Coordinator: Welcome, and thank you for standing by. At this time all participants will be in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session, and to ask a question at that time, please press star then one. Today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. And now I’d like to turn the meeting over to (Mr. Rich Serino). (Rich Serino): Hey, good afternoon, everyone. And as stated, I’m (Rich Serino). I’m the deputy administrator here at FEMA. I’d like to thank you all today for joining the conference call as we hold our 8th FEMA think tank conference call. The purpose of the think tank is to provide a forum where - so the whole community can actually connect, converse, and share best practices, stories, and find creative solutions to emergency management issues. Today I’m really excited to host this conference call, and to discuss how to engage the next generation in public service and emergency management. So let me begin today by thanking the corporation, the national community service for hosting the call today. Excuse me. We’re in Vicksburg, Mississippi, with (Kate Rafferty), the national director for AmeriCorp and CCC. And we’ve just left the induction of the first group of FEMA Corp members, where we had inducted 231 and we have about 31 of those here now joining us for the call. But, (Kate)? (Kate Rafferty): Thank you. I would just very quickly like to thank you - the FEMA administrators, you know, for being here today. It’s really an amazingly joyful day, and you will see the national community corps has been functioning working alongside the community for the last 18 plus years, and through that service we have seen thousands of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 not only dedicate a year of service, but go forward and become leaders in their communities and the organizations that they choose to work with as they move forward. So we have seen how our service - we know that it serves an amazing pathway to both employment and to education, and this relationship is really only the second or the third phase of a project that (unintelligible) and the corporation of international community services had with FEMA. So it seems like an amazingly natural next step to this relationship, and now we will be able to see a committed and focused young professionals going forth and serving not only communities, but working directly with survivors who have gone through tragedy and very difficult times. And all these - we’re convinced that all these young people in here today who have joined us this morning in our ceremony will bring not only help but hope to the survivors they work with, so we are - we’re very excited about this new phase and having over the next year or so 1600 new members of FEMA corps joining us. (Rich Serino): Great, thank you. Thanks, (Kate). At this time I’d - we also have with us today (Terry Crows) from our recent fourth federal court meeting officer, and the FEMA corps class mentor is with us today. (Terry)? (Terry Crows): Thank you, sir. My pleasure to be able to address the audience. I will tell you that part of being the federal coordinating officer here for Hurricane Isaac in the state of Mississippi, I had the pleasure of being the first mentor to the first FEMA corps class, and will tell you that what I saw and witnessed and had the opportunity to engage with is a highly dynamic, very enthusiastic group of young men and women that have volunteered to serve their nation for a year, and they’re just - they’re ready to get out and provide assistance to disaster survivors across the nation. They’ve still got a couple of weeks of training left to do before this first class comes out of pop launch around the first of October, but as far as me as a federal coordinating officer with the current disaster, we’ve already projected the need for part of this class to come in and support us here in the state of Mississippi, and we highly encourage it to all of the disasters, and organizations that have an opportunity to engage with them, but we’re looking forward to this partnership and we think we’re going to see great things in the near future from this group of very dedicated young men and women. Thank you, sir. (Rich Serino): Thanks, (Terry). If we hear as we go through the think tank call, one of the things that we normally do is go around the room and everybody introduce themselves. We could do that, but I want to do it really quick because we want to get some of this stuff (unintelligible), so please say quickly who you are and what your affiliation is (unintelligible). (Jason Reed): I’m (Jason Reed). I’m with the (unintelligible) group for FEMA. (Miranda Hopper): (Miranda Hopper) with (unintelligible) with FEMA corps. Woman: (Unintelligible), FEMA corps. (Jan Rigili): (Jan Rigili), FEMA corps. Woman: (Unintelligible), FEMA