Minutes of the November 9, 2020, Communications Meeting by Zoom

Next Meeting November 30th

Topic: Emergency Preparedness/Communications – Zoom Meeting
Time: Nov 30, 2020 05:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

PART 1: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/71624039060?pwd=dHFtZ2tDTm9yKzJRNjY5VWtwdDlvUT09

Meeting ID: 716 2403 9060
Passcode: dTqw94

Time: Nov 30, 2020 05:41 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

PART 2: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73659254744?pwd=VGdZZlNrZHpoNUp4VkRkZWQySUFSUT09

Meeting ID: 736 5925 4744
Passcode: 2uJFUH

GHTM Chair Emma Dirolf called the meeting to order. Seventeen people signed in: Emma, Dina Elder, Joanne Cole, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Emily Rose, Paul Roberts, Virginia Schultz, Clare Tone, Bear Carlson, Poppy Copeland, Val Crist, Marcus Moench, Elisabeth Caspari, Leslie Finn, Erich Gundlach, Dana Delaville, and Mercury Roberts.

Val summarized the minutes of the last communications meeting on October 20.

Emergency Communications – Erich raised the issue of a lack of up-to-date emergency information available through the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) during our latest fires. It seemed as though we had much more complete information in past emergencies. He wondered if there was some kind of breakdown between the OEM and the Sheriff’s Office. Dina agreed that there seemed to be a problem in getting information out. AirLink (our Ham radio group) is in direct communication with the OEM, but the question is how to effectively get the information out to the community. Emma pointed out that this is the reason to facilitate these meetings. People have all kinds of different means/levels of communication. When we’re worried about our neighbors getting evacuation and pre-evacuation notifications, we did spontaneously reach out to each other and it worked.
Marcus added that their Emergency Preparedness Group did a lot of brainstorming on this. The emergency word did get out well, but good cell phone coverage in town is regarded as important by many. Hams will help, but will not solve the problem.
Paul added that it’s important to have a good sense of our neighbors. People connect in different ways. In Nederland, their Facebook page is a great source of information and kept very current by the town administrator.
Dina talked up more people becoming Hams. With every event, more people become Hams, but we really need to get them engaged and stay engaged. The Hams in Nederland have a Radio Club. They can get little radios, buying in bulk, that they will program for us, and they are only $20. These are for listening only. If you are not licensed, you cannot transmit. During fires, we have Hams on our fire department and Dave Sturtz will update us as he is able. She said there is a learning aspect, but there is a lot of training online. The only cost to become a Ham is a $15 fee to take the test. She will get the information out in a town email about how to become a licensed Ham. It’s useful to study the material and go through the practice tests online to be prepared for the test. Bear confessed that he is licensed, but he doesn’t participate. He took his radio (don’t forget your charger) while evacuated, got connected to AirLink, and it was very useful. In answer to questions about how far the Ham radios reach, Dina added that we reach quite a long way although there are dead spots.
Emma was at Incident Command and it was super busy with so many fires.
Val asked about NeighborLink (NL) and the Four Compass Point Contact People (Dina out west of town, Gretchen in East Gold Hill, Paul in the Subdivision/South, and Deb Yeager in old town/North. She wondered if that’s all good. Virginia was out of town for the fire, and Val took over and called people. Marcus reported that NL had a meeting on the 26th and, no, we do not have it all together. There is a structure, but it’s hard to sustain it and we’re working on revising it and simplifying it. We need multiple avenues to get information like evacuation notifications out to everyone. And we really need to have relationships with our neighbors, with whom we can share as much information as we wish. In emergencies, there needs to be a contact person in your neighbor group, who will get out the information to others in their group. We were notified the day before the evacuation that we were in the fire area and then, the day of the evac., the pre-evacuation notice came through on Everbridge (the County reverse 9-1-1 system – sign up at the OEM: boulderoem.com) only about 10 minutes before the actual evac. notification.
Dina again pointed out that when the electricity goes out, we have no phones, power, or cell phones. Gretchen advised that it’s a good idea to get a phone that doesn’t need electricity in order to work (an old rotary dial phone, for instance), because we usually have phone lines, at least for a while, even if the electricity is out. Emily added that she has one and uses it for those times. Clare bought a new one at Home Depot.
The question of how to heighten awareness of fire danger, etc., and preparation needed for new people was raised.
Marcus added that encouraging more Hams, and getting the $20 radios in more hands is great, but still thinks that cell coverage is important, because cell phones are something that most people have with them all the time, and it would be hugely useful – possibly a cell tower or at least town WiFi. Leslie thinks that increased cell phone reliability would be great.
Emma said there seems to be a lot of interest in Ham radios, so we need to get information out to people about that. We also need to continue with data collection for points of contact. She thinks the idea of a laminated information card that people can put on their doors to let people who are going door to door know that they have evacuated, etc. The Sheriffs still have to do due diligence, but this would help them. So, she summarized that for evacuations, it seems that first we use phones, then Hams, then emails, and the town website. Once we have evacuated the website (goldhilltown.com) is useful to keep us in contact and up to date. We need to get information on there from multiple sources. There are people interested in how to get information out in multiple ways. When she was working at Incident Command, it was very intense with so many fires and the conditions changing rapidly.
Emma said that plans raised include; continued work on NeighborLink, updating the emergency information on the website, getting more Hams. Marcus added that we need real proactive outreach to people to let them know how to connect to their neighbor groups, about the website, and the town email list.

We will meet again on November 30th by Zoom

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen