Recertification Workshops: 2013 NFIP Adjuster Certification

2013 NFIP Adjuster Certification Workshop Registration for the 2013 NFIP Adjuster Certification Workshops is now open. Below please find the 2013 workshop schedule with links to each workshop registration page. We ask that you register for only one workshop since space is limited. Adjusters seeking to renew certification must attend an NFIP Adjuster Certification Workshop. Adjusters seeking to become certified must attend an NFIP Workshop and apply for certification with the NFIP Bureau and Statistical Agent, iService. NFIP standards and requirements for Adjuster Certification may be viewed at www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=1584. For more information about the adjuster certification process or to contact NFIP iService, please go to www.nfipiservice.com/adj_cert.html. The NFIP no longer charges a registration fee for the Adjuster Certification Workshop. The workshop is free to attend. Please note that Adjusters seeking optional CE Credits will incur processing fees. Seminars are from 8:30am-4:30pm. Sign-in begins at 8:00am. Dress is Business Casual.

DATE CITY VENUE REGISTRATION Jan 16 New Carrollton, MD Metro Points Hotel Register Here Jan 21 Nashville, TN Nashville Airport Marriott Register Here Jan 30 Savannah, GA Savannah Marriott Riverfront Register Here Feb 2 Denton, TX TWU-MCL Auditorium Register Here Feb 5 Columbia, SC Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Register Here Feb 7 Waco, TX Waco Convention Center Register Here Feb 11 Jackson, MS Jackson Convention Center Register Here Feb 13 Tampa, FL Tampa Convention Center Register Here Feb 25 Birmingham, AL Doubletree Hotel Register Here Feb 27 Humble, TX Humble Civic Center Register Here Mar 5 Fort Worth, TX Norris Conf. Center at Sundance Sq. Register Here Mar 8 Jacksonville, FL Jacksonville Marriott Register Here Mar 12 Newark, NJ Best Western Robert Treat Hotel Register Here Mar 19 Sunrise, FL Holiday Inn & Suites Register Here Mar 21 Atlanta, GA Atlanta Convention Center Register Here Mar 26 Vancouver, WA Hilton Vancouver Washington Register Here Mar 29 Raleigh, NC Sheraton Raleigh Hotel Register Here Apr 2 Kenner, LA Pontchartrain Center Register Here Apr 4 Orlando, FL Holiday Inn Register Here Apr 8 Amherst, NY Buffalo Marriott Niagara Register Here Apr 9 Stafford, TX Stafford Centre Register Here Apr 12 Dallas, TX Crowne Plaza Dallas Market Center Register Here Apr 15 Anaheim, CA Doubletree Suites Anaheim Register Here Apr 18 Tallahassee, FL Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center Register Here Apr 22 Pittsburgh, PA Doubletree Pittsburgh Green Tree Register Here Apr 24 Alexandria, LA Alexandria Riverfront Center Register Here May 2 Hoffman Estates, IL Chicago Marriott Northwest Register Here May 13 San Antonio, TX Norris Conference Center at Wonderland of the Americas Mall Register Here May 15 Mobile, AL Mobile Convention Center Register Here Please do not reply to this email. If you have questions regarding NFIP Training, please write to nfiptraininginfo@h2opartnersusa.com or visit NFIP Training online. The National Flood Insurance Program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security National Flood Insurance Program Training | www.nfipiservice.com/training nfiptraininginfo@h2opartnersusa.com | (800) 427-4661

GET INVOLVED! Austin, Texas. Boards & Commissions Opportunities

http://www.austintexas.gov/department/boards-and-commissions

Boards and Commissions Information Center

Boards and commissions are important in that they enable citizens to participate in Austin's government processes. Their activities help shape and influence public policy, because they lend a more diverse viewpoint for the City Council to consider.

Online Workbook

An online workbook is available for members and liaisons.

Online Application

If you are interested in serving on a board or commission, you may apply online. Your application will be reviewed should a vacancy become available.

Webinar Training Opportunity: December 18, 2013. Emergency Preparedness and Response for the Dialysis and Transplant Community

The Kidney Community Emergency Response (KCER) Coalition invites you and your colleagues to join the KCER Webinar, Emergency Preparedness and Response for the Dialysis and Transplant Community: What You Need to Know!  This one-hour webinar will be held on Tuesday, December 18, 2012, at 3:00 pm ET / 2:00 pm CT / 1:00 pm MT / 12:00 pm PT.

This program is open to all stakeholders in the renal community including Network directors, Network staff, facility staff, healthcare professionals, emergency responders, transportation and utility company staff, renal partners, and patients. Please forward this information to all appropriate staff and agencies.

Continuing education credit applications are pending approval.

Registration is required. Click here for registration instructions and additional details.

If you have already registered, you will be receiving a confirmation prior to the meeting.

For additional information, please contact kcer@nw7.esrd.net

Disease Report Adds New Urgency to Clean Cookstove Campaign

By Charlene Porter | Staff Writer | 17 December 2012

This Indian family is using a clean cookstove developed by Envirofit International. The manufacturer says it reduces emissions by 80 percent.

Washington — A campaign to introduce cleaner-burning cooking methods to billions of homes has gained a new level of urgency. A worldwide assessment of disease, incapacity and death finds that the number of people sickened by household air pollution (HAP) is double that projected by earlier estimates, from 2 million to approximately 4 million worldwide.

About 3 billion people worldwide burn fuels such as wood, dung or charcoal to cook daily meals. The smoke accumulating inside the homes introduces pollution and harmful emissions that contribute to lung cancer, respiratory infections and cardiovascular disease.

Recognition of this problem led to the 2010 creation of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership dedicated to providing markets and means for developing-world households to make a transition to cleaner cooking methods.

“This shocking doubling of previous estimates of HAP-related mortality necessitates a redoubling of Alliance efforts to ensure that cooking a meal is a life-enriching, and not life-taking, activity for all people,” said Alliance Executive Director Radha Muthiah. “The Alliance will accelerate its work to increase the accessibility, affordability and eventual adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels."

The Global Burden of Disease 2010 study is a wide-ranging report involving close to 500 contributors in 50 nations. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington led the effort.

The research team focused on HAP concluded that this class of pollutants caused 3.5 million direct premature deaths in 2010, compared to 3.3 million for outdoor air pollution. Another 500,00 deaths, the researchers found, can be attributed to outdoor exposure to pollutants that originate with indoor household fires, what the researchers called "secondhand cook fire smoke."

“One of the most alarming findings is that smoke from cooking fires was found to be the largest environmental threat to health in the world today,” said Kirk R. Smith, a professor of global environmental health at the University of California, Berkeley, and a co-author of the section of the broad report focused on this issue.

Smith’s research indicates that 3.5 million adult men and women develop lung cancer, cardiovascular disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) after their exposure to open cook fires. About 500,000 children are also killed each year, mainly from pneumonia.

Many women in the developing world pay the consequences of polluting cook fires with their health, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has noted that their safety is also at risk. “In conflict zones like the Congo, the journeys that women must take to find scare fuel put them at increased risk of violent and sexual assault,” said Clinton when she first announced U.S. support for the cookstove alliance in September 2010. “Even in safer areas, every hour spent collecting fuel is an hour not spent in school or tending crops or running a business.”

The United States and some 50 other governments are partners in the Clean Cookstove Alliance. About 200 nongovernmental organizations and 100 private companies are also contributing to the international campaign to bring cleaner cooking technologies into billions of homes in the developing world.

Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2012/12/20121217140069.html?CP.rss=true#ixzz2FMOeNNa1