corps. (Tom Suttenburrow): (Tom Suttenburrow) with FEMA corps. Woman: (Unintelligible), FEMA corps. Woman: (Unintelligible), FEMA corps. (Daniel Walker): (Daniel Walker), FEMA corps. (Sam Halden): (Sam Halden), FEMA corps. (Mariah Hutchinson): (Mariah Hutchinson), FEMA corps. (Tanisha Brown): (Tanisha Brown), FEMA corps. Woman: (Unintelligible), FEMA corps. (Dylan Flowers): (Dylan Flowers), FEMA corps. (Jack Brink): (Jack Brink), FEMA corps. (Oliver Newton): (Oliver Newton), FEMA corps. (Rich Serino): (Oliver), could you run that across now, the table? Yes. We’re putting people to work here while we’re waiting on the calls. (Daryl Danes): (Daryl Danes), corporation for national senators. (Cherie Cornwell): (Cherie Cornwell), the active think community specialist for AmeriCorps and CCC. (Sarah Anar): (Sarah Anar), Americorps. (Kaitlyn Perrier): FEMA corps. Woman: (Unintelligible), FEMA corps. (Charles Davenport): (Charles Davenport) and CCC Americorps. (Joseph Tremble): (Joseph Tremble), FEMA Corps. (Erica Roberts): (Erica Roberts), community relations specialist at CCC. (Corey Caldwell): (Corey Caldwell), FEMA response group. (Michael Holden): (Michael Holden), FEMA corps. (Ashton Mera): (Ashton Mera), FEMA corps. (Wendy Center): (Wendy Center), the corporation for national and community service. (Rich Serino): Thank you. Now we’ve got a - okay, go ahead. (Sean Kern): (Sean Kern), team leader with FEMA corps. (Donna Vannel): (Donna Vannel), FEMA corps. (Ian McCormick): (Ian McCormick), team leader for FEMA corps. (Stephanie Carlisle): (Stephanie Carlisle), FEMA corps. (Shannon Gomez): (Shannon Gomez), team leader with FEMA corps. (Janet Atkins): (Janet Atkins), team leader of FEMA corps. (Julia Louis Bell): (Julia Louis Bell), FEMA corps. (Rita Harrison): (Rita Harrison) with 50 States optic corporation for the national and community service structure. (Roger Palmer): (Roger Palmer), corporation for national and community service state office. (Andy Scott): (Andy Scott), corporation for national and community service (unintelligible). (Rich Serino): Okay, well thank you, and as you can see, as you heard, we have a number of FEMA programmers here, and you’ll hear some of their stories, and each one of their stories is really amazing. And I think we’ll hear not all of them but some of them this morning. On behalf of (unintelligible), I want to thank everyone for coming to join us here in Vicksburg, Mississippi. As I said, we have a graduate induction earlier this morning, and on the phone across the nation we continue our dialogue in ways to improve and innovate emergency management in the field. We recognize that all of you on the call and those here with me in the room are keenly aware of what goes on on the front lines when disaster strikes in communities, dealing with challenges on the ground and very quickly we have to find creative solutions to those challenges. We are now looking for your expertise to share and further develop these creative innovative solutions with the entire emergency management community. We had a number of previous calls at the university of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Missouri Southern State University in Joplin (unintelligible) just before - the day before the (unintelligible) anniversary, as well as in Houston at the Medical Center, Colorado Springs, north com, public private partnerships at (unintelligible) college in Vermont. Each of the calls has been extremely successful, with hundreds of pistons dialing in from across the country. We use social media platform to engage the whole community during the call, and the ruling of a large screen to display live Twitter feeds and remarks and your questions and comments during the call. You can guess, though, you can access that at #FEMAThinkTank, and put in your comments and your questions there as well. For those of you who have joined on the (unintelligible), feel free to email your comments or questions to fema-thinktank-think-tank@fema.dhs.gov. That’s fema-think-tank@fema.dhs.gov. We’ll be checking through those comments and questions there as well. The calls that we’ve had so far have really resulted in great conversation and a call to action issuing issues facing our emergency management. For example, during our discussion in Colorado Springs in July, it got pretty lively and provided some of the best practices in the public private partnerships. We’ve included the discussion from CitiGroup on regarding some of the financial literacy project in pilot test areas. Last month in (unintelligible), Vermont, we discussed the role of faith based community organizations in advancing the whole community concept of emergency management. The stories include the coordination of recovery efforts with a local bakery called Crazy Muslim Girls. This local bakery in Vermont - that’s the