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Home My WebLink AboutSeptember 17 - 1 - Minutes: Town of Los Altos Hills EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Monday, September 17, 2007 @ 7:00 PM, Council Chambers Roll call: Member Call Sign Attended Absent Jim Abraham W6EB P Dru Anderson, Chairman KG6LAD P Bob Anderson, Vice Chairman KC6ZWG P Ray Egan W6FQY A - E Charlie Ellinger KI6JPM P Rick Ellinger, EC KJ6NU P David Gilmour WQ1K A – E Bob Hall KF6DHX P Edwin R Jones, Secretary W7WPO A - E Andrew Kirk WB6CLS A Lynn McLeod KG6YIT P Scott Overstreet N6NXI P David Pratt K6LWT P Miles Seiver KI6LDU A - E Terry Smith K7YNO A "Smitty" Smithwick W6CS P Maynard Stevenson W7MVT P Jerry Tomanek KI6BYL P Gary Waldeck K6AIR P Al Whaley N6RPR A – E Sam Wood K6MSR A Associate Members Call Sign Peter Berman K6PJB Bob Lisbonne KG6HOD Ed Radlo AJ6V Bob Fenwick K6GX Other Hams present Larry Carr, DEC KE6AGJ Council Liaison Jean Mordo Ki6AXE P 1. Minutes of previous meeting were approved: Jerry Tomanek moved, Bob Anderson seconded, unanimous approval 2. Discussion about the free ICS Emergency training ensued. Participants can sign up via the Web as follows – other activities for participation were discussed as follows: a. Oct 6 (Saturday), 9 a.m.: A 3-hour class on ICS, SEMS and NIMS, complete with an official certificate of completion. This class is recommended for everyone and is mandatory for participation in the MAC program (as well, AEC suggested skills). Sign up for it by going to http://www.scc-ares-races.org/MACDrill/signup.html If you - 2 - cannot make this session, please go to the same page http://www.scc-ares- races.org/MACDrill/signup.html and click on the other link to indicate when you could attend a class. This class is a deal - the alternative is to take individual classes that are 4 hours each b. Oct 13 (Saturday) 5 a.m. to noon. SPECS Flea Market date at DeAnza College south parking lot: SPECS is the non-profit organization that supports the SPECS repeater that links with county and serves the northern county cities, including LAH. This is the main fund-raiser for the SPECS repeater we all use. Once a year SPECS gets to sponsor the flea market, meaning that they get to sell coffee, donuts, and, because it takes a lot of coffee and donuts to keep the repeater on the air, they also have a booth to sell donated equipment. Maynard and Dru asked that people volunteer by either 1) donating any equipment that you might have, used or otherwise, or 2) volunteering to help both before the market (loading equipment and getting supplies) and during the market Please contact Dru Anderson at druAndersn@aol.com or board@specsnet.org Dru, President of SPECS, with assistance from Rick Ellinger and Wes Freeman, will manage the SPECS FM, because Maynard Stevenson, SPECS VP and FM manager, is on vacation that date. Other volunteers from the LAH ECC group for the SPECS event are Bob Anderson and Miles Seiver. Scott Overstreet is manager of the SPECS equipment donation aspect. c. ALSO, Oct 13 (Saturday) from 2-4 p.m.: The quarterly county ARES/RACES drill. This is when we typically have a snowstorm or other equally unique disaster roll through the county. More information will be coming on how you can participate. d. Oct 19-21 - Pacificon - Known as "the West coast ham radio convention" at the San Ramon Marriott. More info: http://www.pacificon.org/ e. Oct 21 (Sunday): Red Cross will hold their annual "Partners for Preparedness" event on October 21st, 11 AM to 4 PM at Kelly Park in San Jose. In addition to many information booths, they will be setting up a mock disaster shelter. If it is similar to last year, they will also open up a kitchen and provide a hot meal to the volunteers. Santa Clara Hams will be asked to provide communications support for this event, mainly as shadows for key Red Cross personnel. This is an excellent training event for us hams as well as a chance to see how the Red Cross works. Details will be coming soon. See also http://events.mercurynews.com/events/show/80331372-Partners-for- Preparedness and http://www.scv- redcross.org/registration/calendardetail.asp?ActivityKey=303768 f. Oct 26 (Friday) - The annual Emergency Volunteer Center drill will be held. If you don't know of the EVC effort, the county will establish 4 EVC centers in the county after a disaster. People volunteering to help after the disaster has occurred (sometimes called "spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers") will be directed to the closest center where they can match their skill set with the various needs created by the disaster. Hams will be needed for communications.) 