>>>KAREN MARSH: So the awards were actually selected by a joint panel representing all three levels of emergency management: IAEM, the International Association of Emergency Managers, local emergency managers; the National Emergency Management Association, NEMA, State emergency managers; and FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And we have leadership from all three levels here today. And I think it's really critical that we begin to strengthen the connection to emergency managers because they have the ultimate responsibility at the local and State level for managing incidences. And we're going to be strengthening that relationship over time and so we felt it was appropriate to have each of them give you a few comments today. So we are going to start with Tim Manning, who is the Deputy Administrator for National Preparedness at FEMA, and he's my boss, and then we'll be hearing from the State level, Dave Maxwell. He's the incoming President for NEMA and he's the Director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and State Homeland Security Advisor. And then we have Russ Decker who is the current President of IAEM and he is the Director of the Allen County, Ohio, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. And he is, as I said, the current President of IAEM. So first up, Tim Manning. >>>TIM MANNING: Thank you, Karen. Good morning. Good morning to all of you. I wanna take a quick opportunity to thank Karen and all of her people in the Community Preparedness Division for putting this conference on, bringing us all together. They do great work there and we're proud of them, proud to have 'em. Thank you all for coming today-this week. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules back home to come work with each other and work with us throughout this week to further our Nation's community preparedness. Community preparedness is the keystone, is the cornerstone of emergency management, of what we do in this-in this field. A strong, resilient, and able citizenry, one that is able to both withstand emergencies and disasters, withstand severe events in the first place, and help their neighbors help each other when something happens is the most important thing we do. Facilitating that and bringing up-helping neighbors help neighbors, that is what the American people are all about. It's what our... The foundation of our government is helping each other and self-reliance. What you all do in your communities cements that, furthers that, and is something I am very proud to have within my portfolio at FEMA, the ability to help you all conduct that mission. Emergency management in general, emergency management, community preparedness, this is a team effort. FEMA is part of that team. There... There's a renewed focus, a renewed vision at FEMA as being part of that team. Our new mission statement you've heard from Craig yesterday probably is coming together as a Nation to prevent, protect, respond, recover, and mitigate. It's... We... Any one of us is only successful when we're working together as part of a team. And I'm proud to be up on the stage today with two good friends of mine, Dave Maxwell and Russ Decker, part of that team, the most important parts of that team. The closer you get to the communities, the closer you get out into the country, into our cities and towns and rural areas, that's where it really happens, where it really matters. My job is simply to make them successful and make you all successful. I came from-originally as a volunteer first responder in a small, rural community in New Mexico. I spent time as a-working community issues both as a volunteer firefighter, a volunteer rescue mountaineer, and working through the community on just general neighborly safety projects in the mountains of New Mexico trying to defend our thin areas to prevent wildfires, get the communities to know each other. I went to work at the State of New Mexico as a way to actually pay some of my bills after a long time of volunteer work and then have been fortunate enough to have been offered the opportunity by President Obama to come to Washington and help further those programs I worked at for a number of years. I like to joke that with every promotion I've had, I-I-I-I miss my previous jobs more and more, being out there at the local community level with all of you. So I really appreciate the opportunity I've been given this morning to come talk to you and to help present the First Annual Citizen Corps Awards to a very deserving group. I wish there could be many, many more. Everybody in here, everybody across the country, a part of this, deserves one. So, again, thank you all for the opportunity, and I'll let you have some time with the people who really do this stuff for a living, Dave and Russ. Thank you very much. [APPLAUSE] >>>DAVE MAXWELL: I saw Tim a couple weeks ago and he was constantly referred to by-as Timothy, and I told myself at that time he really doesn't like that. I told myself I