name of the bakery - they’d actually turned out to be the hub for all donations in the entire community, and that was during Hurricane Irene. So wherever you go you find some unique experiences. Also the joy of learning about some innovative practices generated in communities nationwide for our online forum and our monthly conference calls, and I just wanted to mention next month, we’ll be highlighting three or four of the most innovative emergency management projects and solutions that were inspired from the think tank over the last year. That call will - we’re going to be holding it at the international emergency management conference, the IEM conference, in Orlando, Florida. And let’s get started with the call today, and again the theme is how to engage the next generation in public service and emergency management. We’re focusing on two topics today. The first is about strengthening the nation’s disaster response and recovery work force through a partnership with the corporation for national community service, and how to engage people in substantial leadership service and opportunities. We’re happy to have a member from FEMA’s youth preparedness council today. We also have (McKenzie Kelley), Williamstown Texas Emergency management by phone today. We’ll talk about her experience with the team community response team that she initiated, and she’s also been going by key followers on Twitter, is how we get in touch with her today. She goes by MKelley007, and she’s been (unintelligible) for quite a while, and she’s going to be joining us. We’ll talk to her in person for the first time today. We also set aside some time at the end of the discussion of each topic for any of the participants on the call, here in the room, or on Twitter (unintelligible) can share their comments and their ideas. Now I’d like to turn over the call to Kathy Fields for a moment, to share a very important message from our lawyers. Kathy? Kathy Fields: And this is the only commercial you’re going to get. This is from the Federal Advisory Committee Act. This is our disclaimer. FEMA recognizes that the best solutions to challenges we face are generated by the people and communities who are closest to these challenges. The goal of these monthly conference calls is to listen to and discuss ideas generated by individual members of the community. FEMA is not looking for and will not accept group or consensus recommendations from FEMA's conference call participants. Also, FEMA will not be making any decisions on agency positions or policy during the call. Instead, the agency is seeking individual viewpoints from a broad and diverse spectrum of stakeholders. Everyone's input is valued and we thank you for participating on our call today. Thank you. (Rich Serino): Thank you for that message from our sponsors. One of the things we have to do, you know, so we have to do that every month, so thank you, Kathy. Kathy Fields: You’re welcome. (Rich Serino): Just so to let everyone know, we’re going to open up the conversation with people online and in the room and on Twitter and if you’re online right now, feel free to ask questions or comment again at #femathinktank. We currently have a Twitter feed as I mentioned displayed in the room, and it’s growing and we try to keep up with all the comments that are coming in. And if you’re on the conference line and wish to ask a question, press star one and the operator will place you in the queue. And if you have (unintelligible) and you wish to make a comment, ask a question, please send us an email at fema-think-tank@fema.dhs.gov. Okay. And FEMA and CSCS formed a partnership to support the (unintelligible) to assist FEMA with federal disaster management operations. We’ve strengthened the nation’s disaster response recovery through our partnership. We have the opportunity at least as of earlier this year, and right now we have with us (Wendy Spence), the CEO of CMCS, and I’d like to turn it over to (Wendy). (Wendy Spence): Great. Thank you so much. It’s my first think tank, I love it! Well how’s everybody doing? Great. So let me just start with a few basics to (unintelligible) the discussion today about FEMA corps and CCC, because we’re not sure everyone will understand what then CCC is. It may be the first time, so I’m going to try to do this very succinctly. AmeriCorps and CCC are 1200 AmeriCorps members who are deployed to five different campuses around the country, Sacramento, Fenton, Vicksburg, (unintelligible), Maryland, and Denver, Colorado. These are campuses, (unintelligible), and they start out and they are well trained in the beginning of their - there’s several active people at each of these campuses, 1200 total nationwide, and they report to duty. They get trained, they get matched up with 10 to 12 other AmeriCorps and CCC people. These are ages 18 to 24. This is