Tuesday, September 3, 2013

EMForum: Tennessee Baptist Convention Disaster Relief. Webinare Recording

The Webinar recording of the August 28th EMForum.org program, "Tennessee Baptist Convention Disaster Relief," with State Disaster Relief Director David Acres, is now available. This is a large file and requires Windows Media Player or Windows Media Components for QuickTime or a similar product to view. The recording is also available in MP4 format for mobile users. The TranscriptAudio PodcastSlides, as well as Ratings and Comments are available from the Background Page. The Audio Podcast and MP4 recordings are also available from the iTunes Store

Thanks to all who participated.  Please take a moment to rate this program for relevance and share your comments.


KABOOM...and child playspaces

KaBOOM! is a national nonprofit that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. KaBOOM! recognizes the impact of unstructured play on the health and well-being of children and seeks to create opportunities to provide children with access to safe and engaging places to play. The KaBOOM! and Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) missions are very complementary, and you may recall our office teamed with the organization last summer to build a playground at the Children’s Inn on the NIH campus.

KaBOOM! recognizes the importance of creating playspaces, but also wants to determine the quality of existing ones. The existence of a playspace does not necessarily mean it is a viable place for play. To help with this assessment, KaBOOM! developed the Map of Play web site.

MRC volunteers can help by identifying and assessing playgrounds in their communities by utilizing the Map of Play. KaBOOM! has developed a special “team” link for MRC volunteers to sign up.

We encourage all MRC units to participate in this initiative and share the special link established for the MRC (http://mapofplay.kaboom.org/teams/register?token=c4db422de5ff9150a) with your volunteers. Your support can help to ensure that children in your communities have the opportunity to be healthier by having safe places for active play.

Below are instructions for joining the MRC Team on the KaBOOM! Map of Play web site:


1.       Go to http://mapofplay.kaboom.org/teams/register?token=c4db422de5ff9150a. This is a special link for MRC members.

2.       Sign in to your KaBOOM! account or create a new one.

3.       After you’ve signed in/signed up, click the Join the Team button.

4.       Each time you add or edit a playspace, the team can see your collective efforts in the stats area at the top of the team page. You can see your team’s progress at any time by visiting your profile page or the MRC team page (http://mapofplay.kaboom.org/teams/2).

Note that the Map of Play is accessible from mobile devices. If you encounter a problem or need help, you can contact KaBOOM! by visiting http://mapofplay.kaboom.org/help.

We encourage all of you – MRC leaders, volunteers and partners – to explore your community (preferably by walking or biking) and learn about its playspaces. If the playspace is already listed on the Map of Play, rate it or provide comments about it. If not, take pictures and share information about it through the Map of Play.


Division of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps The Tower Building
1101 Wootton Parkway, Room 181
Rockville, MD 20852
240-453-2839 (Office)
240-453-6109 (Fax)

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

September is National Preparedness Month....Join the community.

September is National Preparedness Month and FEMA invites you to join the National Preparedness Community and download the 2013 National Preparedness Month Toolkit.

The National Preparedness Community is where more than 29,000 people connect and collaborate on emergency preparedness. You can use the community and the Toolkit to empower yourself to prepare and coordinate preparedness activities with your family, neighbors, and those with whom you worship during National Preparedness Month.
Here are the top 5 reasons to join:
·         Download the 2013 National Preparedness Month Toolkit
·         Get access to preparedness resources
·         Promote your national preparedness event on the calendar
·         Connect and build relationships with emergency management personnel
·         Share and compare preparedness plans


Join the National Preparedness Community Now!

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Training Opportunity: RAND Corporation. BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES: AN ONLINE TRAINING

Community resilience updates, resources, and events from RAND | view in browser
RAND Corporation: Focus on Community Resilience
Newsletter
August 2013

Periodic updates on community resilience work at RAND

Building Resilient Communities: An Online Training

holding hands in a circle
Emergency preparedness can get a community through the first few days following a disaster. But how does a community bounce back over the long term?
With disasters becoming more common and costly, and with some areas enduring overlapping disasters, the importance of building community resilience has never been greater.
As a business, nonprofit, faith-based organization, or other community organization, you bring valuable assets to supporting overall community recovery.
RAND's new easy-to-use, self-guided online training can help your community strengthen its resilience. Your organization can use the training to build its own resilience, too.
Resilience means:
·         mitigating and withstanding the stress of manmade and natural disasters
·         recovering in a way that restores normal functioning
·         applying lessons learned from past responses to better withstand future incidents.
When your organization or community completes this training, you will have a real action plan that will help build resilience, bolstering capacity to respond to and recover from disaster.
Launch the Training


