The
May meeting of ARES of Champaign County was held Wednesday, May 2, 2007
at the Fire Service Institute. Here are important notes from that
meeting and other news.
ATTENDING
N9XDC, WB9HFK, K9SI, KC9HXY, W9EML, W9DML, KB9KAI, K9LMM, KB9UJV,
N9DN, KC9IHX, KC9IKL, K9MLT, N9GPA, KC9KZG, KC9JVR, KC9KGJ, KC9KRE,
KC9HND, W9CMA, NH7WN, AB9FJ (22)
RED CROSS PRESENTATION
We were pleased to have as our guest speaker at the May 2 meeting
Jamie Davis, Emergency Services Coordinator for the Champaign office of
the American Red Cross. Accompanying Jamie was Doug Walker, a Red
Cross volunteer who serves as emergency service liaison during ARC
operations. Jamie and Doug familiarized ARES members with the
services the Red Cross offers.
On April 22, four ARES members (N9XDC, K9MLT, KF8ZN, K9SI) observed a
tabletop drill run by the Red Cross held at the St. Joseph Middle
School. The drill scenario involved a tornado touchdown in St.
Joseph producing significant damage. The drill involved many of
the function areas of the Red Cross and services they would provide in
such a situation. This was a worthwhile event for us to attend
and observe and provided some good insight about where ARES could be
utilized in such situations. Mike Trautman, K9MLT, has written a
nice summary of the drill and it is posted on the ARES web site.
You can find the summary in the Activities section, Drills and
Exercises.
CPR/AED/FIRST AID TRAINING
In response to the interest expressed at our May meeting, Heather
Schlesser, KC9DEQ, will be offering CPR/AED (Automated
External Defibrillator) training at our June meeting. We will
follow that up with first aid training at the July meeting. There were
significant changes to the CPR protocol in 2005, and if you have not
had or updated your CPR training since that time you should plan to
attend this meeting. Note that this training will take an hour and a
half to two hours. If you have ever wanted to learn CPR or need to be
re-certified, don't miss this opportunity. The skills you learn could
help save a life.
PUBLIC SERVICE EVENTS
ARES provided communications support for two of our "regular
events" in the past few weeks. The march of Dimes Walk America
was held on April 28 in Champaign, based out of Centennial Park.
Participating in the event were K9MLT, W9SZ, KC9HXY, KC9IHX, N9GKA, and
N9XDC. On May 6 we provided support for the MS Walk at
Meadowbrook Park in Urbana. Helping with this event were KC9DEQ,
N9XDC, KC9HND, N9GPA, KC9HSB, W9EML, W9DML, KC9JVR, KB9TIQ, KC9DUU, and
KC9JVY. We had great weather for both events this year.
Thanks to everyone who helped out. Photos of the March of Dimes
Walk have been posted to the web site.
UPDATE ON FEMA TRAINING
As of May 2, 22 CCARES members have completed ICS-100, 20 have
completed ICS-700, 12 completions of ICS-200, and 8 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.
WEEKLY NETS
The weekly ARES net is held each Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., on the 444.100
repeater, CTSS 162.2. The ARES 2m Simplex net is held on 146.550
immediately following the 440 net . Net control stations for the
next four weeks are posted in the Nets section of the web site.
NEXT MEETING
The next regular meeting will be on Wednesday, June 6, at 7:00 p.m. Heather. Kc9DEQ, will provide CPR/AED training.