The January meeting of ARES of Champaign County was held Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at the Fire Service Institute.  Here are important notes from that meeting and other news.

ATTENDING
N9XDC, KC9HXY, KC9DEQ, KC9IHX, KB9KAI, K9LMM, N9DN, N9GKA, KC9JVR, W9SZ, KC9HND, AB9FJ, N9GPA, W9EML, W9DML, K9SO, KF8ZN   Guest:  KC9KRE   (18)


2007 DUES
At the December annual meeting the membership voted to continue dues for the coming year.  Dues are $20 and are payable to ARES of Champaign County.  Please send your check to  Heather Schlesser,  187 Paddock Dr. East, Savoy, IL 61874 no later than January 31.


EMCOMM BASICS REVIEW
The training topic for the January meeting was a review of basic EmComm procedures.  This program is available on the WA9RES web site for review.  There is also a one-page summary of the "break tag" concept and the seven break tags.  You can find both of these on the Training page.


DOCUMENTS ON WEB SITE
The ARES membership roster, net check-in list, net script, CCARES by-laws, and other documents are available for download on the Members' Only section of the web site.


MEMBERSHIP CLASSIFICATIONS
The board will be meeting to draft new policy and appropriate by-law language with the aim of assuring an active and trained membership.  This will be reported to the membership in the form of proposed by-law revision, with a vote planned for the March or April meeting.  Please let me or one of the board members know if you have any additional thoughts on this issue.


UPDATE ON FEMA TRAINING
As of January 4, 22 CCARES members have completed ICS-100, 20 have completed ICS-700, 12 completions of ICS-200, and 7 completions of ICS-800. 

More information and links to the FEMA Emergency Management Institute can be found on the WA9RES web site.

When you complete any of the FEMA courses, you will need to send a copy of your course completion certificate to me so your training file can be updated and we have a record of your completion.


STORM SPOTTER TRAINING
Spotter training in Champaign County is scheduled for Wednesday, March 7, at 6:00 p.m. at the Carle Forum in Urbana.  If you intend on storm spotting in Champaign County you must attend spotter training. If you cannot attend on March 7, there are sessions held throughout central Illinois beginning at the end of February through April.  Check the Lincoln NWS web site for a complete schedule of talks.  There is a link to the schedule on the ARES web site on the Activities page.


JANUARY/FEBRUARY NET CONTROL STATIONS
The weekly ARES net is held each Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., on the 444.100 repeater, CTSS 162.2.  NOTE: The weekly net script was recently updated - please download the latest version from the web site.

January 9         N9GKA
January 16       W9EML
January 23       K9LMM
January 30       AB9FJ
February 6          N9GPA
February 13      N9GKA


NEXT MEETING
The next regular meeting will be on Wednesday, Februrary 7, at 7:00 p.m.