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Archived Documents

Fire Corps Meeting Notes

For your convenience, the meeting notes are also transcribed below.

Fire Corps Update - 9/22/06

September 11 (pdf)

The September meeting was held on 11 September at 11 am at the Brunswick House. Those present were Lisa Miner, Sally Lombardo, Arlene Acton, Mary Sue Wahl, Judi Ciriola, Katy McLaughlin, and a new member Hanna Philipp. Lisa gave hats to Katy, Hanna, and Judi for Pat.

Clothing

If you have not already done so, please could you let Lisa know what items of Fire Corps clothing you have and in what size.

Training Dinner

The next dinner is September 18th. It will be a Frogmore (low country boil) prepared by Barbara and Perry Day (guests). Sue Sadlon will be making dessert. Members of Fire Corps are invited. If you plan to attend, please call Lisa (except Sally, Hanna, Don and Mary Sue who have already signed up).

Arlene reminded Lisa that there is a full pork loin in her freezer that belongs to the Fire Department. Lisa spoke of what a big success the barbeque was.  One of the ideas that came from this discussion was a Fire Corps cookbook that could be used as a fund raiser.  This is way down the road though.

We need volunteers for the November dinner - Lisa will let everyone know the date in a week or so.

Incident Reports

Katy and Lisa have been inputting incident reports. Arlene is going to work on this also. Katy and Arlene will work out a schedule between them for keeping up to date.

Hydrant Testing

Brunswick Plantation hydrant testing should be done in September and October. We have 4 teams of testers: Lisa and Steve, Paul and Sue, Don and Mary Sue and Dave Mason with Bob Bonneau. Lisa will send email as soon as the hydrant testing equipment is in place. Please send email to the other teams when you plan to test so everyone knows what is happening. There are lists of hydrants, one per street, which should be used to record the data. The lists will be in the office.

File of Life Program

This program seems to be well received.  Lisa will send Hanna email for inclusion in the Oceanside Place newsletter.  The distribution date for Oceanside Plac is October 18 from 4-5:30 PM.  Katy is going to start calling around to the larger POA's so we can go to their locations and start the distribution process there.

Open House

October 14 at Station 1 from 11:00 AM-3:00 PM.  The Creamery cannot set up a stand so Arlene will check with Ann to see if she found out any information on the snow cone man.  Sally and Angela will take care of the food.  They will make the initial purchases at Sam's.  Pricing is hot dogs $1; chips $0.50, and soda $0.50.  Judi C. will be in charge of games, coloring books, crayons, etc. for the children, we will need 4 people for the Safety House (Don and Mary Sue have already volunteered), Arlene will do the File of Life table, Ann Wiltbank will do the Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery and Operation Smoke Alarm station.  Hanna, Sue and Katy will be available to assist.  Advertising will consist of having a spot on the local TV channel, an article in the Beacon, hopefully something in the Sun News and Star News. Lisa will create fliers for local businesses.

Safety House

The Library date has changed to October 17.  There will be two programs: one at 10:00 AM for preschoolers and one at 4:00 PM for kindergarten through 5th grade.  Volunteers included Arlene for both sessions, Judi C. for the 10AM session and Hanna for the 4:00 PM session.

The Safety House will be at the Brunswick Electric Membership Corp. annual meeting on September 23 at the Odell Williamson auditorium.  The house will be demonstrated between 8:00-10:30 AM.  Lisa, Steve and Arlene have  volunteered.  We still need more volunteers.  There will be arts, crafts, food, etc. prior to the meeting which begins at 10:30 AM.  It has been suggested that we carpool because of the distance.

The Safety House has been booked for the following dates.  Please consider volunteering.  The times for each day are 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM.  Two of the nights in each session are for older kids, one night for Kindergarten and 1st grade. The locations are Supply, Belleville, and Lincoln elementary schools. We should depart the area around 3:30 PM each day.

October 24, 25, 26.  Judi and Hanna have volunteered for the 25th; Sally, Judi and possibly Angela for the 25th. October 31, November 1, 2. November 7, 8, 9.

