Friday, November 21, 1630-2000 (4:30-6:00pm) and Saturday, November 22, 0900-?? (9:00am-??) Caring and Sharing Thanksgiving preparation This is NOT a CERT team event, but we are posting it here for your information, should you want to volunteer on your own. On Friday, volunteers unload trucks with items donated to Caring and Sharing and start organizing them. On Saturday, volunteers pack boxes for each of the recipient families. If you want to help, go during the designated times to the West Navarre Intermediate School, 1970 Cotton Bay Lane, Navarre (turn north at the intersection where the school zone is, about 3.5 miles west of the Navarre Bridge on Rte 98 (less than 1/2 mile east of the Whataburger). Santa Rosa Caring & Sharing website

Sunday, November 23, 1100-1500 (11:00am-3:00pm), Caring and Sharing Distribution This IS a team event. We have been asked to provide assistance with parking and crowd control, and assistance to SRSO as they request. Additional information and volunteer sign-up form

Saturday, December 6: Navarre Christmas Parade and Christmas in the Park. We'll need volunteers to work the parade (3:00pm-4:30pm, manning barricades along the parade route) and for Christmas in the Park (2:30pm-8:30pm, roving patrols and directing pedestrians to the crossing where Sheriff's personnel will be handling the traffic.) A few volunteers will be selected to ride in a pick-up truck pulling the Navarre CERT mobility trailer. This is a fun event if you love kids! Details and sign up

Wednesday, December 10: CERT Board Meeting, 6:00pm This will be a meeting of the current board of directors, with any newly elected directors also attending. Any member of Navarre CERT may attend board meetings. Location for this meeting is the home of Bob & Sue Ferson. If you intend to raise a question or issue, please advise a board member in advance of the meeting.

Friday, December 19, 1630-2000 (4:30-6:00pm) and Saturday, December 20, 0900-?? (9:00am-??) Caring and Sharing Christmas preparation This is NOT a CERT team event, but we are posting it here for your information, should you want to volunteer on your own. On Friday, volunteers unload trucks with items donated to Caring and Sharing and start organizing them. On Saturday, volunteers pack boxes for each of the recipient families. If you want to help, go during the designated times to the Oriole Beach Elementary School, 1260 Oriole Beach Dr, Gulf Breeze (turn left off 98 at the second intersection west of College Parkway). Santa Rosa Caring & Sharing website

Sunday, December 21, 1100-1500 (11:00am-3:00pm), Caring and Sharing Distribution This IS a team event. We have been asked to provide assistance with parking and crowd control, and assistance to SRSO as they request. Additional information and volunteer sign-up form

Additional Change to Board of Directors Ray Crepeau has resigned from the board effective immediately as he and Daisy are being relocated to Albuquerque, NM. At the November 5 board meeting, in accordance with the by-laws, the current board appointed Peggy Armstrong to fill the remainder of Ray's term (through 12/31/2009).

Navarre CERT Board of Directors Election Result The vote was very close, with the final result being:

• Mike Sandler, 29
• Ed Blick, 27
• Debbi Lewis, 27
• Chris Arnold, 26
• Jeff Womack, 24
• Peggy Armstrong, 20

This decision will be made at the November 5 (first Wednesday in November, rather than the regular 2nd Wednesday) board meeting at the Senior Center. In addition, at that meeting the new board will decide upon specific positions (coordinator, section chiefs, and treasurer). All members, as always, are welcome to attend the board meeting.

Navarre CERT, Inc. Bylaws Changes Recently, the Board of Directors voted to make a few changes to the bylaws.

• Eliminated the phrase "of South Santa Rosa County, Florida," from the description in Article II of who can be a member.
• Modified the description in Article IV, Section 4, to show that we will now be electing directors by plurality, and not specific to any section chief/corporate officer position. The intent is to ensure that directors serve two-year terms even if positions change, and to avoid losing a potentially valuable board member who might run unsuccessfully for a specific position.
• Modified Article VI to clarify designation of check signers, especially in view of the amendment described above.

Navarre CERT Trailer Sponsorships If you know any business or organization who might like to have their logo or name displayed on both sides of our trailer (which will "debut" at Oktoberfest, October 4), please download our trailer flyer and either deliver a printed copy to them or attach the file to an e-mail. The flyer is also available on our "Downloads" page.

CERT forms are now available on the "Downloads" page. One file has all the forms that are covered in class. Another is just the Damage Assessment form.

Corporate grants We are happy to announce that we have received a $250 grant from WalMart thanks to WalMart employee Aileen Schriver volunteering with CERT, and a $1,000 grant from IBM thanks to IBM retiree Sue Ferson volunteering with CERT. If you work for or are retired from a national corporation, or even a large regional corporation or organization, please check to see if your work with Navarre CERT can help us get a grant.

Immunization Recommendations for Disaster Responders from the Center for Disease Control

1. Tetanus : In accordance with the current CDC guidelines, responders should receive a tetanus booster if they have not been vaccinated for tetanus during the past 10 years. Td (tetanus/diphtheria) or Tdap (tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis) can be used; getting the Tdap formula for one tetanus booster during adulthood is recommended to maintain protection against pertussis.
2. Hepatitis B : Hepatatitis B vaccine series for persons who will be performing direct patient care or otherwise expected to have contact with bodily fluids

Food, Water and ... NOT ice. In case you weren't aware, the State of Florida won't be supplying ice after a disaster. Read the entire newspaper article. Santa Rosa County doesn't plan to, either. We'll have to rely on stores and ice machines with generators if the power is out.