was gonna say "Thank you, Timothy," but I won't do that. So... I will say thank you to all of you for what you do every day in your communities. Coming to look-coming to a conference, coming to receive awards, to see who is getting awards and getting ideas from those awards are very important, but what you do in your communities is the most important thing. I disagree with something that Tim said. He said that Russ and I were the really important parts of emergency preparedness, emergency management. Well, I think you are. And you and the citizens that you live with on a day-to-day basis are the most important part of emergency management and the most important part of preparedness. Personal preparedness is gonna become more and more important as we find out more and more that government can't do everything. We can't get down and help every community, every citizen out there so it's gonna come-become much more important that we sell the idea of personal preparedness. And I think you are all in the perfect position to help us in that sales job. And, you know, we need to explore some new ideas on how to sell that idea of personal preparedness, but I think we can do it. And it-it-we owe that to our citizens and I look forward to working with all of ya to accomplish that. And, once again, thank you for being here and thank you for the work that you do every day. [APPLAUSE] >>>RUSS DECKER: Well, you know what happens when you're the last guy to speak out of three. Well, Tim took these notes and Dave took these notes so we're down to just one card, so you're in good shape. But, seriously, yesterday we heard Administrator Fugate talk about teamwork, Tim Manning brought that up today and I like to talk about partnerships. And, really, that's how we survive disasters in this country, is with partnerships. And I think if you were looking at a common thread in this room, including your head table, it's volunteerism. Tim talked to you about his career and how he started and I know everybody up here volunteers. I'm a volunteer firefighter back in my community and it's the volunteers and it's the groups-the grassroots groups that get us by when things happen. And I have to tell ya, as President this year, and I have 82 days left... My table's laughing because we're not supposed to count. But you have some-you have some highlights and you have some down moments but one of the highlights of my years as President of IAEM was reading your nominations and your applications for these awards. It was humbling, honestly, to see the great work that's being done in every corner of this country and to see the groups that we're gonna honor here this morning. This is really the cr��me de la cr��me. You guys came to the top. I, you know, wanted to email Karen several times and say, "Could we have more categories so we could have more winners, but... And I will also tell you that in today's economy, in today's world, with budget cuts at every level of government (State, local, and Federal), these partnerships are gonna be more important than ever before because your local governments, your State governments aren't gonna have the resources. The disasters don't know that we're in a slump and so the disasters aren't gonna let up. Disasters are gonna still be there and we're gonna have to lean harder on the people in this room and your counterparts across the country this year and next year probably more than we've ever done in the past. So I salute your great work and look forward to our winners this morning. [APPLAUSE] >>>KAREN MARSH: So we all know how important it is to recognize achievement and I do also just wanna mention that there is still the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. We have had the opportunity to set aside some of those awards for Citizen Corps Councils and Programs and if... It's a service award based on hours and there's information about it on our Web site. But if-all of the Citizen Corps Councils and Programs are certifying organizations. So if you certify that an individual has served a certain number of hours, you'll get a nice certificate and a letter signed by the President and a pin. So I just wanna reiterate how important it is to recognize effort and achievement, and that those awards are available to you. So now moving on to the National Citizen Corps Achievement Awards. The first category that we're gonna cover today is the Outstanding State, Territory, Citizen Corps Initiative Award. This award will recognize the State, territory, Citizen Corps Council that demonstrates leadership in supporting community resilience through policy and practices to include collaboration with state territory government leaders in the civic sector, public education and outreach, volunteer programs, and assistance to local communities within the State. The finalists for this category are the State of Arizona... [APPLAUSE] You might wanna wait until I read all four finalists for the applause. State of Arizona, the State of Illinois, the... [APPLAUSE] All right. You can't hold em back. ...the State of New Jersey... [APPLAUSE] ...and the State of Ohio. [APPLAUSE] And the winner is the New Jersey State Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] So accepting the award... If you can come up on stage. Accepting the award today-accepting the award is Howie Butt (ph.), the New Jersey State Citizen Corps Coordinator, and Tim-Timothy McDonough (ph.), the Mayor of Hope Township, New Jersey, and the President of the New Jersey League of Municipalities. The New Jersey State Citizen Corps Council is comprised of government leaders from State, county, municipal agencies, educators, business executives from the private sector, civic and volunteer organizations. The State council coordinates all allocations of funds, equipment purchases, logistical and training support for Citizens Corps. There are 200 local Citizen Corps Councils in New Jersey which span the entire State, leaving no area unrepresented. One highlight from 2008 was their September training and exercise event that brought together State and local offices of emergency management, State and local citizen and corps council leaders, Red Cross, Salvation Army, police, fire, EMS, and over 800 CERT and MRC volunteers. The volunteers played an active role in an exercise involving the response to a simulated bus event where trained volunteers were tasked to extricate victims from the wreck. Additionally, the volunteers completed ICS training, attended preparedness seminars, and taught courses involving disaster preparedness. So I'd like to ask everyone from the great State of New Jersey to stand to be recognized. [APPLAUSE] See, teamwork. They're all wearing blue shirts. The next category is the Outstanding Tribal Citizen Corps Initiative, and we really wanted to recognize the tribes, cause they are such an important part of our-of our country's heritage. The winner of the Outstanding Tribal Citizen Corps is the United Tribes Technical College Citizen Corps Council of Bismarck, North Dakota. So accepting the award today... [APPLAUSE] Accepting the award today is Barbara Schmidt, the UTTC CERT Coordinator, and Dr. David Gipp the President of UTTC. The United Tribes Technical College Citizen Corps Council has begun to fill a very large gap. They became the first tribal organization to implement a CERT Program and they have now trained nearly 500 people on seven reservations in North and South Dakota. [APPLAUSE] UTC... UTTC organized the first Citizen Corps Councils on each of the North Dakota reservations. Preparedness and response training has progressed with the involvement of students, staff, and faculty. Teams of volunteers are trained to support the surrounding tribal schools and communities, and their efforts continue to grow. Our next category is the Outstanding Citizen Corps Council Award Serving a Population Over 1.5 Million People. We actually decided to sort of split the category of local Citizen Corps Council because there is such a difference when you have a larger population than a smaller population. So we actually have two categories: over 1.5 million and under. So for the award to honor this Council is the Council that exemplifies excellence in all facets of community resilience, to include collaborative planning, preparing the public and community organizations, volunteer integration, and strategies tailored to specific community vulnerabilities in populations. The finalists for this category are the Arizona Central Region Citizen Corps Council... [APPLAUSE] ...New York City Citizen Corps Council... [APPLAUSE] ...the Sacramento Region Citizen Corps Council... [APPLAUSE] ...and the Southeast Florida Regional Citizen Corps Taskforce. [APPLAUSE] And the winner is Sacramento Region Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] Accepting the award is Jeff Winford (ph.), Executive Director and CERT Coordinator, and Robert Crawford, President of the Sacramento Region Citizen Corps Council. In 2008, the Sacramento Region Citizen Corps Council successfully completed an impressive array of goals. They conducted a full-scale county-wide exercise, increased the number of trained residents by over 1700, provided specialized training for youth and for persons over 55, participated in a state-wide and regional exercise, standardized identification of level two and level-level one and level two CERT members, conducted 900 health screenings at mostly Hispanic health fairs, distributed 5,000 disaster booklets to vulnerable populations, developed an Emergency Volunteer Center Operations Plan and Training Manual, and worked with numerous partners to implement preparedness programs to significantly increase their number of volunteers. Wheeewww! Nice work. [APPLAUSE] Next up is the Outstanding Citizen Corps Council Serving a Population Under 1.5 Million. The finalists are Denton County Citizen Corps Council in Texas... [APPLAUSE] ...Fresno Citizen Corps Council in California... [APPLAUSE] ...Citizen