a specific age group, and then they get deployed around the country based on requests that are - come from local organizations. So the local organization may say, you know, I need trail building. I need some tutoring course work. I need beautification projects, playgrounds, revitalization, all kinds of indoor and outdoor work, and these teams go out and do this, and they really travel in their regions around the country to do this. They also are well trained in disasters and disaster response and recovery work, so while we’ve had record number, a historic number of FEMA declared (unintelligible), AmeriCorps and CCC members were deployed all over the country, responding. And (Rich Serino), in his role as deputy administrator, started seeing these AmeriCorps and CCC members surfacing doing work and recovery work all over - everywhere West, whether he was traveling from Joplin to you know, New Jersey, I mean all over the place, and he continued to see these AmeriCorps members working very hard with great attitudes, can do all, you know, all in 24/7 sort of attitude and edge. So he thought, wow, that’s really kind of a unique asset. You’ve got young people; they’re energetic, they’re mission-driven, they’re flexible, they’re consistent, they’ve got the training, and are passionate about their work, wondering if we couldn’t have something very similar in (unintelligible) campuses designed just for disaster work, unlike in CCC, which is you know, environmental work where you have tutoring, you know, mentioned several different areas. This would be an asset that FEMA could invest in, partner with the corporation for national community service and AmeriCorps and CCC, have them living in campuses, these same five campuses around the country, and report for duty, go through weeks of training, get well prepared and faster response recovery work, and then get deployed on sites and teams just like - similar to in CCC, except only on disaster recovery response work. So he mentioned great (unintelligible) loved the idea. We loved the idea, and in record time for (unintelligible) federal agencies working with a lot of lawyers and a lot of people of putting this together in (unintelligible), pooled together the partnership, and this today is the historic day that we inducted 231 FEMA corps members, and we’re very pleased a couple weeks ago to induct the same amount of numbers in Venton, Iowa, and then we’ll move to the other campuses throughout the next year with the goal of scaling up to around 1600 FEMA corps members around the country. We originally pledged at the beginning of the year was to respond to disaster reasonably. Why is this unique? You know, what is different about this? I mean, could - I mean, why did you have to have AmeriCorps and CCC as a vehicle to do this? We really wouldn’t have to, except this model (unintelligible) that is now running very well, but the actual benefit is because these are mission-driven young people who care about the work and making a difference in the lives of people. And I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with the FEMA members in the room today, and I asked them what - how did you find FEMA corps? Why are you here? To a person, every single one of them said I wanted to make a difference, I want to help, I want to serve, and this provides a vehicle for me to do that. And while you all come from states all over the country, and I’ve met many of you from Denver and Wisconsin, seems like we have a lot from Wisconsin (unintelligible) as well as Baton Rouge, and Georgia, up to Denver, I mean all over the place. And you come from different places. You all have something similar, is you want to help our country heal by helping disaster survivors, and you can’t buy that. I mean, what you all have, those of you who are in the room today, we can’t - I mean, we’re investing in you, but your passion is what we are really trying to capture, because we know that you will respond well and identify well with survivors out there on a successful level as you’re working with them to provide important needs and resources to them. So that’s for the (unintelligible) - the basic outline of it. We will eventually have several hundred FEMA corps members placed in those five campuses, and if you listen to the logistics, the geographics of the states, to cover the country very well, and we’ll be deployed as needed and we’ll be well trained, and that’s a key, because everyone’s like, you know, are you going to be well trained? And I know you’ve already been through some training and going through several more weeks before you have your first assignments. So you know, we look forward to other questions, but I wanted to just share the scope (unintelligible) I think we are about this partnership, and what a fabulous model for a federal - the federal agency