Happy New Year 2016 Pinelands Regional CERT Team Members!   

So What's Next?   At the previous 2 meetings we handed out slips of paper and asked you for areas of interest and ideas regarding future training .

We also surveyed the members of the FaceBook group with the same question, and collated the results.     

You wanted it, You got it.  Here is what the team asked for:

First Aid Training.   This isn't going to be your typical training course.   No cheesy videos, no theory,  just good old fashioned hands on training.   
On January 30th, after attending one of the two sessions we have scheduled, members will have a much improved, practiced experience level with First Aid.   How to administer it, with hands on exercises with a partner.    The classes will be taught by an instructor from CINTAS First Aid, with an emphasis on how to use the equipment in our kits correctly.   We'll also have a focus on how to put on and how to remove, properly, Personal Protective Gear.    Just try not to get any "blood" on the rugs at the training center.     Please register by emailing John.Lyons@trgc.com and indicate your preference for morning (9am to noon) or afternoon (1pm to 4pm).

Compass Navigation and Orienteering.    We had classroom maps and compass training.   After that we went out to the fields and did an exercise to practice using the compass in a controlled environment - a flat soccer field with reference stakes.   Now it's time to go out into the woods and learn orienteering.  The next level of training will occur at Pine Tree Boy Scout Camp, in the woods, in the winter.  This is the real deal.  Colonel Lowe will teach us how to maneuver in the wilderness using just a compass and map.   Scheduled for Saturday February 27th, details about registration soon to come.

Hurricane TableTop Exercise.    Team members wanted another table top exercise to practice emergency management procedures, CERT deployment, and ICS structure.   For the last weekend in March, Saturday March 26th we will conduct a Formidable Footprint exercise in the training room of the Tabernacle Emergency Services Building following along with hundreds of other participants over the Internet.  

I hope you feel we listen, because for the 1st quarter of 2016 we've lined up exactly what the folks who responded asked for.   Please join us for any or all of the above exercises, come out and help grow the team while you learn as an individual.    Want to do something else or different?  Just let us know!

Thank you for your service                                                      73, John Lyons Team Leader PLC

January 2016