Arlene has agreed to help at least one day each cycle.  She will talk to Ann and Joan T.  Lisa said that we need to start some serious training and practice on the Safety House.  Hanna and Arlene met with Lisa to receive training.  Lisa also said that we can rotate the tapes to view at home and work on presentations as well as reading the manuals.  The Safety House is now at Station 2 for ease of training and practice. Please let Lisa know when you would be available for training.

Training Records

Arlene has been summarizing training records. The procedure is going to be updated next week.

Fire Corps Update - 8/7/06

August 7 (pdf)

Chief Karl Bennett attended the first part of the meeting. The Chief thanked all "The Blue Shirts" for being at the roll out for the safety house. He said that Randy Thompson was impressed and stated that "volunteerism was working". The county has a volunteer coordinator that is now in Randy's office that will work with other counties when emergencies occur. The chief also asked that our next assignment be the development of a phone tree as a secondary callout method for emergencies. He again stressed the need for drivers at station #2 and a safety officer. The department also has a need for a recliner if anyone has one that they are trying to get rid of.

Schedule for the File of Life program: 8/15 (Sally L. and Judy C.); 8/17 (Katy M. and Judy C.) and 8/19 (Ann W). I need one more for 8/19. The location for all dates is Station 1, 11:30 am to 1 pm.

Hydrant Testing will start again in September. Please let Lisa know if you are willing to sign up. So far I have Dave and Bob, Don and Mary Sue, Steve and Lisa and Paul and Sue. I would like to set up a schedule if possible.

Safety House: the following dates are already scheduled:

Training: how to operate the safety house, training program, props, learning where everything is located in the house, and preparing the house for transport. Please let Lisa know when you can attend training. For operations we have two sessions organized and will add more.

September's dinner is on hold until we hear from the Chief. He is still working on a clam bake.

Phone Tree: secondary call out method: Lisa will develop a list with everyone's name and a list of who we will call. Please let Lisa know if you are willing to be on the list. So far we have Arlene, Ann, Angela, Sally, Mary Sue.

So please sign up for safety house training, hydrant testing, file of life and the phone tree.

I REALLY NEED AN EXTRA PERSON FOR SATURDAY, 8/19, TO HELP ANN WITH THE FILE OF LIFE DISTRIBUTION.

Fire Corps Update - 7/10/06

July 10 (pdf)

We held our monthly meeting on July 10th. Our next meeting will be on August 7th (11 am at the Brunswick House). Thanks to Arlene for taking notes.

We are setting up a buddy system for people who can't make meetings or get information when it is passed out. Everyone should buddy up with someone. If you cannot attend a meeting, call someone and let them know so that the information can be passed back to them.

Our next training dinner is scheduled for July 17 at Station 1. Ann, Arlene, and Joan T. are preparing dinner. The menu has not been decided on yet. Ann will check to see if there is a grill at the firehouse when she goes over to Calabash today. Usually between 20-30 people will attend. If people do not sign up, Katy McLaughlin agreed to call the people to get a count. Fire Corps members can attend if they want but are not required. Please let Ann, Arlene or Joan T. know if you are going to be there.

Thanks again to Arlene. She has been summarizing the training records for this year.

Incident reports. Katie and I have been summarizing the incident reports monthly. Starting this month, we are going to input the reports themselves into the Firehouse software. We will write directions and once we have figured everything out, Ann and Arlene have also volunteered to do some of the input work. It must be stressed that information on incidents is confidential and must never be repeated to anyone, inside or outside the department.

File of Life. The program is going well. Katie handed out information on her days in the facilitator's office and will continue to do so. The Chief has requested that we start passing them out to the Town of Calabash and Carolina Shores. I have submitted a paragraph about the program to the town of Calabash for inclusion in their next newsletter. We will be handing out packets on 8/15 (Sally L. and Judy C.); 8/17 (Katy M. and Judy C.) and 8/19 (Ann W. and Lisa M.) The hours for the proposed distribution will be 11:30 AM-1:00 PM at Station 1. A similar event is planned for Carolina Shores. We hope to hand out packets at their Town Hall on 8/16 (Ann W.) and 8/18 (Sue S. and Sally L.) with the hours being 11:30 AM-1:00 PM.

