Planning Meeting 1

Met today with Mike Stonesifer and Brenda Rante to discuss some preliminary details of ATLANTIC HOPE. Some specific points discussed:

1. ATLANTIC HOPE in March and SVETLINA in May are both complex events with substantial supporting documentation that both faculty and student-participants should master as much as possible prior to attending.

2. All instructors should ensure that their materials have been cross-checked and updated with the same materials student-participants are reading! At a minimum this means, for example, that instructor powerpoints are coordinated with the "Blue Book" which is a "digest" of mission-critical information. Extra copies of the 2009 Blue Book are available. The Blue Book will be updated for February 2010 so there is some time to improve on its contents as well.

3. All major events and as many minor events as possible will be scripted in Controller-Evaluator Handbooks as prescribed by HSEEP standards. Both ATLANTIC HOPE and SVETLINA are Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) compliant events as a minimum standard that we can add to but not subtract from. See https://hseep.dhs.gov

4. The role of "wounded" role-players was discussed. It was agreed that they should not only be knowledgeable about their wounds and how they got them - MOI or mechanism of injury - but also how these wounds should be treated. Following their "performance" role-players should be debriefed or given a questionnaire to fill out to provide an additional source of rescuer evaluation. The same protocol can be used for non-medical role-playing, i.e. immediate debrief of role-players following an event.

The next planning meeting will be held early in January when IRSC re-opens following the holiday break.

Hotels for January Conference

My recommended hotel (b/c it's brand new) for the January Humanitarian Conference is:

Fairfield Inn and Suites
6502 Metal Drive
Fort Pierce, Florida 34945
772-462-2900

Ask the Fairfield for the "IRSC rate" of $69/night

Other hotels nearby include:

Holiday Inn Express
7151 Okeechobee Road
Fort Pierce, Florida 34945
772-464-5000

Best Western
6485 Metal Drive
Fort Pierce, Florida 34945
772-409-1740

Comfort Suites
6505 Metal Drive
Fort Pierce, Florida 34945
772-409-1420

Webcasting

CHSE related items for today:

1. Looking at free webcasting potential for our conference in January. www.ustream.tv is one option but seems to include annoying pop-up ads though the interface appears easy enough. This may also have a potential for Virtual Atlantica participation in March. The test site is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/emergency-management
   
2. Will also identify hotels bargains in local area for conference participants
3. I'm happy to report that our Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence application has cleared its first hurdle and is awaiting final approval from the State Department. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Many thanks to Mark and Wiley for helping make this happen.
   

2010 Welcome

Consortium Events for 2010

• Humanitarian Conference (Fort Pierce, Florida, January 15 -17, 2010)
• FTX Atlantic Hope (Fort Pierce, Florida, March 4-7, 2010)
• Summer Institute in Macedonia (May 17 - June 1, 2010)

Other Activities (reported here on this blog)

• Revision of the "Blue Book" Field Guide for participants and faculty
• Update reading lists for participants and faculty
• Development of Virtual Atlantica to promote and support remote participants and faculty

Be sure to visit our other sites at:

• www.humanitariantraining.org
• www.youtube.com/humanitariantraining