radio room . . .YIPPEE! b. HAM repeater inoperable and no prospects for reviving the privately-owned equipment. i. Chief Hanley has submitted funding request for the $7,000 required to replace Richard Chan's old repeater with a city-owned/maintained repeater. ii. The BCCC chairman has sent an urgent plea to the city manager and finance director urging their assistance in finding/appropriating the funding. iii. ACTION: Follow-up with city officials to urge funding from this budget year (ending 6/30/05). (Mutch, Hanley) 5. BCCC Organization a. Serious need to recruit volunteers to perform administrative functions in support of the BCCC. b. Council secretary and event coordinator first. c. First opportunity to be offered to BSG members. d. Next opportunity offered to visitors at BCCC web site. e. ACTION: Create "job descriptions" for distribution to BSG members. (Mutch) 6. Other Business a. Lance asks if there are grant and/or other funding opportunities available to supplement what we have. i. Current funding mechanisms explained; Homeland Security/FEMA source, distributed to states, counties and then cities. ii. Funding for 2005 at county-level may equal $30,000. iii. Benicia may not see a third year as sole recipient of county funding, as 2-3 other cities may establish Citizen Corps Programs. 1. If that occurs, county will likely split total funds evenly amongst all participating jurisdictions. b. Additional grant sources are limited, except for focused funding such as recent HAM radio grants. c. Incumbent upon BCCC to find way to find and exploit all available funding sources as they become available. d. ACTION: Contact GOSERV in Sacramento to inquire about their ability to help alert councils statewide when funding opportunities are announced. (Mutch) e. Local funding must also be made a priority, including general fund dollars from the city and private donations from citizens and businesses. f. ACTION: Submit request for city funds to support BCCC administrative and outreach needs. (In addition to current funding for BERT program.) (Hanley) g. ACTION: Be prepared to discuss approach for seeking donations from the public to support BCCC and its programs. (Mutch) h. Lance asks about next scheduled BERT class. i. Current schedule not defined beyond "early" 2005. ii. Only three enrollees on waiting list so far. iii. ACTION: Set firm date for next class so current and future enrollees can plan adequately. (Hanley) i. Lance asks about certifying "civilian" trainers to enable support of more classes and more flexible scheduling. i. ACTION: Discuss more thoroughly at next BCCC meeting. j. Chief Hanley informs the group that supply caches are almost ready for deployment