Firewise Meeting February 14, 2024
LCMC Board Room
Attendees:
Alec Pennington – President, Gregg Dahmen – Vice President …………………….. Gary Nelson – Treasurer, Dennis Wicks – Secretary [ZOOM call-COVID] …….. Ray Menard – Lake Cushman Fire Department Liaison ………………………………. Dave Peterson – Historian/Navigator ……………………………………………………….. Maggie Schmidt (the brains of the outfit) – excused absent ………………………….
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Zoom meeting was called to order at 10:00 am by President Alec Pennington
Minutes of January 10, 2023 meeting were approved with a motion by Alec and a second by Dave.
Treasurer Report – Gary Nelson.
A very exciting report was presented with one transaction to the WA Secretary of State.
Gary reported results of research in to opening Bank CDs for our savings so as to earn more interest. Gary found Heritage Bank offered CDs of 3,4, and 5 month durations offering a rate of 4.75%.
Gregg is not familiar with Heritage Bank and questioned the viability of them. Gregg will research the bank and get back to Gary with his findings. Motion was offered to authorize Gary to move forward with opening one each, 3,4,5 month CD in the amounts of $4000.00 each at Heritage Bank and designating Gary Nelson and Alec Pennington as the designated signers. Motion by Gary; 2nd by Gregg, passed unanimously.
Dennis’s question whether Robert’s rules of order allowed Gary to make a motion regarding himself. Dennis will investigate.
General Business:
Update on Filing of new Articles of Incorporation. Alec reported he used the wrong form and the Secretary of State office graciously provided the correct form and instructions. Alec re-submitted the Articles and is now awaiting word back from the Secretary of State.
Maggie/Alec working on the annual renewal for LCFW with the WA Secretary of State. Renewal is delayed due to above issue with new Articles of Inc.
Gary has ordered the aprons and is awaiting arrival. Gary also provided information on Bumper Stickers, $112.84/50, and Window stickers $73.78/50 (maybe less for 100) with LCFW logo. Board approved purchase of 50 bumper and 100 window stickers. Gary will order.
Discussed updating/refreshing our booth materials for Wildfire Preparedness Day. It was decided to get new backing boards and make 3-4 boards – Construction details,
Plant and Landscape details, Fire Prevention details (with photo of house on fire) and Evacuation preparation details, and primarily utilizing our existing literature but instead of plastering everything we have on the boards, use the main large posters we have with the actual brochures laid out in front of the displays for people to pick up. Make the boards less cluttered and overloaded with detail.
Gary suggested we have a meeting to put together the new displays. We should reach out to the community for volunteers to assist with this. We also need to reach out to the community to ask for volunteers to help man the actual event on May 4
Need to schedule the Firestation for Wildfire Preparedness day. Alec will reach out to Chief Sexton.
Need to line up speakers for the Wildfire Preparedness Day. Ray Menard will reach out to Fire Marshall Randy Collins who has expressed an interest in speaking. Alec will reach out to Jennifer Coe at DNR to see if she is amenable and available to speak. Alec will also inquire with Chief Sexton to see if he or one of his team would like to speak at the event.
Need to decide on a Raffle for Wildfire Preparedness Day, decide what prizes to have and procure the prizes. No decisions made today.
Recruitment was discussed and numerous ideas were passed around about how to increase participation by the community. From last meeting:
Ray reported Lake Cushman polled members who recently turned in their ballots for the HOA Assessment in person at the LCMC office if they were interested in doing volunteer work. Ray will follow up with LCMC to see if Firewise may access that list. Or piggy back on LCMC emails to the list asking for people interested in volunteering with Firewise.
Ray also added a volunteer recruitment to the Firewise Facebook page.
Firewise should have a regular blurb in the LCMC weekly Blast newsletter.
We need to start better incorporating Lake Cushman Block Watch, Colony Surf, and Hoodsport in our Firewise and CERT committee and activities.
Ray mentioned our Facebook recruitment efforts are being buried by so much other online noise regarding problems with LCMC and the recent dues increases. Much discussion and comments about lawsuits and unhappiness that our requests are disappearing in the conflict
It was suggested we set up a specific email address for people wanting to volunteer.
Alec will set up a “Volunteer Coordinator” mail box and post the address on the website for people to use to reach out to us.
We discussed setting up a database to use to collect information around LCFW activities. This database would include emails of volunteers; addresses of locations with address markers. We could also use this to track work hours submitted and by whom. Dennis has agreed to start building said database starting with emails collected at the last Stump Dump. Alec will look into getting the addresses in Cushman and then marking where an address marker has been placed. We could also list our projects and who worked where, when, how much, expenses, supplies.
CERT Training was discussed. Class has been scheduled for March 29 through April 6 – two Friday evenings and 2 Saturdays.
The storage shed was discussed and Ray will be looking into plans for a shed. It was decided to make the shed a “demonstration device” utilizing Firewise materials and methods to show how building or retrofitting Firewise methods can be done. Ray also suggested building the shed on a sled base so it could be moved to different locations and /or for events.
As part of the CERT discussion, it was suggested the $1500 previously received from the Booster Club be specifically designated to be used for CERT communications. As soon as Lake Cushman CERT starts to get up and running determines communications equipment needs, we offer this money to help offset the purchase of the equipment.
The Dept of Natural Resource (DNR) is offering “mircrogrants” to be used for furthering the projects and activities of Firewise groups and other communities. It was decided to apply for the grants with the money to be used to building the shed. Applications are due by April 27 for the first round and projects must be completed by June 15, 2024. To receive any awards, we must first have a valid Statewide Vendor Registration. Alec and Gregg will work on submitting the Grant and getting the Registration.
Meeting was adjourned at _12:00 noon. Motion Gary; Second Kathy, passed unanimously.
Next meeting will be March 13th at 10 am in LCMC boardroom.