Corps, Monterey County, also California... [APPLAUSE] ...and the San Ramon Valley Emergency Preparedness Citizen Corps Council, also California. [APPLAUSE] And the winner is Denton County Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] Accepting the award is Brenda Gormley (ph.), the Denton County Citizen Corps Coordinator and CERT Chief, and Marlene Money (ph.), the Denton County CERT Lieutenant. The Denton County Citizen Corps Council also serves as the county's VOAD and membership is made up of businesses, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, emergency management, public health, government, and the general public. Throughout the year council members participated in public outreach drills, exercises, and collaboration on establishing a CERT MRC Area's Command Center to better integrate volunteer response capabilities. MRC led the Prepared Denton County Campaign and CERT distributed "Know What To Do" regional preparedness materials. Fire course CERT, MRC, and VOAD are written into Denton's EOP. The county has included volunteers in several jurisdictional plans, and the council's outreach targets hearing impaired, learning disabilit-disabled, obese, physically challenged and economically disadvantaged, seniors and cultural diversity. In 2008 Hurricanes Gustav and Ike tested the Council's resiliency. CERT and MRC managed the Denton Shelter, made sure all populations' needs were addressed and coordinated with the Gainesville Zoo to accommodate pets, including two elephants. Council programs also joined forces to create an information desk and an 800 number to help the hurricane evacuees. So thank you, Denton County Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] Our next award is the Collaborative Preparedness Planning Award. And, as you heard yesterday from the Administrator Fugate, planning is so critical and it is so critical to involve community organizations and community leaders in that process. The finalists for this category are the Contra Costa County Citizen Corps in California... [APPLAUSE] ...Cottonwood Heights Citizen Corps out of Utah... [APPLAUSE] ...Douglas County Citizen Corps Council, Kansas... [APPLAUSE] ...and the San Francisco Citizen Corps Counsel. [APPLAUSE] And the winner is... It's really fun to say that. Cottonwood Heights Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] Accepting the award is Roger Curd (ph.), Director of Communications, and Gordon Thomas, City Councilman. Since January 2008, the Cottonwood Heights Citizen Corps moved from having one written emergency preparedness plan and few CERT members to implementing an emergency communication annex across the county. They have also since partnered with the United Fire Authority, Amateur Radio Emergency Services, Radio Amateur Civilian Emergency Services, Salt Lake County EOC, Rocky Mountain Power, and many, many more emergency service agencies. Drills were designed which lead to Cottonwood Heights Citizen Corps ability to communicate the status of all homes needing medical attention within 6 minutes and supplied this data to the city's geographical information system which is linked to a color-coded triage system. The city has also distributed colored streamers around town that correspond to the CERT triage system so that when first respon-first responders can respond accurately. The city has also purchased two safety frequencies to ensure clear communications. I give you the Cottonwood Heights Community-Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] Next category is Preparing the Public. It's a lot of what we've talked about at this conference, how important it is to educate, train, and practice with the public. The finalists in this category are Bradford County Citizen Corps Council from Pennsylvania... [APPLAUSE] ...Escambia County Citizen Corps Counsel from Florida... [APPLAUSE] ...Farmington Hills, Farmington Citizen Corps Council, Michigan... [APPLAUSE] ...and then Nassau County Citizen Corps Council from New York State. [APPLAUSE] The winner is Framington Hills, Framington City Citizen Corps Council. Oh, Farmington. My apologies. [APPLAUSE] Farmington. Farmington. Accepting the award is Mike Sweeney, Chairman of Farmington Hills, Farmington City Citizen Corps Council, and Noreen Uscow-Uscowitz (ph.)