TN VOAD

TNVOAD Meeting Notes
November 18, 2010
Tennessee United Methodist Conference Center
304 S. Perimeter Park Dr.   
Nashville, TN 37211

Call to Order:  President Gloria Loftin called the meeting to order at 10:05, CT and requested a roll call that was held at a later time in the meeting.  Twenty three (23) were in attendance representing 11 sustaining; 2 Associate, and 5 collegial memberships with visitors/guest.  Gloria opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.  She then had David Acres do the invocation and she led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.   

Agenda:
The president reviewed the agenda and requested any changes, and there were none.  
Gloria asked for a vote on the agenda as presented with a lunch break when lunch arrived.  Rob Moreland moved to accept and John Riley seconded.  None opposed.
(Agenda Attached)                                10 –09

Visitors/Guest:
    Judy Melin, Lutheran Disaster Response, UCLTRC-Upper Cumberland LTR
Tiffany Bubel, American Red Cross Chattanooga, TN
    Ronalda Smith, TMHA      


Secretary’s Report and Adoption of Minutes from September 2, 2010
Minutes from the September 2, 2010 meeting were e-mailed to the members of record approximately one week before the current meeting.   Extra copied are available at the sign in table.  The members in attendance were polled to make sure everyone had the opportunity to read the minutes, and if any requested the minutes be read.  Corrections and/or edits were requested.  Two corrections were noted, The Max Grants on page 4 was $29,900.00 and on page 3 in the middle of the page concerning training case worker was changed to read “They expect to train more by the …completed.”   The motion to approve, with the two corrections, was made by Rob Moreland and seconded by John Riley.   Minutes approved with no opposition.  

Minutes attached.                                    10 - 10

Treasures report:
Rob Moreland presented treasures report which is attached.  As there had not been a complete report this year, he reviewed the year to date.   There were no questions on the checking account but a couple came up on the Citizen to Citizen report.  Someone asked if a Long Term Recovery Committee could request funds for a specific client.   The answer is yes, up to $2500.00 per case.   

We do not specifically raise funds for the Citizen to Citizen Fund but encourage each agency to raise their own funds.  Many times donor’s specification does not fit the different agencies so we end up with these funds.  When requested, The Citizen to Citizen Fund will provide $1000.00 to new Long Term Recovery Committee’s for startup administration funds.   

The motion to approve the Treasured Report was made by Mike Overcash and seconded by David Acres.  There was no opposition.                       10 - 11



FEMA UPDATE:
Ken Skalitzky
The Max Grant for the new year is $30,300.00

The National Disaster Response Framework is out for public comment.  The program supports local agencies and we need to review the document.   

A Mass Care Emergency Assistance course is being developed and should be out in a few months.

During the North Carolina response to Tropical Storm Nicole, they used the new Homeland Security Connect electronic meeting that is similar to the “Go-To-Meeting” concept.  They did training from the system that was effective.  This program is available from FEMA at no charge.  

A National Level Exercise is moving forward and there is a meeting at the end of this month here in Nashville.  The exercise will be on the New Madrid Earthquake to be held on May 16, 2011 in Nashville, TN.  This is the first time it has been held in Nashville and it is the first time that it is on a natural disaster rather than a terrorist event.  The Volunteer agencies have a place at the table during the event.   The next week is the NVOAD Conference in Kansas City, Kansas.  

This is a joint event between FEMA and NVOAD with workshops on ESF 6.  If you are interested in participation in the work shop, the applications are due by the end of the month.  Contact NVOAD and Ken for information and help.   

The volunteer agencies have done an excellent job on the flood response.  Case workers have followed through on appeals with success.  If you have problems, contact Ken.

Jason Brock asked if there was a sense of the percent of appeals that have come through.  Ken did not know.  The appeals are taking a long time but a lot of the problem goes back to the client.  Many do not supply the correct information and many just do not respond so their time runs out.

Case managers have to deal with the physical and emotional problems of the clients which complicate the process.   

Gloria gave an example of the ARC Client Assistant Cards.    The ARC has 147 cards that have expired out of several thousand issued.  They have 120 days to use their cards but many are so overwhelmed that they have not got to them.  Only 8 out of the 147 cards have called about the expired cards.    

Ken made the comment that since the Opryland Hotel is open; most people think the flood is over.   

Jason Brock asked about the future of the FEMA temporary Housing program.   Ken responded that it was alive and well.  FEMA still has 193 people in temporary housing after 5 years.  The state of Tennessee did not ask for FEMA housing (Mobil homes or RV units) during the floods.    

Gary Stockston, (TNEMA, Individual Assistance Officer for TN) answered that TN did not ask for FEMA housing because of the abundance of available housing in state.   Assistance would have had a major economic impact in the state.  FEMA provided rent assistance to many that needed housing.   

A discussion on Manufactured homes was held concerning the different regulation in each county for their installation.  Some counties require specific lot sizes, some require porches constructed, and one must determine the regulations before installation.    It is difficult but we have agencies that can help get through these regulation.  

Gloria stated that some clients elected to spend their FEMA monies on RV’s so they could stay on their property.  

Jason brought up the Community Development Block Grants.   This money is not from FEMA and communities receive this money all the time.  When not committed, it can be used to help with rebuild.  This money can be used for funding temporary help for rebuild programs.   Ken said he was on a conference call yesterday on setting up a Blue-Print on how to get and use this type of support.  There will be a Workshop at the NVOAD Conference on this topic.  

