Iowa Disaster Human Resource Council
In-Person
Meeting Minutes
September 15, 2016
The Meeting was called to order at 10:02 AM by DeCastro (Chair).
Roll call was taken.
Present at the Scott County EOC:
Amy DeCastro, Lindsey Mosher, Dave Donovan, Chris Barns, Danny Coon, Josh Gaul, Glenn Leach, Margaret Baumann, Randy Zo, Steve Garrington, Lisa Gavin, Brice Hughes, Rick Wulfekuhle, Cliff Ehlinger,
Present via Webinar or Conference call:
Margaret Van Ginkel, Tiffany Keimig, Steve O’Neil, Mellisa McCoy, Brian Keath, Joe Solem, Terri Rosonke, Mike Pickerel, Neil Sorenson, Gina Hardin, Lori Williams, Joyce Flinn, Michelle Raymer, Kam Kennedy, Karin Ford, Janna Diehl
Board Members Absent:
Trish Burket (e), Greg Smith (e), Julie Struck, Lori Williams (e), Larry Olk (e), Frank McCrary (e), Mark Luckiesh
Old Business
Josh Gaul moved to approve the August Minutes
Michelle Raymer seconded
Motion carried unanimously
As a reminder, all minutes are posted online at: https://iavoad.communityos.org/cms/Minutes after they have been approved.
Greeting: Amy DeCastro (Chair)
Thank you, Dave Donovan, for your flexibility and allowing us to have our meeting in Scott County. Thank you to everyone who traveled and was able to make it today!
Guest Speaker – Dave Donovan: Quad City COAD (Presentation Slides available upon request)
Our COAD evolved from past events. Many of the current members were a part of those launch committees. Our defined area is Scott and Rock Island counties. We are a part of Regions 7 and 5. This means that we have to get approval and consideration from two regions. We are discussing expansion into a regional committee. We have had folks from Illinois and Iowa attend meetings and we work with them on our radiological plant. We wanted to get our current organization stabilized. Our intent is to continue down that path.
We have historically struggled to stay active and maintain attendance. We have talked about how we should address this issue. The COAD is important to the community and we need to stay strong when we aren’t faced with those challenges.
Our current leadership comes from the faith community. Glenn Leach is our current Chair and the Vice Chair is Jordan Schneider. We meet quarterly for an executive committee meeting and a general meeting.
In 2015, the local COAD noticed an advertisement for the Faithful Readiness Workshop and we encouraged people to attend. We found that those faith organizations couldn’t afford to go. We tried to bring a similar event to the Quad Cities. I reached out to Mike Pickerel to see if that workshop could come to the QC. Mike just didn’t have the funding. Months later he called and said that he could do it. Mike was great to work with. They put together a small steering committee, identified and secured a venue, got local speakers and speakers from FEMA headquarters, panel members, and finalized the agenda.
We also had to market the conference. Some folks knocked on doors, talked to churches. Overall we had a great turn out. We handled the registration through Google. Kam Kennedy with the Red Cross funded the meal and we are very thankful for that. We had speakers from the Red Cross, FEMA Region 7, DHS Center for Faith, and local police talked about run hide fight. We panel discussions in the afternoon and Greg Smith talked about Iowa Praise and Prepare. There were 110 attendees. 66 government and faith organizations. Attendees came from all over Iowa. Feedback was very positive. One comment that was brought up with the police was the right to carry law and how the church feels about that.
Have identified some next steps for our COAD. Local faith organizations are already engaged or willing to engage with regional or national disaster missions. Our next steps are to create a working group and provide value and content to the members. We will look to other VOADS for ideas and collaboration. Glenn regularly attends IDHRC meetings but would like for other members of our COAD to attend IDHRC meetings, develop written plans and ensure those plans mesh with both Iowa and Illinois.
Thank you for the chance to speak today and for coming out to our facility.
Guest Speaker – Kam Kennedy: New Madrid Fault Zone
I had an opportunity to attend the faith based workshop Dave talked about.
There was a great turn out at the Mass Care Exercise aside from the fact Louisiana took a number of participants out for deployment. The state of Missouri organized the exercise and borrowed the concept from California. We activity occurring across the state of Missouri as well as table top exercises in Nebraska and Iowa. The Missouri State Emergency Operations Center there was close to 150 people participated. At the EOC there were 4 task forces: feeding, sheltering, reunification, and distribution of emergency supplies. They also exercised their ESF 6 desk and simulated the rest of their ESFs. The East side of Missouri they had a full scale consolidated assembly site. Across the state they set up emergency centers and there were some full scale exercises and evacuee reception centers conducted, bulk distribution sites, and Kansas City set up a multiagency coordination center as well. The Missouri Access and Functional needs committee gathered 100 survivor participants that went through the facilities that had access and functional needs. It was a tremendous event. Heard a bit from Iowa and Nebraska about their table tops. We will be having an AAR meeting in October. Dates are yet to be finalized. Everyone will be able to be involved and discuss their perception of how it went.
Committee Reports-Year in Review
· Spiritual/Emotional Care, COAD Community Relations: Greg Smith
Nothing to report.
· Volunteer and Donations Management: Michelle Raymer
Michelle reported that the Volunteer Reception Center Train the Trainer was held for attendees to learn how to present VRC training. There were 28 attendees. It was a two-day course and the instructor did a great job.
Will have a meeting in the coming month to go over the Volunteer and Donations Management Annex.