Saturday, August 10, 2013

Kentucky Emergency Management director resigns after audit finds wasteful agency spending

http://www.state-journal.com/latest%20headlines/2013/08/08/kentucky-emergency-management-head-resigns-after-scathing-audit


KENTUCKY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HEAD RESIGNS AFTER SCATHING AUDIT


Gov. Steve Beshear accepted Brigadier Gen. John Heltzel’s resignation Thursday morning

By Kevin Wheatley Published: 
Brig. Gen. John Heltzel resigned as director of Kentucky Emergency Management in light of an audit showing the agency misspent thousands on conferences, altered documents to conceal suspect expenditures and threatened staff who cooperated with auditors.
Gov. Steve Beshear said he accepted Heltzel’s resignation Thursday morning.“The findings in the recent Auditor’s report made it clear that new leadership was needed in the agency, given the numerous questions and grave concerns it raised about the proper handling of funds, reliable and transparent accounting, and appropriate work environment under the general’s direction,” Beshear said in a statement.
“… The public’s trust is a sacred investment that we all must safeguard, and this change in leadership will help to restore accountability and transparency to this critical agency.”
Mike Jones, executive director of the Office of Management and Administration for the Kentucky Department for Military Affairs, has been named acting director of Kentucky Emergency Management.
Jones’ first task as head of the agency will be implementing a plan to correct matters that were raised in the audit, which showed Kentucky Emergency Management “nurtured a culture of waste and abuse,” Beshear said.
Auditor Adam Edelen, who released his findings Tuesday, welcomed the change in leadership, saying Heltzel’s resignation was “the proper course of action.”
“Today’s action begins a process of renewal,” Edelen said in a statement. “It is my hope that these incidents of waste and abuse do not tarnish the reputations of the vast majority of public employees who conduct the peoples’ business with integrity and commitment.”
Kentucky Emergency Management deferred a request for comment to Beshear’s office.
Edelen’s audit was triggered by prior financial statement audits conducted between fiscal years 2007 and 2012 that revealed nearly $5.6 million in questionable expenses by the agency.
The audit details $122,386 in excessive spending related to the Governor’s Emergency Management Workshop at the Galt House Hotel and Suites in Louisville from 2010 through 2012.
Edelen said Tuesday the agency collected vendor and registration fees and deposited them into the state treasury, but spent more on the conferences than the amount deposited. The report details thousands of tax dollars spent on receptions, alcohol, meals, gifts and door prizes.
The report further questioned $113,497 spent on working lunches at Capital Plaza Hotel from 2009 through 2013 and $69,875 paid to a software company Heltzel had worked with numerous times as the Kentucky National Guard’s chief information officer.
The audit also uncovered invoices doctored to hide the questionable expenditures. In one instance, a 2010 invoice listed 63 New York strip steak dinners at $15 each when the price was actually $41 per meal — $26 per person higher than the state per diem limit.
A number of employees at Kentucky Emergency Management were reluctant to speak with auditors during the examination, fearing their phone calls and emails were being monitored, Edelen said Tuesday. In a staff meeting, Heltzel and others in administrative roles threatened those who shared information with auditors, Edelen said.
Kentucky Emergency Management disputed many of the auditor’s findings in its response to the report.
The report was forwarded to Attorney General Jack Conway, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.
Beshear appointed Heltzel to the leadership post in 2008. He earned $79,527 annually.
Edelen’s report prompted the Kentucky Emergency Management Association to call for Heltzel’s immediate dismissal. 
Steve Robertson, chairman of the Kentucky Republican Party, said Beshear should have fired Heltzel as soon as the audit’s findings were released.
“Gov. Beshear pledged in his 2007 inaugural address to ‘strengthen protections for whistleblowers,’” Robertson said in a statement. “I hope he will send a clear message to the employees of (Kentucky Emergency Management) that they have no fear whatsoever of retaliation by any of his political appointees who remain in that office.”

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