 



TN FLOOD RECOVERY UPDATE:   
Jason Brock
Middle TN, Tennessee River to the Plateau.
There are 17 Long Term Recovery Committees working.  Some are just getting started
and others are struggling.  

 The Methodist relief effort is doing a lot of coordination and has worked with 31
 different faith based organizations to date.  We can account for 50,000 volunteer hours
through the end of October and the local counties can match that.  Their Centers have
 teams scheduled through next year.  They expect the program to run two years but
expect most to be completed by next fall...

The revenue from the Garth Brooks Concerts is available for the entire state.  The
nine concerts are to start in December.

We have completed the easy cases and are starting on the hard ones.

Gloria Loftin
We are working cases in some counties that do not have a Long Term Recovery
Committee.

JudyMelin
In Rutherford County we had a case where we had housing for volunteers but no money
for supplies.  Multiple agencies came together and supplied the labor and materials for
the home. The family expected to celebrate Thanksgiving in their new home.  It was a
Great example of what can be accomplished when we work together.

Bob East
We need to let the local EMA’s know how we are helping in the local counties.  

Jason Brock
Many EMA’s do not know who to contact for help/services.  The more of this kind of
 information we get in their hands, the easier it will be to work with them.   

Larry Triplett
We have discussed adding the EMA’s to our mailing list and starting next year they will
receive our mail.   

Rob Moreland
The Presbyterian Village is set up at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 W End Ave, Nashville, TN. It has housed 486 volunteers to date.  Six hundred more have made reservations for the next 6 months.  They do not make reservations more than 6 months in the future.  

The 486 volunteers have put in 6000 volunteer hours on 92 homes and 4 churches to date.  They have 36 more houses on the waiting list.  
The Presbytery hopes to open additional villages in Hickman County and have hired a full time coordinator and are looking for additional sites and possibly additional coordinators.  They are looking for grants to fund the additional coordinators.  

Jason Brock
One of the challenges for the Methodist is working around the homeless program that their church has established.   Churches take in the homeless families for a week at a time and do not want to interrupt that program to house volunteers.  

Some of the rural churches have camps that we might use but have not worked out volunteers around the existing schedules.   This is important to some of the Long Term Recovery Committees so they have housing for their volunteers.


Committee Reports:
Executive   -   The committee members will meet at the end of the meeting to discuss a conference call meeting time.  The Disaster Plan is still in the works and it will be easier to write since we just went through a disaster.

Donations and Volunteers Committee    (Paul Trumpore)    No Report

Public Relations Committee        (Dina Myers & Juli Gallup)        No report

Nomination Committee    Terry Haight was not present but he has been on the nomination committees for the last couple of years.  Larry Triplett volunteered to assist him.

Regional VOAD Reports:
East Tennessee Report-Larry L. Triplett
The East Tennessee Regional VOAD held their meeting on November 4, 2009 at the LDS Bishops Warehouse in Knoxville, TN.  There was a good attendance.   The minutes are attached.

Southeast VOAD-John Hitchins
John reported on the current activities in Chattanooga and discussed the 45 second tornado that hit the dam and adjoining area in Chattanooga.    The web site for the YouTube video of the impact was discussed and it was sent to the e-mail list for all to view.  The minutes are attached.  


Southern Middle TN-John Riley
They continue to work on membership but have had no meeting since first of the year.  Their scheduled meeting for June was cancelled due to the TN floods.  The October meeting was canceled due to the elections. They have managed to get the Lyons Club and Kiwanis Club to agree to work with them.   

West TN
No report.  We know there are Long Term Recovery Committees working in this area.  

Upper East TN-Bob East
They held a Table Top Exercise and had a good attendance.  They are attempting to gather information on churches and other building that would serve as shelters and command centers in the area.   

Do we have a power point or video on VOAD?  We need one to try to get people interested.

Davidson County-Mike Overcash
No report but we do have By-Laws from them and we know they met in October.


Unfinished Business:
Resource List was completed by Rhonda and Terry Haight and Mike Overcash has a copy.  Mike needs to send this to the Secretary for distribution as requested.  

We discussed the existence of a tri-fold publication we have had in the past and we need to see if we have some old copies.   

There are a least three power point presentations that we  need to obtain and condense into a single presentation for the state.  Gloria has one, Mike Overcash has one and John Jarrod has one for the East TN VOAD.  The Secretary will see if they can be obtained for the group.

Web Site   We do not have a website.  John Riley said the EMAT Conference had a new web site and we might be able to get space on it.  Most felt that we needed to have our own that we controlled.   Lou Mulsand will be asked to comment at the next meeting.

Initial Disaster Response Plan;   Gloria Loftin and Mike Overcash will work on it and try to present it at the next meeting.

EMAT Conference    We presented a Kindle with some credit for books at the conference.  No one knew who won.


New Business:
Nominating Committee
Terry Haight (not present) and Larry Triplett volunteered to serve on the committee.


Next Meeting  
February 17, 2011
Meeting place to be Tennessee Baptist Convention Building in Brentwood, TN, David Acres will host.   
May 12, 2011
The Earthquake Exercise will be in Nashville the next week and the week after that is the  NVOAD meeting in Kansas City.

August 18, 2011     Place TBD

November 17, 2011     Place TBD

A motion to adjourn was made at 2:15 CT my David Acres and seconded by John Riley.  There was no opposition.                            10-12

Larry L. Triplett
TN VOAD Secretary
10800 Third Dr.
Knoxville, TN 37934
Home  865-966-9002
Cell  865-207-1658

Revised 2/15/2011