St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the June 8, 2009 meeting

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Minutes of the June 8, 2009 Meeting

Steve Wooten, KC0QMU, the Emergency Coordinator presided over the monthly meeting of the St. Louis County ARES^® group on June 8, 2009. The Meeting was held at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital.

Steve welcomed vistors and had everyone introduce themselves. He said that St. Louis County ARES^® currently had 92 members.

Steve handed out thank-you certificates to those present who had participated in the deployment exercise on May 2, 2009.

Steve said that he now has to obtain permission from his superiors in ARES^® before he can appoint additional assistants. He said that he had just received such permission and announced that Cece Rongey, W0CMR, has been appointed as Assistant Emergency Coordinator - Administration & Recruitment, and that Dr. Craig Klimczak, K4LSU, has been appointed as Assistant Emergency Coordinator - Training.

Steve said that the DEC (District Emergency Coordinator) and SEC (Section Emergency Coordinator) were now scrutinizing all Missouri ARES^® groups. He believes that some counties in District C that do not currently have Emergency Cooridinators may have them soon.

Steve gave a general outline of the group's goals for the next two years.

Have more of the St. Louis County ARES^® members take ARECC level 1 (Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course), FEMA IS-100, and FEMA IS-700.
St. Louis County ARES^® is registered with SEMA (Missouri State Emergency Management Agency) as a volunteer organization, and hence its volunteers are required to take IS-100 and IS-700. St. Louis County ARES^® also imposes ARECC level 1 as a requirement.
Have officials from St. Louis County Emergency Management Agency monitor the group's nets and exercises.
St. Louis County EMA is aware of the group and is interested in how effective it is. Steve would like them to monitor our activities.
Obtain two small pull-behind trailers to haul the group's gear.
Test all VAMC (Veterans Administration Medical Center) stations and develop operational parameters.
The VAMC has said that it hopes to have the amateur radio stations up and running in its three clinics by the end of summer.
Bill Wallace, KC0TGY, suggested that we could do preliminary testing once the antennas were installed. We could connect them to our own gear and get an idea of the propagation characteristics.
Steve said that St. Louis County ARES^® would have at least one day in July or August in which members would be able to familiarize themselves with gear identical to that installed in the VAMC facilities.
Steve also said that the VAMC will only allow entry to amateur radio operators approved by St. Louis County ARES^®, and that special IDs will be required.

Steve said that the ARRL has approved the group's MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) with Central County Emergency 911. The SEC and DEC now need to sign it, then it will be given to CCE911 for its Board to examine. CCE911 said it also requires that its amateur radio vaolunteers take FEMA IS-100 and IS-700.

Craig Klimczak, K4LSU, gave a presentation on Learning Unit 4 of the ARECC Level 1 course.¹

Jim Conley, N0OBG, said that STLCARES (St. Louis County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, Inc) now has both 501 (c)(3) and Missouri tax exempt status.

1 - Please see the Software section of the Resources page if you do not have software necessary to read this file.

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