Heads up for fire prevention week. The dates are October 8 through 14. There will be an open house at Station 1 on 10/14. On Tuesday of that week there is tentatively planned a children's demonstration at the library. More information to follow on these activities as the time gets closer.

The Safety House arrived 10 days ago. It has been used at both Southport and St. James Plantation already. There will be a walk through on Friday, July 14 at Station 2 at 8:00 AM. There are still some issues to be checked out with the smoke machine. I am working on writing up procedures for use. The Department is thinking about an August 3 dedication ceremony perhaps at Station 1. It would involve inviting the press, town council, etc. More to come later if this comes to be.

September dinner is scheduled for September 18. Lisa asked for volunteers. Joan A., Joan T., and Sue S. will take the lead for this month.

Rehabilitation. If you do not have a rehab book, but have signed up for rehab, let me know. Also, if you do not have the revised pages, please let me know. The main rehab manual and map book will be kept at Station 1.

Fire hydrant testing will begin again in September. We will have a listing of the hydrants and will schedule teams of people to go out and test them.

Fire Corps Update - 6/12/06

June 12 (pdf)

We held our monthly meeting on Monday, June 12th. The next meeting will be on July 10th at 11 a.m. at the Brunswick House.

Thanks to Arlene for taking the minutes.

Time sheets - please let me know how much time you spend on Fire Corps events. We updated the time sheets for May activities at the meeting.

Hydrant testing

Dave entered the information on hydrant testing using the Firehouse software. Some work is needed to accurately identify a few remaining hydrants and then we will be done until September.

Newspaper articles

There was an article in the Brunswick Beacon on the Fire Corps. Look for another article in the Star News Neighbors section next week. We will send out a press release about the File of Life program soon.

File of Life

We have the The File of Life supplies and I made an announcement about the program at the HO meeting on Wednesday, June 14. We are currently distributing packets at the Brunswick House: 1 refrigerator magnet, 2 individual cards, 2 wallet holders, and 2 stickers. (For households with only one person, the appropriate amount of cards and wallets will be distributed). A $2 donation to replenish supplies is suggested, not required, however. The Brunswick House distribution schedule and workers are:

Those handing out the supplies should check off the names from the master directory. Homeowners may pick up supplies for their neighbors and the names will have to be checked off for the absent family as well.

Firefighter rehabilitation

The chief has indicated that for the first incident, perhaps all Fire Corps members will be called out so that everyone will see how things work.

All personnel participating in firefighter rehabilitation are required to take the IS 100 and IS 700 tests. These tests are open book. Personnel are to read the summary of the material and answer the multiple choice questions. Please put answers on a separate piece of paper and notify Lisa when you are finished so that the results may be entered electronically and submitted for grading. Make sure you name, address, phone number, social security number, e-mail address, and test are entered on the sheet submitted to Lisa. You will be notified by e-mail with a certificate of successful completion. The certificate needs to be maintained at the fire station; therefore, give the certificate to Lisa when you receive it. There are limited copies of each test and answer sheet. So far Lisa has taken both, Ann and Arlene have taken IS 100.

IS 100 information is currently with Sally, the Sadlons and Mary Sue. Mary Sue and Arlene have the IS 700 information.

Admin. tasks

Lisa and Joan met on Thursday, June 15 to put together booklets for firefighter rehabilitation and map books. Everyone who will be doing rehabilitation will get a booklet. The booklet will also include a vehicle identification sheet to be placed in the windshield of the car to identify it as a Fire Corps vehicle. There will be a master copy at Station 1 with maps. We also made tags for the rehab. people and will hand these out as soon as we have the clips that go with them.

Lisa and Katy are meeting on Monday, June 19th. to do a summary of incident reports. This will be a monthly task, requiring 1 to 2 hours per person, usually around the middle of the month. I need one more volunteer to help with this, starting next month, i.e. July. Please let me know if you are interested.

Training Dinners

Lisa thanked Sally and Angela for the dinner they prepared in May. The July dinner is scheduled for July 17 and Ann and Arlene are scheduled to prepare the meal. More information on this event will follow.