partnership to work on the local level. Thank you, (Rich). (Rich Serino): Thanks, (Wendy). Appreciate it. And now we’re going to take the opportunity to (unintelligible) from a few of the (unintelligible). The first one we have is (unintelligible). Man: Thank you. I’m just going to be talking today about why I joined FEMA corps and my experiences so far. Initially, I know my goal (unintelligible) graduated (unintelligible), and my target’s (unintelligible) but along that path is focused on service as well, and after looking at the volunteer opportunities, certain opportunities on the Internet, AmeriCorps was one of the only ones, and FEMA corps, where you really have the opportunity to have that training and have that organization so that if you really wanted to help communities that are really in need, you could actually have other individuals like yourself and have team leaders who would guide you along that path and provide those trainings that would allow you to really, feel like you’re making a difference in a lot of these situations. My experiences so far have been fantastic. We’ve had barely five weeks and yet it feels like it’s been much longer than that. Really we’ve been training doing our corps training institute. We’ve been learning about each other and trying to (unintelligible) by ourselves. They’ve all been trained in CPR and first aid, and myriad other things as well. But I guess the biggest thing that I’ve gotten from being here so far is really how much joy I get out of serving. We’ve spent I guess two big days serving as a community. One of them was (unintelligible) where we all went out and were in a community and were able to serve at fire stations and police stations and schools and just really being even able to spend one day doing small things for the community really felt great, and I know it was really appreciated. Additionally we were able to go to Oxford, Mississippi, and serve at Camp Lake Stevens, and that was also fantastic, because I know personally we cleared brush along the - a lot of effort, but you know, the fact is, if we can gear it to small (unintelligible) you know, (unintelligible) future will be able to work, that is also very fulfilling. With FEMA corps being able to work in disaster situations is part of the reason I joined that in particular, is that these people in that situations are in the most need, and that’s really why I feel like so much of us joined, is just because we really want to help individuals who are in need, and I really (unintelligible) folks to know that FEMA corps is (unintelligible) to do that. (Rich Serino): Great. Thanks, (Unintelligible), appreciate that, and you’ve (unintelligible) should be 9/11 in service and the (unintelligible) fighting team came and recognized the work that you did. What specifically did you do with the (unintelligible) places on 9/11? Man: My team which is called the fighting six, we went to the fire HQ here in Vicksburg, and we painted their fire pit. (Rich Serino): Great. And next we’re going to have (Michael Halden), FEMA corps member from Wisconsin, and (unintelligible) Wisconsin, and if I could ask as people are talking and to try to talk (unintelligible) really hard for me being from the Northeast, they want me to talk slower so people on the phone - so try to talk a little bit slower, and I’m the worst offender myself, so I will try myself. (Michael Halden): Thanks, (Rich). First of all I’d just like to say I’m really excited and really proud to be part of the first class of FEMA corp, and I’m looking around the room and I think all of my other corps members are excited as well. I’m really looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity. This past spring I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history. I plan to teach. I plan to get my PhD, but that’s further down the line. Between now and then, I asked myself what am I going to do? I needed to look for opportunities to practice skills and also to gain experience for myself, but also to serve others. I’ve had service experience in the past, and I think that fits very well, because - and CCC motto or goal is to strengthen communities and develop leaders. Like I said, that first service experience around the world, and also community of your peers during that time in college, in high school, and I really wanted (unintelligible) a theme of my life, a substance in my life. I know that (unintelligible) you can (unintelligible), but I like what he said. We really are passionate about that. You know, it is true. It’s true. I looked for options in the Peace Corps, and I stumbled upon the AmeriCorps option. I wasn’t really familiar with it. I applied, and then FEMA corps came along, just this new thing right out of the blue, jump in and try it. And I got the email and I decided why not? It starts in August. I’ll take