Rod et.al., Circumstances are much different in Santa Barbara than they are here in General Valley Center. We are a community of small towns [Pala, Rincon Springs, Pauma Valley]. We [Valley Center C.E.R.T.] work with several of Native American tribes, all of which have casinos on their tribal lands. Both my wife and I present at the Valley View Casino's "Employee Health and Wellness Expo" twice each year. Many don NOT live in the Valley Center are and commute from the surrounding cities and even as far away as Riverside County. Many of the employees are young, some speak Spanish only. In explaining what CERT is and can do for them, our first question is, "How are you preparing your self and your family now, for a natural disaster?". We show them a "survival bag" which my wife and I have in our vehicles. We tend to think that "the government" is going to take care of everything. In one part of my Powerpoint presentation, I mention that in December, 2010 the San Diego County division of the American Red Cross contracted a PR/marketing agency to survey San Diego County residents. Among the questions was the one above. When the numbers came back, the Red Cross discovered that more than 67% of those who responded, had given NO though to disaster preparedness whatsoever. This, despite the fact that these same residents suffered through the San Diego Wildfires of 2003, 2007 and the "Easter Sunday" 7.2 earthquake in the Imperial Valley, just 9 short months earlier. There is just so much that an organization can do to prepare their fellow citizens to prepare themselves and their families. Many of us ten to naively believe that we will be home with our families, the kids [or grandkids] will be playing in the yard, the car will be full of gas when the next disaster strikes. In reality, we will probably be on the freeway, on our way to [or already at] work, in another county or perhaps on a well deserved vacation or away on business. The question begs, "How is my family [or my kids] going to take care of themselves for the next 7 days after the disaster, especially if I'm not there?" Larry Martinez said that SBTV wanted to collaborate with SBARC and/or ARES but nothing happened.It sounds like someone [anyone] should try to reinvigorate that relationship. Alone, if needs must, just to see what might be arranged. Getting the word out about CERT is essential. Jay said that, "...we are not firefighters, we are not paramedics, traffic cops or mountain rescue people." Nor should you try to be, but you MUST be willing to do something proactive, to protect yourself and your family when the next disaster strikes. CERT offers you that opportunity, but you have to meet the organization half way. Michael Kwan sound like he's on the right track. Getting involved and getting informed is the first step. Goethe put it best, "Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Only engage and the mind grows heated; begin and the work will be completed."

Walt, I fear for you the most. From the little that you've written in this thread, it sounded like you had written everyone in these organizations off. You could NT make a bigger mistake, in my opinion. In fact, you really need a small group of dedicated instructors and several people to assist them in order to have a successful CERT team. They are there to help you and your family, if you have made little or no preparation for what could very well take away from you all that you have.

NO, you do NOT have to join CERT after you graduate the last class, but shouldn't you feel that you should once you receive the invaluable training...usually for free? Shouldn't you feel the gratitude that leads you to an inner obligated to the CERT people who have invested an inordinate amount of their own free time, energy and resources to help YOU keep yourself and your family safe?

In my view, everyone who attend and graduates a CERT Academy should have some  "skin in the game". A way to voluntarily support the organization with their service to the organization which gave them the training,  or perhaps, in a financial way.

Yes, it's v-e-r-y difficult to keep a CERT team going. I had a debate with a Fire Marshall when it was pointed out some years ago that, "Year after year, meeting after meeting the same 10 people are here to help the 21,000 citizens with CERT training, yet very few of them ever participate in the managing or in volunteering!" His reply was that, "you're going to have citizens who do not wish to join CERT. They'll just take the training back home and share it with their family and neighborhood. That's just the way it is." I asked, "Perhaps that's true, but 97% of the people think that way!" Any organization, particularly a non-profit needs people to help sustain it. When you volunteer your time, your money, your ideas and your energies into an organization or into an ideal, you want to feel good about what you do, don't you? When you don't get that from your "investment", how long are you going to continue doing it? Not long, I fear. This is why it is so very important to begin to get people, who have taken the CERT class, to begin to participate in supporting the organization. Otherwise, the organization will slowly die for lack of interest. Then, everyone loses... Please forgive this epistle. It's easy for me to get wound up.

On Friday, March 13, 2015 7:28 AM, "Rod Fritz (rod@sbatv.org)" rfritz22@cox.net wrote:

Thorsten, Great to hear from you. I relate well to your experience. Good or bad, the County/ARES relationship is defined and arguably limited by the MOU. I see that as unfortunate.  SBARC doesn't have a well-defined relationship with the County which pretty much prevents them from working directly with the OES at this point. At the same time, SBARC's hands are not tied and they can orchestrate anything that they believe is required to do something truly useful regarding Emergency Services. I believe such action is long overdue and I'll try to get this started. An active team is needed to define what to do and carry it out. We're in those brainstorming and forming stages. Thanks for helping us understand the environment we work in. Rod

-------- Original message -------- From: Thorsten von Eicken tve@rightscale.com Date: 03/13/2015 12:25 AM (GMT-06:00) To: Rod - Traveling rod@sbatv.org, Walt zharasty@verizon.net, Alain Michel opalockamishabob@yahoo.com, William Talanian w1uuq@cox.net, sbarc list sbarc-list@lists.netlojix.com Cc: 'WB6RDV' jay@west.net, Jay Hennigan jay@impulse.net Subject: Re: [Sbarc-list] Redundant systems