... Excuse me. ...Vice Chairwoman of the Farmington Hills, Farmington City Citizen Corps Council. Farmington Hills, Farmington Citizen Corps Council specializes in preparing the public through education and training. They've created instructional DVDs; held televised citywide public forums; worked with local TV personalities to produce cable shows on emergency topics such as terrorism, first aid, and school safety; hosted free first aid courses at a local hospital; distributed information packets and emergency kits; provided self-defense classes designed for children and the elderly; published monthly articles on preparedness in their three local newspapers; participated in two large-scale training exercises coordinated by the Farmington Hills Fire Department; and they've published an article in conjunction with the National Homeland Security Consortium. [APPLAUSE] Farmington Hills, Michigan. Next category, Preparing Community Organizations. So, again, it's really critical that we work with the community organizations. This is-this is referencing the social networks that I talked about yesterday, having the leaders-the civic leaders of the community participate and get that information out down to the public. The finalists in this-in this category are Adams County Citizen Corps Council... [APPLAUSE] ...Independence Eastern Jackson County Citizen Corps Counsel from Mississippi... [APPLAUSE] ...Duvall County, Jacksonville Citizen Corps Council, Florida... [APPLAUSE] ...Detroit, Wayne County Citizen Corps in Michigan. [APPLAUSE] And the winner is the Duvall County, Jacksonville Citizens Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] Accepting the award is Laura Black, Jacksonville, Duvall County Citizen Corps Coordinator, and Marty Centerfit (ph.), Chief of Jacksonville Emergency Preparedness Division. The Duvall County, Jacksonville Citizen Corps Council has been actively engaged in the community. In 2008, they sponsored ICS courses, conducted more than 20 presentations on basic preparedness, and presented at the-at the Northeast Florida Chapter Association of Contingency Planners. The Jacks CERT Program is strong and their recent activities included volunteering at the Annual Emergency Preparedness Conference for People with Disabilities, conducting nine CERT business emergency response team courses, volunteering in the first airport passenger evacuation exercise, and conducting training drills with the Jackson Fire and Rescue Department Training Academy. The council has 663 MRC members, neighborhood watch, VIPs Programs, numerous VOAD, and partners with the local police, EMS, fire, emergency planners, businesses, universities, fraternities, and the general public. The Duvall County, Jacksonville Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] Our last category this morning is the Volunteer Integration Award. We all know how critical it is that we have volunteers who assist us year-round to support emergency services, but also in the critical time where surge capacity is needed. But it is also important that we make sure that the volunteers are appropriately integrated so they can be used to their best service. So this award, the Volunteer Integration Award, the finalists are Kiuga (ph.) County Citizens Corps from Ohio... [APPLAUSE] ...the Harris County Citizen Corps Council... [APPLAUSE] ...Texas. Sorry. Texas. Northwest Fire Citizen Corps Council, Arizona... [APPLAUSE] ...and the Rowlett (ph.) Citizen Corps Council, Texas. [APPLAUSE] And the winner is Harris County Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] Accepting the award is Francisco Sanchez, Harris County Citizen Corps Coordinator, and Mark Sloane, Harris County Citizen Corps Coordinator and the Harris County Emergency Manager. Harris County Citizen Corps has fully embraced the value of trained volunteers and has integrated them into government plans and protocols. Volunteers paired with EOC staff during 2008 activations and drills and were integrated into the ICS structure. Volunteers assisted with testing "Operation Provide A Ride" to evaluate plans to ec-to evacuate special needs populations in the region. During the response to Hurricane Ike volunteers were integral to successful communication between neighboring EOCs and PODs, pods. Disaster workers and volunteers delivered over 1.1 million gallons of water, almost 10.5 million pounds of ice, and over 2.8 million meals. The Harris County Spanish Language CERT class graduated its 5,000th graduate and to date over 17,000 area residents have been trained through CERT, VIPs, MRC, neighborhood watch, and Fire Corps. The Harris County Citizen Corps Council. [APPLAUSE] So I'd like to ask all the award winners and all the finalists who are here with us today to please stand for another round of recognition. All the finalists [APPLAUSE] Honestly, what you do is-inspires me and it is what keeps me going because, I hate to say this, Tim, but the real people I work for is you. You are the people that keep me going, that keep me going late at night. And I know that I speak for all of my staff that we truly work for you and we wanna continue to support you. And, as I said, we are gonna be reaching out to all of the finalists to capture what you've done and to put it on the CERT-on our Citizen Corps Web site. I'm not sure how recently you've been to the Citizen Corps Web site but we have a new look and design and we have a new capability of really highlighting what local Councils are doing around the country. So, again, throughout the course of this year that's gonna be our focus, to tell your story and to share your best practices so that we can all elevate what we're doing in our communities.