the jump and I’ll do it. FEMA corps - statistically I looked at it as being just as - on another level, not like better than CCC, but just something different, you know, something, a different atmosphere I guess you could say. So far, my service experience with CCC and FEMA corps this past month - I’ve had several experiences. I cleared brush just like (Unintelligible) just said. I’ve beautified parks, worked with the city of Vicksburg, worked in Oxford, Mississippi, and just connected with individuals on that personal basis. And one thing I do look forward to - I know I talked with (Rich) about this morning, is connecting with those individuals on that personal level, and I think we all look forward to doing that, changing someone else’s life as their life or their experiences will change yours as well. I know that has enriched me in the past with my past service experience, and I really look forward to it in the future. (Rich Serino): Great. Thank you, and one more I’d like to hear from, (Samantha Hawk), one of the FEMA corps team leads from Cadillac, Michigan. Yes. (Samantha Hawk): Thanks, (Rich). Hi, I’m (Sam), (unintelligible) college in (unintelligible), Michigan, and my freshman year in college I heard of AmeriCorps, did a little bit of research and decided that it was something that I knew I definitely wanted to look into after graduating with my undergraduate in sociology, and so I checked into that, applied, and received an email about FEMA corps, listened to that a little bit, found out it was in Vicksburg, and knew that that’s what I wanted to do. All through high school and college I experienced a lot of mission trips in Port Gibson, Mississippi, which is about 20 minutes outside of Vicksburg. So to me it sounds a little bit fated. I’ve grown up in an emergency management household, so I’ve always been interested in emergency management and disaster response, and I’m really hoping this year to gain kind of a better understanding of the behind the scenes of disaster response. So far, this experience has been absolutely wonderful. The team leaders arrived mid-July. We went through a month of training, and then the corps members arrived mid-August, and it’s been amazing to live and work with people who are of such diverse backgrounds, but all come together for the same purpose and the same passion of service, and like (Ashton) and myself, feel like we’ve had a couple days of (unintelligible) amongst our training, and it’s been wonderful to just see everyone get out there and be so passionate about this, and I’m really looking forward to what (unintelligible) in the frame of FEMA. (Rich Serino): Thanks, (Sam). And as we can go through now, I’d like to mainly throw this open so if anybody’s on the phone, they can hit the dial one to ask a questions, if anybody has any questions or comments. Feel free to tweet them as well, and now we’ll open it up for all the open discussion, and some people in the room, and we’ll take calls but I think in the room, tell us why you decided to join FEMA corps. What was the drive to do that? Anybody want to - oh, I’m sure there’s somebody in this room. ((Crosstalk)) (Rich Serino): Yes. This is a group of leaders, and I can tell earlier talking with some of you, it’s not like - this isn’t a shy group. ((Crosstalk)) (Rich Serino): I think one of the questions we have - we have it on here? Woman: (Unintelligible). I joined FEMA corps because (unintelligible) - because I support (unintelligible) AmeriCorps in Miami. (Unintelligible) definitely managing, but (unintelligible) they had us hear about FEMA Corps. With my degree in curriculum planning, I was like, oh, yes, this is going to be the (unintelligible) to learn more than you would learn in a book, and it’s just to experience the average person on the street our age, you can’t just go to one (unintelligible). (Rich Serino): Great. Thank you. (Dylan Flowers): All right. I’m (Dylan Flowers). I was always struggling with trying to find the next best thing. When I could not find the next best thing, it would make me angry, because I couldn’t figure out why I just couldn’t experience something that was so great that just showed me to do whatever I wanted to do. And then something popped in my head last year, actually. When was the last time I stopped looking for the answers and became the answer for somebody else? And by becoming the answer for somebody else, maybe then I can actually find my own answers. So by joining AmeriCorps and CCC and FEMA corps, I’m able to become that answer for somebody and become those - that shoulder to lean on for them that I (unintelligible) they have problems and help them find the answers through that (unintelligible). (Rich Serino): Very well said. I think that is a great way to praise them, and you know, and (unintelligible) one of the tweets that (unintelligible) so yes, this is going to be the bomb. I think (unintelligible), so one that’s out there is the young adults presented (unintelligible) truly represents the (unintelligible) to invest in (unintelligible), and I think that is true, and you know, the best thing to do is minimum is what you have the - you are giving and you will continue to give back. Another one of the questions that we have, maybe from somebody in the room, maybe, I don’t know, is from Twitter, a tweet, @zworld, being FEMA corps members, are our chances of getting a job with FEMA higher after we successfully complete our service? The answer to that is yes. You will have the opportunity to apply for the jobs. You’ll have experience. You’ll have training. You’ll be FEMA qualified, and you certainly will have the opportunity to apply to become a reservist, and we’re looking at opportunities for others once you complete the service to have (unintelligible). ((Crosstalk)) (Rich Serino): Non-competitive - we don’t have that yet. We’re supposed to get them, and we’ll take a corps enrollment (unintelligible) expert on that, but it’s something that we are certainly working on, but the fact that as you go through this, as long as you’re going to come out (unintelligible) trainee, and I’d expect that you, you know, (unintelligible) time of time (unintelligible) FEMA qualifications, that you’ll be qualified for different positions. So once you finish that, you certainly will have the power to train, and then you’d be able to apply for reservist, and reservists - you know we’re always going to be needing reservists. That’s the answer to that question. All right, next? ((Crosstalk)) (Rich Serino): Grab the microphone and say who are you are and where you’re from. Woman: (Unintelligible), and I’m from Joplin, Missouri. I just was wondering what exactly a reservist is. I don’t (unintelligible). (Rich Serino): Sure. (Unintelligible) better than I could explain, if you could explain (unintelligible). (Corey): According to the response, I agree. A reservist is a intermittent employee with FEMA, and what intermittent means is that they are our temporary work force, and if they don’t - they work on a deployment basis, so once you’re deployed, you’re on like a full time really federal employee, so it used to be like a disaster assistance employee program, and they’re now transitioning to a reservist program. We have over 313 types of positions in the reservist program, and like the deputy administrator said, you guys have a unique opportunity to become a qualified member within FEMA, and you can take that with you. That’s not something that’s going to stop once you’re not a FEMA full member anymore. And once you decide whether you want to go to college or work for the state, or you may want to work in local emergency (unintelligible). You can use that FEMA corps qualification so that you’re qualified (unintelligible) or you’re qualified to do individual assistance - pretty significant. (Rich Serino): Thanks, (Corey), and I think that one of the things that’s good about that is you’re gaining experience, that you know, you could work for FEMA, but you could really encourage - you can go to work anywhere. You already - you’ll have the qualifications, and not just as somebody mentioned the core qualifications. You’re going to have real life experience beyond what’s (unintelligible) that you cannot get anywhere else. Right now we have about 150 people on the phone, and we have (Vanessa) on the phone with a question from the phone. (Vanessa)? Operator, to (Vanessa). Coordinator: (Vanessa), your line is open. (Rich Serino): Go ahead, (Vanessa). (Sherry Anderson): This is (Sherry Anderson) from Tennessee Technology Access Program. (Rich Serino): I’m sorry. We can’t hear you. You’re going to have to speak up. Operator? Coordinator: One moment, please. (Sherry Anderson): Here. (Rich Serino): Operator, we’re not hearing if there is a question. ((Crosstalk)) (Vanessa): Can you hear us now? (Rich Serino): Yes, go ahead. (Vanessa): Okay, this is (Vanessa). (Sherry) was trying to ask, and evidently on our speakerphone it won’t let it - you can’t hear us, but she was trying to ask what is the difference between the FEMA corps training and the AmeriCorps Vista training? (Rich Serino): Okay. Well (unintelligible). (Kate): In the case of - in CCC and then FEMA corps, there is a standardized training that all members receive, and it is a blend of service leadership, particular skills depending on the work that you’re going to be doing, so obviously in the case of FEMA corps, those skills that empower the members to go forth and support survivors, and the - also physical training and it’s those standardized training that all members get and (unintelligible) coupled now with the training that they received at FEMA training sites in different