Camden County CERT Assistant Coordinator Ranita Jones began the March meeting by introducing new Camden County Deputy Emergency Management Director Rick Bumarch to those in attendance.
Rick gave a little information on his background, including the time he spent in the US Army Military Police Corps and as a Paramedic in Pennsylvania. He began working with the Camden County EMA on February 21, 2022, had an EOC activation on February 23-24, and the Polar Plunge event on February 26, so it’s a good thing he could hit the ground running! His pleasant personality already works well with his fledgling management of the CERT and he is eager to learn from each of its members!
After that, there was a lot of business to cover. Since this was not only the first in-person meeting of 2022 but also the first meeting after the first event, the Polar Plunge After Action Report (AAR) was reviewed. As people signed out of their duties, Ranita did a quick hot wash with them, so by the time the meeting started on Tuesday, the AAR was done! You can find the finished AAR here.
Before the CERT AAR review, EMD Sam Henley reviewed the EMA’s AAR for the event. You can find that on the EMA’s AAR page.
After the AAR reviews were completed, Sam spoke about Camden County’s new mass notification system, HyperReach, which will replace Everbridge Nixle beginning around March 4, 2022. This system is not only used to push out alerts regarding severe weather and other emergencies, but it is also used to push out information on EOC activations, road closures, and other things which may affect the residents and visitors of our county! Sam is also gathering information/photos for CERTs to receive updated county ID badges.
Ranita discussed our total number of CERT members versus the ones who are actually active. She will once again begin reaching out to inactive members to have them decide if they would like to re-engage with the group or if they have moved on.
CERT is already receiving requests for upcoming events throughout the summer, most of which are already longstanding events the group assists with each year. We will update our calendar page as soon as we can to reflect those we know we will be assisting with over the next few months.
We have an upcoming training arranged by the EMA with Summit Natural Gas on March 10th at 10 am. If you can attend, please message Ranita and/or let Sam know!
We also have a standing invitation to attend training with the Osage Beach Fire Department Search and Rescue Team on Wednesday nights at 6 pm at Station #3 (off of the Y Road exit).
The EMA is working on arranging the next CPR/AED/First Aid training class with the Camden County Health Department, so please contact Ranita and let her know if you still need to obtain your certification.
Thank you to all of the CERTs who attended the meeting and we look forward to a robust, active training and event schedule for this year!