3. La Cresta Tank Antenna Status: The water district has prepared the LaCresta tank site and is now ready to install our new antenna. The chair’s suggestion is that, to avoid mistake in equipment, Scott Overstreet will purchase the town’s antenna and coordinate the installation. The committee voted support of this suggestion. - 3 - New Business: 4. At the August meeting, it was decided to resurrect the Equipment Sub-Committee; Scott Overstreet volunteered to lead this group. Initial sub-committee members will be Jim Abraham, Dave Gilmore, Al Whaley, Ray Egan, and Maynard Stevenson. Others interested can contact Scott. The group will also examine the EOC and what it needs, ensure that radios are up to par and ready to operate. We are nearly out of HTs to be handed out. A new model needs to be evaluated /selected as does Sam Wood’s proposal to provide internet capability to the La Cresta site and the EOC. We have received a recommendation to use Lime Green helmets instead of White. The group will evaluate upgrade of ‘Grab & Go’ radio package. 5. Gary Waldeck, K6AIR, is trustee for K6AIR repeater located on Vargas Peak in East Bay. He offered to volunteer use of the repeater as a backup mutual aid capability in time of area difficulty. Some discussion ensued, to be continued. 6. Rick Ellinger was unanimously elected as the new committee chair. In his acceptance discussion, Rick indicated that he wants 5 AECs to assist as follows: a. Training AEC to drive training that can occur after primary meeting or at any other time. Volunteer Needed. b. Drill Manager to coordinate and manage County, MAC and other Drills as needed. Volunteer Needed. c. Chief Radio Officer: to manage the Monday Night Net and to ensure that all EOC radio equipment works satisfactorily – Jim Abraham volunteered for this post. d. Event Manager to ensure that all ECC events are captured on a schedule/calendar – Lynn McLeod volunteered for this role. e. Information Manager to ensure that Documentation / Web Site / Meeting Minutes are properly captured and communicated to the group. Note: For the meeting minutes/Secretary Role: Ed Jones has volunteered to continue. The documentation and web site aspect remains open. f. Ray Egan will continue as the technical lead the antenna subcommittee. Rick’s objective was to have any of the AECs activate a call up and get through ICS training. Rick also indicated that his objective is to have an official meeting that will run from 7-8 pm. Following the official meetings, he hopes to have a ‘club’ style meeting where training, and general ‘Elmer’ style interaction can occur. He indicated that there are a number of initiatives that will lead to interconnect between FRS & Amateur equipment are being considered. He noted that there are other major upgrades being considered by FEMA and Homeland Security initiatives. He mentioned the Golden Guardian Drill as a near term example of major interaction of area equipment. 7. Outgoing Vice Chair Bob Anderson took a moment to acknowledge Outgoing Chairman Dru Anderson, and her long hours of service as chair for the past 2 ½ years. During that time, the committee grew by more than 30%, the town’s combined “tree tower” co-locating the cell antenna along with 4 town ham equipment antenna was achieved, the La Cresta project – a bumpy road project – was completed. Drills, special speakers, special “quick training” events at meetings were scheduled. Bob asked the group to acknowledge the service. 8. It was noticed that the Town’s Website is out of date relative to roster membership and other activities. Rick indicated that he would call Karen Jost to try to have it updated. 9. Adjourned at 8:25, moved by Bob Anderson, David Pratt seconded – approved by the group. Respectfully submitted, Gary Waldeck, LAH ECC Acting Secretary