I don't want to turn this thread into a long polemic, but after a couple of years of participation with ARES I gave up because it became apparent that local authorities were not involving us pretty much regardless of what we could do. That was at the time of all the fires in the area and ARES was not mobilized a single time (unless I missed something). I didn't have the sense that it was SBARCs or ARES' fault but I'm also not really interested in those politics anyway... My conclusion was that I was wasting my time and I'm not trying to blame anyone here for this. Thorsten

On 3/12/2015 9:06 PM, Rod - Traveling wrote:

Hello Walt,   I fully understand your frustration with our lack of constructive action.  I have not given up, but will try this different approach.   I appreciate your interest in the past and your efforts to clarify and highlight the need and try to motivate us to take action.  That has been helpful and provides motivation to move forward.   It is with sincere regret that my efforts have been ineffective to date.  I know that you supported my efforts.  I just fell short, though admittedly, this isn’t something that one person can implement.   I wish you and Jayne all the best and hope that someday, your dream (our dream) of an effective emergency service system will be realized.   Your friend, Rod WB9KMO   From: Walt Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 10:43 PM To: Alain Michel ; mailto:rfritz22@cox.net ; William Talanian ; sbarc list Cc: 'WB6RDV' ; Jay Hennigan Subject: Re: [Sbarc-list] Redundant systems   Greetings:   Three years ago, Jayne and I rekindled our interest in SBARC (Jayne and our son were members back in 1978) because we hoped that he club would be useful in case of an emergency, especially an earthquake.   WE have been trying unsuccessfully to interest club members and ARRL for almost three years about doing something about the matter.   We have expressed our disappointment that neither ARRL or SBARC was interested in taking effective steps to establish some sort of effective emergency procedure.   At this point Jayne has lost all interest in Amateur Radio, and I have developed other interests to which I intend to dedicate all my efforts, so, Rod, count us out.   Walt       From: Alain Michel Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 4:00 PM To: mailto:rfritz22@cox.net ; William Talanian ; sbarc list Cc: 'WB6RDV' ; Jay Hennigan Subject: Re: [Sbarc-list] Redundant systems   " When I ask, "how do we get help when the big one hits?", the answer is always, "dial 911"."   Hi Rod,   I don't mean to sound impertinent but that's funny; "call 911".   Both my wife and I are FEMA trained CERT instructors down here in San Diego County; we instruct our students that if they follow the "disaster preparedness" we outline, they may not need 911.   First responders are going to be sooo overwhelmed that the fire, EMT's and law enforcement that Santa Barbara current enjoys, may very well be deployed elsewhere [if damage is just light to moderate] to cities [Ventura  and elsewhere] where the damage may be much more severe.   For at least the first 72 hours, folks are going to be on their own---prepared or not. We instruct our citizens to be prepared for 7 days...minimum.   Late last year, I was listening to L.A.'s KNX 1070 AM radio station. A reporter was interviewing an L.A. fire chief who was retiring. She asked him how well LA County "first responders" were prepared to handle another Northridge or a Landers?   His response? "There are about 10,000 first responders [emt's & firefighters] for 4 million people---you do the math."   I must say that I am a bit surprised there there are not more SBARC folks chiming in...   Vry 73 de Alan...N6HPO Valley Center C.E.R.T. WWW.VCFPDCERT.ORG

On Thursday, March 12, 2015 8:42 AM, "Rod Fritz (rod@sbatv.org)" rfritz22@cox.net wrote:

Thank you Andy and Bill. I was delighted to see your article. It clearly states some concerns that I have and have likewise tried to work around, as you have.   One important contention of mine comes to mind. That's the vulnerability and limitations of the 911 system. When I ask, "how do we get help when the big one hits?", the answer is always, "dial 911".   As you have just illustrated, that may not work. Furthermore, even if it does, I contend that 911 access and access to resources may quickly be saturated and ineffective. This rings of "best effort" again. Legislators might admit we can't afford a perfect system (or maybe even an excellent or very good one?). As the currently common (I hate it) reply goes, "it is what it is."   Worse yet, when access to resources is limited, who gets them?  I leave it to your imagination how this would play out but I contend that individual citizens are on the bottom of the list.   I recognize and applaud CERT for what they are doing to prepare citizens. They are an important part of the solution but they don't address the communication that is necessary.  I know they're working to improve in this area and we ought to assist them in this regard.   Consider ham radio as a partial solution...   I want to preface this by saying that I believe that ARES is a valuable resource. ARES is well established but it relies solely on 911 for community (citizen) input. It is my understanding that there is no plan in place for citizens to contact emergency services through ARES. ARES is subservient to the government and the 911 system. I believe that ARES could be structured to better serve the citizens of the community, but it is what it is.  I welcome any changes that would make the ARES structure serve citizens better.   And then there's SBARC... SBARC has incredible potential to serve the citizens of the community and we're already part way there. We need to stop relying solely on ARES for amateur radio emergency services. We need to help more citizens become "active" radio amateurs. How about at least one per city block? We need to establish an end to end plan with real redundancy to connect citizens to services they need, even when conventional means don't work. This would use a diversity of communication types and paths, not only ham radio.  I think several of us have good ideas how we can make this work well and I know it is needed and would be oh so valuable when the big one hits.   Details are beyond the scope of this email but I propose an SBARC Emergency Service committee to make it happen.   As an SBARC Board member, I will attempt to establish this committee.  Which of you would like to participate?   73, Rod Fritz, WB9KMO

-------- Original message -------- From: William Talanian w1uuq@cox.net Date: 03/12/2015 7:22 AM (GMT-06:00) To: sbarc list sbarc-list@lists.netlojix.com Subject: [Sbarc-list] Redundant systems

Think it can't happen?

http://andrewseybold.com/3539-it-cant-happen-to-me

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