Clothing

Hats have been ordered. The extra shirts have arrived and I will get them to Mary Sue and Sally as soon as I can.

Safety House

The Safety House is scheduled to be delivered June 28. We need volunteers to work at events and with the Safe House. Arlene, Don, Mary Sue, Joan, and Ann have volunteered already. We will have a training session for everyone soon after it arrives. Please let me have any suggestions for places to send the safety house. St. James Plantation will be using it on July 2. Any use outside of our fire district will have to be coordinated through the local fire department first.

Fire Corps Update - 5/8/06

May 8 (pdf)

We held our monthly meeting at 11 am on May 1st. In attendance were: Arlene Acton, Mary Sue Wahl, Judy Cirolia, Paul Sadlon, Katy McLaughlin, Lisa Miner. Thanks to Arlene for taking notes at the meeting.

Fire Corps t-shirts were handed out to those present and the rest have since been distributed. If you do not have a t-shirt, tell Lisa. Our uniform is light blue shirts, khaki or beige pants or shorts or jeans, and eventually royal blue jackets and baseball caps. We are in the process of ordering baseball caps.

Fire Hydrant testing has been completed. Fire Corps members spent a total of 40 hours on testing and training. That does not include Steve Miner who spent 9 hours testing at Brunswick also. Dave Mason is going to input the testing results into the FireHouse system.

Our next training dinner is on May 15th at 6:15 pm at Station 1 (Calabash). Angela Torregrossa and Sally Lombardo are doing the cooking. All Fire Corps volunteers are invited to join the department for dinner.

All Fire Corps members need to fill out the long form of the application forms. If you have not already done so, please contact Lisa.

When on Fire Corps business and using your own private vehicle, you should keep track of the mileage as it is tax deductible on Federal tax returns as a charitable contribution. This also includes going to the station for meals and time spent shopping for the meals.

Firefighter Rehab - notes should be going out very soon to those who have volunteered to help with Rehab. The Standard Operating Guidelines still have to be approved by the Chief. The phone tree information is already in place - so expect a call sometime.

File of Life - we have received the wallets but no cards as yet. Once the cards come in, Lisa will need volunteers to help fold the cards to get them ready for distribution. The cards will be free but a $2.00 donation will be suggested in order to continually replenish the supply. Suggestions for reaching homeowners new to the Plantation were to attend the newcomers coffees and to include a flyer in the newcomers' packets. We are going to distribute cards to Brunswick Plantation residents first and then move on to other Property Owners' Associations.

Thanks to everyone who attended the photo opportunity at Station 2 this morning - we hope to get our "Launch" picture published in the Brunswick Beacon soon.

Our next monthly meeting will be held on Monday, June 5, 2006 at the Brunswick House at 11:00 am.

Fire Corps Update - 4/24/06

April 24 (pdf)

We had a meeting on March 27th and discussed a number of issues.

It was decided to hold meetings monthly. Every member should try to attend if possible. The meetings will be on the first Monday of the month, at 11 a.m. at the Brunswick House. If the meeting room is in use, we will use the library. So the next meeting is Monday, May 1st., at 11 a.m.

Training Dinners - the first was a huge success. Thanks to Judi and Mary Sue. They said that it was easier to cook and wash dishes at home so they suggested taking large plastic bags to carry dirty dishes home in. Also check supplies at the Station before the dinner. We have decided on a bimonthly schedule which means that the next dinner is on Monday, May 15th., at Station 1 at 6.15 p.m. The Chief would like the members of Fire Corps to join the regular members for that dinner if possible.

T-shirts and polo shirts - I received permission to use the Fire Corps logo and we are ordering t-shirts for everyone. We also ordered polo shirts for those who are in a public role such as working with the Safety House or doing a fire safety education role. Other members said they would like to purchase their own polo shirts. The cost is $11.

File of Life - we intended to present the File of Life concept to Brunswick Plantation residents at the April meeting, but the cards were not close to being ready so we have postponed to a later date. We have also applied for a grant from ATMC for the File of Life program. Katy agreed to create a list of other POA/HOAs so that we can work out a plan to role out the File of Life at other places.

