Emergency Preparedness Meeting Summary, Notes, and Tasks

We had a great Stake Emergency Preparedness meeting, I appreciate all those in attendance and would like to share our minutes and task(s) at hand.

• MEETING MINUTES
  
• 7:10 Meeting called to order and Matt Klabacka introduced himself with short history.
• 7:30 History of stake and Ward Emergency Preparedness
• 7:40 WEP Website Portal
• Please see the sample WEP website at http://quail-ridge-emergency.com/
• Here is a few links, please explore the entire website for more resources.
  
• mission
  
• members plan
• ward plan
• join a committee
  
• alerts
  
• 7:45 Introduction to stake plan:
• Phase 1 : Standardize a stake/ward emergency communication system that filters from the membership to the stake leadership.  Even though this sounds complicated it is really simple.  Each WEP needs to be able to report to the bishop the status of the ward membership in relation to the emergency.  All members need to be accounted for and the bishop can then be confident in reporting to the stake president regarding the status of the ward's membership in relation to the emergency.  This is a very simple process by breaking down each ward into "Blocks".
  
• WARD BLOCKS:
  
• Ward Boundaries:  A map of the ward boundaries (see sample) will be obtained from the publication, "LDS Business Directory", which is available free at Deseret Book Store
  
• Ward Blocks:  A series of blocks will be created from the natural street boundaries within the geographical confines of the ward.  If you are new to the ward then perhaps a member of the church leadership (bishopric, priesthood, relief society) could help you define relevant boundaries.
  
• Block Captains:  Block captains will be requested to volunteer for "block captain" assignment.  The ward council can assist with suggesting block captains.  WEP's should request a 10 minute presentation to the ward council to get assistance with block captain volunteer request.
• Block Captain Duties:
• Take care of themselves and their families
• Check their neighbors and block membership for any emergency situations (place flags on doors of homes in need)
  
• Green= Everything good
• Blue= Medical attention needed
• Black=Death
  
• Report to the  WEP
• Communication:  Currently the stake has an active ham radio that can communicate to the Bishop's Storehouse which then communicates directly to SLC.  However, each ward does not have ham radio capability.   In the event of an emergency the WEP will communicate to their respective bishop via the old fashioned method of one of the following....telephone, cell phone, email, text, car, bicycle, walking, pigeon, smoke signal, etc......
  
• Phase 2: "Member EducationAwareness 
• Phase 2 begins with a scheduled ward 5th Sunday type of meeting with the adults of the ward.  This is where you introduce the membership to the resources and plan available to them.  Phase 2 can coincide during phase 1 development and we will see how each ward feels about rolling out phase #2