· Disaster Case Advocacy: Lori Williams
Tiffany heard some feedback, from those who attended the VRC Train the Trainer, that they felt confident putting that training on.
There are no new updates for the DCA Committee. With the passing of legislation, rules have not been adopted yet but are proceeding. The Committee is meeting to update the guidelines so when the state program is initiated the document is available for training purposes and aligns with other processes. We have had some great conversations.
Tiffany Keimig is waiting to hear back from DHS on where they are at in the process.
· Unmet Needs: Trish Burket
There are no unmet needs at this time.
· Functional Needs/ESF 6: Karin Ford
There was a good showing this morning for the committee meeting. We want to work on an alerting protocol for people with access and functional needs. Plan on working with Samantha Brear who oversees the Alert Iowa program. 3 counties have agreed to participate. We will meet in a central location to discuss. Will get an email out to the folks on the call. We definitely encourage participants to attend. Would like to meet with County EMAs and create a template that they could use to engage the population and have that alerting mechanism in place. My hope is to do an easy checklist that would help the Emergency managers be connected. One hurdle we have identified is purchasing radios.
We also discussed sheltering and mass care. If we had a better idea of what statewide resources were we could know the ins and outs of the response capabilities. Will be sending Lindsey Mosher an email of where we can meet next.
· Communications Marketing, and Training: Trish Burket - Acting
No update.
· Finance: Janna Diehl
No update.
· Treasurer: Frank McCrary
No update.
· FEMA VAL Update: Mike Pickerel
Cory, Adrian, and MIke deployed and had to cancel the Risk meeting that was scheduled for Sept 28th. Tiffany Keimig was going to be a speaker and will do so when they reschedule. Have been very busy and once our deployment ends we’ll be back and pursuing our goals. Mike gave a shout out to Dave Donovan, Jordan Schneider, and Glenn Leach. The local planning team really took off on the workshop and made it a success. Mike hopes everyone got something meaningful out of it.
· President Report: Amy DeCastro
Amy has heard from our Vice Chair Larry Olk. He had surgery early May. He is doing much better. His chemo and radiation treatments are done. He is now in the rehab phase. He is still unable to attend council meetings but is following along and appreciates the cards and emails everyone has sent. He is still staying on as Vice President and Trish will fill in.
The other update I have is the October meeting. We are not going to have it as a conference call. It is a strategic plan and board meeting. Amy is working on that agenda. She would like to have the agenda out two weeks in advance. If you are able to attend, you don’t have to be a board member we would love for you to come. It will likely take the majority of the morning. It will be the normal start time. However, the board meeting may be 09:00. We will have to cut off the council meeting at noon.
· Secretary/Iowa HSEMD Update: Lindsey Mosher
Lindsey Mosher has been working on the Don Hampton Conference with the work group for event planning. We have placed our order with Spectra for lunch. We will have coffee available for attendees. We have scored the nominations and have ordered the awards. Please encourage folks to register for the event!!!
I have been getting some undelivered email notifications when I send out information using our distribution list. If you haven’t been getting emails from the IDHRC lately, please send me an email with your name and updated email address to .
Current Disasters
· Tiffany Keimig reports on IA Individual Assistance Grant Program: Benton and Wright County were declared and have 17 applications in. The deadline was August 31st. The deadline for Webster County is September 6th. I don’t believe that they had any applications turned in. Johnson County is still active the deadline is September 28th. It has been very quiet with unmet needs. NE Iowa counties include Allamakee, Fayette, Clayton, and Howard, Winneshiek had 28 pending applications. They have 28 pending applications. Breyer and Chickasaw Counties have until October 14th. Kossuth was added on September 8th and have until the end of October to submit applications. Please help spread the word on how to submit those applications.
Josh Gaul reports for the past 1 ½ years we have been working on a smart phone application for resources during a disaster. That is now live and available to Android and Apple. Josh will get a link to Lindsey Mosher to send out to the IDHRC. Will present on it at the conference. There is a disaster responder tool for a referral form for the disaster responder to use. The application sends the form directly to Iowa Legal Aid’s email. If there are issues or would like to see things added, please provide feedback!
Old Business
· None
New Business
· None
Agency Updates
· Neil Sorenson with the Salvation Army in Cedar Rapids reports they have coordinated efforts in response to recent severe weather.
Rick Wulfekuhle replied to Neil stating that their efforts in Clayton was a great response and worked well with the church that opened up there. There is still a struggle in Winneshiek County. If they need any outreach help let Rick know.
Training Opportunities (also located at: https://iavoad.communityos.org/cms/Training)
· Des Moines Children, Youth, and Disaster Summit – August 16th
Upcoming Conferences/Events
· FEMA - ESF 6 sub-committee meeting: Sept 28th at the Salvation Army on 3637 Broadway Kansas City, MO
· Don Hampton Conference: On October 11, 2016
Upcoming Exercises
· FEMA Mass Care Exercise: August 24, 2016 at the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Johnston.
Upcoming IDHRC Meetings:
v In-Person IDHRC Meeting –November 17th, at JFHQ/State Emergency Operations Center 1-800-645-8878, PIN 003251
v Next IDHRC meeting: Strategic Planning – Face to Face on January 19th, at JFHQ/State Emergency Operations Center.
Josh Gaul moved to adjourn at 11:11 AM
Michelle Raymer seconded
Motion carries unanimously
Respectfully Submitted,
Lindsey Mosher