What Is a Cyclone? Just an interesting bit of information from NOAA.gov: The terms "hurricane" and "typhoon" are regionally specific names for a strong "tropical cyclone". Where you'll find each:
Hurricane : In the northern Atlantic Ocean, the northeast Pacific Ocean east of the Internation Dateline, or the southern Pacific Ocean east of 160E
Typhoon : In the northwest Pacific Ocean west of the international dateline.
Severe tropical cyclone : In the southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E
Severe cyclonic storm : In the northern Indian Ocean
Tropical cyclone : In the southwest Indian Ocean

Potential ham radio class Steve VanDenAkker is collecting names of those interested in getting their amateur radio license, technician class. He will work on putting such a class together. To add your name to the list, please let us know.

American Legion Post 382 Certificate of Appreciation for the assistance we provided at the 2008 Memorial Day ceremony at Navarre Park. Thanks to all who participated. See the certificate

Many new photos in the gallery Photos from chainsaw training, FunFest, and the repeater installation have been added. More to come soon.

Navarre CERT Amateur Radio Club: KC4ERT Thanks to the efforts of Gene Simmons, the hams in Navarre CERT now have an official ham radio club. And the club has its own call sign: KC4ERT. Our repeater has been reprogrammed to used that sign.

Photos of Navarre CERT "in action" We're always looking for photos of us at work at a festival, information distribution, parade, Caring & Sharing, or other event at which we provided support. If you have any please e-mail us and attach the .jpg files. If the photo needs to be scanned, let us know and we'll arrange something.

Requests for Our Assistance at Community Events Please do not make any commitments for Navarre CERT to "work" any community events. All such requests must be brought to a board member. We now have a form for requests for our assistance. There is a link for it on the navigation bar. The purpose of the form is to gather information that we must have in order to effectively decide whether Navarre CERT will participate, and information that we need for creation of a solid operations plan for the event.

Fundraising Committee We are looking for someone to head or be part of this committee. There are always functions such as the Beaches-to-Woodlands Tour, FunFest, the Jay Peanut Festival, the Health Fair, etc. that offer us the opportunity to distribute disaster preparedness information to the community and, at the same time, solicit donations for badly needed equipment and supplies.

Meeting Attendance We currently have more than 80 team members on our roster. Team meeting attendance has improved, but we still see only about a third of you there. Each general team meeting includes refresher or advance training, and we are doing our best to limit the meetings to no more than two hours. General meetings occur at 6:00pm on the fourth Wednesday of every month (except November and December) and are held at the EH Pullum Senior Center, across the street from the Navarre Library.

Our team meetings and exercises are designed to keep you abreast of Disaster Preparedness developments within our community, and to offer you an opportunity to maintain and improve your CERT skills. If you have not been to a meeting recently, we strongly encourage you to make an effort to attend the next one.

Thanks to Brad Baker of Santa Rosa County Emergency Management for providing CPR training to 20 CERT members at our August 27, 2008, team meeting. Although CPR is not a skill that we employ in a CERT activation, it is good for us to have the ability use it in our personal lives.

Did you miss ARRL Field Day? Then you missed a good time. Thanks to Steve VanDenAkker for coordinating this event, to Gene Simmons for assisting with his expertise, and Ray & Daisy Crepeau for hosting the event at the Gulf Pines KOA Kampground that they manage -- and to all of these folks for lending their equipment for the event. We made contacts all over the country, despite a day where weather interfered with radio reception. The youngest person to take the mike (and she made several contacts) was Debbie Lewis's daughter and Chris Arnold's granddaughter, Tia, 10 years old. Tia would surely tell you that you should have been there -- except that would have meant less time at the mike for her! Debbie had to pretty much drag her away when the day was winding down. Everyone brought so much food that we had two potluck meals rather than just one, and food left over at the end of the day. A more extensive report and photos will be up on this site soon. Start planning now to be there next year (the last Saturday in June, 2009) whether you are a ham or a Navarre CERT member or not.

The American Legion Poker Run went very well, despite rain along the way. The bikers were appreciative of our ham radio network. Hams at each stop kept one another updated on weather conditions, which were passed along to the bikers. Exercising our ham radio skills across a large geographic area was good practice for us and showed what we can do in the event of a disaster. The Navarre Press was there to record the event.

Navarre CERT "tattoos" were popular, bringing in some additional cash. The American Legion Riders, Post 382, will be cutting a check to Navarre CERT. Thanks to participating Navarre CERT members:

• TJ & Oud Doherty, who staffed the first stop at American Legion Post 378 in Gulf Breeze
• Steve VanDenAkker and Peggy Armstrong, who staffed the second stop, at the Oval Office in Milton
• Lenore & Don Nicholson, at the third stop, River Run Marina in Milton.
• Chris Arnold and Mike Sandler, at the fourth stop, B Dubb's Suds and Subs in Milton
• Bob Ferson, who acted as team leader for the three stops in Milton
• Howard Piansky and Judy Ertl, handling the fifth stop, Cocodries.
• Rick and Nancy Morgan, covering TC's Front Porch, the sixth stop
• Gene Simmons, our communications expert at American Legion Post 382 in Navarre
• Lou Greene, Don Shopmyer and Ralph Agnew, who took care of the last stop and our main information booth at American Legion Post 382 in Navarre
• Sue Ferson, who acted as Incident Commander for this event
• Extra thanks to the several members who returned to American Legion Post 382 after their stops were shut down, to help at the main tent.