Firefighter rehab - we have started a phone tree. The following have volunteered to be on the phone tree: Lisa, Arlene, Judi, Mary Sue, Anne, Susan M. If anyone else would like to volunteer, please let me know. We will rotate the tree so that everyone is near the top. The Chief has made it very clear that no members of Fire Corps should go to any incident unless they are called as part of the phone tree. At the moment we are looking at sending 3 people for most incidents. Katy agreed to make a list of potential food sources in the area.

Hydrant testing - is almost done - at my last count we had 7 remaining. The next job is to input the records. Dave had volunteered to do this.

Don't forget the meeting on Monday, May 1st., at 11 a.m.

Lisa

Fire Corps Update - 3/9/06

March 9 (pdf)

Volunteer Opportunity
The Chief is looking for someone who could repair a small amount of paintwork on an old fire truck. Basically you need to paint some gold paint and part of a black line. If you can handle this, please call Lisa at 287-4818.
File of Life Program
I am excited to report that we received a grant from BEMC for $1000 to get our File of Life program. I will be getting the cards printed and ordering supplies soon. I hope to have them in time to make an announcement at the next BP Homeowners meeting and then start handing out cards soon afterwards.
Hydrant Testing
The training session went well and about 12 hydrants have been tested, to my knowledge. Steve and I will be out testing Thursday afternoon. Please call station 1 before you start testing so that someone knows you are out there. Also, afterwards, please let me know how much time you have spent and what you did. Finally, I have written instructions on testing and have made a map. They will be in a plastic folder with the testing sheets. Please mark off the hydrants you tested on the map.
Third Monday Training Dinners
Our first dinner will be on March 20th. Angela Torregrossa and Sally Lombardo are going to cook. Judy Cirolia and Mary Sue Wahl will also be on hand. So far we have 26 firefighters signed up. The next dinner will be on April 17th. Judy and Mary Sue are going to do that one. We have decided against doing cookies or brownies for the other meetings.
Fundraising
We have a preliminary plan to organize a "Hot Dog and Soda" fundraiser to coincide with the arrival of the Safety House. This would be at Station 1. We might also consider doing something at Station 2. Angela and Sally are going to look into food costs. We are also considering events for the October Fire Prevention Week, possibly BBQ on Saturday and a pancake breakfast on Sunday.
Data Entry
This work is on hold for the time being. We have some issues that have to be dealt with first.

Lisa

Fire Corps Meeting - Training Meals - 3/6/06

March 3 (pdf)

Present at the meeting were: Lisa Miner, Mary Sue Wahl, Anne Wiltbank, Sally Ann Lombardo, Judith Cirolia, Angela Torregrossa.

It was agreed that:

Fire Corps Recruitment Meeting Notes - 2/17/06

February 17 (pdf)

Present at the meeting were: Lisa Miner, Arlene Acton, Judith Cirolia, Susan Mambro, Katy McLaughlin, Joan Tomasello.

Lisa Miner explained the need for Fire Corps volunteers and the role that they would fulfill. Chief Karl Bennett then arrived at the meeting and gave more details. Arlene Acton, Judith Cirolia, Susan Mambro, Katy McLaughlin and Joan Tomasello signed up to become Fire Corps members.

Fire Corps Recruitment Meeting Notes - 2/14/06

February 14 (pdf)

Present at the meeting were: Chief Karl Bennett, Warren Howell (Fire Prevention Officer), Stephen Miner, Lisa Miner, Emily Bonneau, Robert Bonneau, David Mason, Ed Owens, Paul Sadlon, Sue Sadlon, Mary Sue Wahl, Don Wahl.

The Chief gave some history of Calabash Fire Department, explained the work that they do, and some of the things that the Fire Corps could do. He introduced Warren Howell who talked a little about the possibilities for the Fire Corps to work in Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Education. Lisa Miner explained the membership application forms and handed out Fire Corps brochures. Emily Bonneau, Robert Bonneau, David Mason, Ed Owens, Paul Sadlon, Sue Sadlon, Mary Sue Wahl, Don Wahl signed up to become Fire Corps members. They agreed that Lisa Miner would coordinate the volunteer opportunities as liaison between the department and the Fire Corps members.

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