2010-07-15
Meeting at NARA to discuss organizing the network. Background – Seattle Alliance for Response Forum 2006, WPI, WESTPAS workshops, C2C Collaborative Disaster Response Planning Work Group, Are You Ready workshop in Seattle in March. C2C draft mission statement and mutual aid agreement form reviewed. We also discussed geographic area and name, possible funding sources, and a supply cache which NARA offered to host. Decided to proceed with organizing a network and appoint groups to further review the mission statement and recommend a network name.
There were no changes to the Mission Statement. We made some minor changes in the C2C Mutual Aid Agreement and decided to use November 1, 2010 as the effective date for network and to use Seattle Heritage Emergency Response Network (SHERN) as our network name.
We decided to keep the initial $50 membership fee to apply towards developing the supply cache and any other expense the Steering Committee deems necessary. The Steering Committee may decide to waive fees in a given year. As stated in the Agreement “A Party may pay the membership fees via in-kind contributions at the discretion of the Steering Committee.” We won’t ask for payment of the fee until we have resolved the fiscal agent/bank account question. We discussed the issue of fiscal sponsor.
Gary will forward the revised mutual aid agreement and mission statement to the institutions that have expressed interest and ask for signature. We won’t ask for payment of the initial $50 fee until we have a fiscal sponsor or incorporate.
Nine institutions have signed the Mutual Aid Agreement
Laura reported on her investigations of a bank account/incorporation. NARA will host the SHERN supply cache. We continued our discussions on a possible fiscal agent. We need to decide on what supplies we want to share. Scott, Kris, and Laura will examine the model supply list developed by the Connecting to Collections Collaborative Disaster Response Networks Work Group.
Following the business meeting, two representatives of Belfor, Kurt Daviscourt, Regional Manager, and Ted Sitterley from Belfor talked about how Belfor organizes for an emergency using the potential breach of the Howard Hanson Dam south of Seattle as a case study. (There was a 1 in 3 chance of flooding, but that has now been reduced to 1 and 60 due to repairs and additional testing.) The Kent Valley, which would be flooded in the case of a dam failure, is the fourth-largest warehouse and distribution center in the United States. They also talked about the Belfor Red Alert program. Could SHERN be an umbrella organization for Red Alert?
Since our last meeting we have three new members: City of Lake Forest Park, King County Archives and Seattle Art Museum. The Henry Art Gallery joined after the meeting so we have 13 members.
Gary reported on his queries to other networks and organizations regarding fiscal sponsors and/or incorporation. We had more discussion on the supply cache. We talked about publicizing SHERN. A subcommittee will work on a list of possible funders. Diane Wells will contact members to get information for a SHERN phone tree. We decided to set meetings for the last Friday of every other month beginning in February. Scott and Gary will work out the exact dates.
Seattle Heritage Emergency Response Network 