SW Neighborhoods, Inc.

This is the monthly meeting of the SW Emergency Preparedness Group. We are a group of citizens working to create disaster-resistant communities by raising public awareness, working with our civic leaders, and educating citizens how to prepare for and respond to natural disasters. We invite anyone with an interest to attend. Our focus is SW Portland, however disasters know no boundaries and we believe in working with neighboring groups and individuals.

• 7:00 Introductions
• 7:05 Agenda Approval
• 7:07 Re-organization
  – We need to de-centralize to eliminate organizational bottleneck
  1. Education and public outreach
     
     1. Training
     2. Speakers bureau
     3. Special events
     4. People with special needs or “at risk”
     5. NET training promotion
     6. Article writing for newsletter
  2. Communications
     
     1. Radio communications
     2. NET to NET communications
     3. Web site
     4. Phone tree
     5. Volunteer coordination
     6. Media watchdog
  3. Building a Disaster-Resistant Community
     
     1. Infrastructure (e.g. stronger seismic building codes)
     2. Monolithic Domes
     3. Community disaster shelters
     4. Liaison to city bureaus and council
     5. Working with adjacent communities
  4. Fundraising
     
     1. Grant writing
     2. Donations
     3. Co-marketing
• 7:15 Announcements & Special Guest: Lawrence Behmer, PEOM
  – Reading of Commissioner Saltzman’s letter
  – Grant approval: New web server machine funded
  – PCCC:
  1. Multnomah Co studying pandemic flu scenario
     – Not earthquake; “same, except damaged infrastructure”
     Good that they’re thinking about such scenarios, but they are seriously underestimating the effects of a Cascadia subduction zone megathrust earthquake
     The politics behind such funding decisions: Anything funded by Washington DC will not be very interested in earthquake scenarios because most of US is thought to be unaffected by (large) earthquakes

  2. PPS cut their budget for Emergency Preparedness Training
     – Working with Red Cross to designate schools as refugee camps; may not include NET
     Policy uncertain regarding schools which have been closed

  3. Neighborhood watch and NET trying to coordinate and cross-pollinate more
  4. Improvements in NET program coming
• 8:00 Fund Raising
• 8:30 Adjourn

Notes: Previously, for fundraising, we talked about…

• Grant Writing Workshop
• Fund raising project: $500 for new server
• Goodstorm will print, sell and ship T-shirts
• Annie Blooms Books (sell DVD’s ?)
• Amazon has an affiliate program
• Professor at PSU who has a “grant writing” class

Grant writing needs include:

• Educational materials
• Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) group caches
• Increased NET training (conduct our own classes?)
• A new web server (for group communication and public outreach)
• HAM radio gear
• Emergency kits for students in our schools
• Emergency IT equipment (to reunite families after an earthquake)
• Community disaster shelters

FUNDRAISING

• Seek donations of cash and materials
• Writing grant proposals
• Selling emergency related items
• Seek donations (for neighborhood kits, 72-hour kits we could sell, etc.) from hardware stores, Home Depot, etc.
• Barter with businesses in exchange for positive public relations opportunities and acknowledgement in our newsletters, and emergency preparedness education, such as how to develop a Business Emergency Plan and a Business Continuity Plan.
• We need to look into whether there are videos for these plans and how we can get copies to give people. – Answer: Yes, there are!
• Things to sell as fundraisers: t-shirts or hats with slogans (“I’m Prepared, Are you? Ask your NET member!”, “Don’t be scared, be prepared” and “Got NET?” were ideas.), preparedness videos, Cascadia videos, LED flashlights, radios, kids artwork on stationery, billboards.
• We talked about having things for sale at farmers markets, along with educational literature.
• Fundraising and public education go hand in hand. We emphasize here the need to offer more NET training.