parts of the country. In the case of AmeriCorps Vista, the training is really very, very specific to the agency where the member volunteer is going to serve, so if the volunteer is a Vista volunteer, he’s going to serve with Habitat for Humanity, but they will receive training specifically for that job, or if they’re going to be working with a food bank, or a nonprofit in some part of the country, it’s very specific to that, so it’s not a group training or a team training. It is an individual training, so that would be the difference. (Rich Serino): Thanks, (Kate). (Kate): Thank you, (Rich). (Rich Serino): One of the other things with the training as well, this is under the FEMA training, this (unintelligible) is leaving tomorrow, and heading down to NSL to be able to go to the site of the domestic preparedness, where they’re going to be embarking on two weeks of training there, and then once they’ve finished that training, they’re going to be deployed to various disasters. I know some are going to be coming back here to Mississippi (unintelligible) going to go Louisiana, (unintelligible) working Hurricane Isaac and the recovery from that as well. But their training doesn’t end there. The training’s going to continue all throughout the entire ten months that is part of the FEMA program, the training is going to continue. So operator, is there any other questions on the phone? Coordinator: I currently show no questions, but once again to ask a question on the phone, please press star one, unmute your phone, and record your name, and to withdraw your request you may press star two. (Rich Serino): Okay, thank you, and while we’re waiting for any other questions, (unintelligible) ask the team in the think tank, so (unintelligible) question out to again the FEMA corps members in the room. What - anybody can answer this - what do you bring to FEMA corps? (Unintelligible)? They’re passing the microphone down to (Tom), and we’ll pass it around to others. (Tom): (Unintelligible) I bring the background of volunteering firefighting skills to my team from (unintelligible) care, as well as basic first aid skills too. (Rich Serino): Great. Others? (Kristen Neforma): My name is (Kristen Neforma), and I bring to the table (unintelligible), a little bit of first aid training, book training, a CNA certification and as well as first (unintelligible). (Rich Serino): Okay, what’s CNA for those people who don’t...? (Kristen Neforma): CNA is a certified nurse’s assistant. (Rich Serino): Great, and we have (unintelligible). (Mariah Hutchinson): Hello. My name is (Mariah Hutchinson), and I’m from Joplin, Missouri, and I’m also certified as a CNA, certified nurse’s assistant. (Rich Serino): Okay, other than just the skills that you mentioned, what else do you bring? (Unintelligible). (Sean Kerr): (Sean Kerr), I’m from West Virginia. I know a lot about springing the experiences from wherever we come from - I know about just being able to do that (unintelligible) before survivors (unintelligible). We’ve seen tornados. We’ve seen hurricanes. We’ve been through earthquakes, and just being able to bring that experience here, where we can pass that on to other people, well that’s another thing that we bring to the table. (Unintelligible). (Rich Serino): (Unintelligible). (Julia Louise): Hello, my name is (Julia Louise), and I have a cold, so that’s why I sound like this. I think one thing that unites us, even for those of us who might not have some of the training that other people have, is our passion to serve. I think in order to be effective at what we do, and to be able to absorb the information that we’re trying to get, you have to have a compassionate heart, and a heart for people. I don’t think it’s an easy thing to give up I guess other opportunities that you may have, such as some people have deferred a year of college to come here for $4.75 a day. A lot of youth wouldn’t be leaping for joy at that prospect, but I think what unites us is that we know that we are here to serve, and not just knowing it. We want to, and it’s kind of a part of our makeup, so at the end of the day, we’ll be trained about other things that we need or we’ll need to do in order to be effective at doing our jobs. But in order for us to be effective citizens of this type of program, we have to have a heart to serve. (Rich Serino): And I can tell from a number of you (unintelligible) today that a lot of you have that heart to serve, and that’s something that you know, really look forward to, so thank you and we have a one from the phone, too. Do we have (Brian Goetel) on the phone, operator? Coordinator: Yes, his line is open. (Brian Goetel): Can you hear me? (Rich Serino): Yes, go ahead, (Brian). (Brian Goetel): Deputy director, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I am an CCC alum as well as the coordinator for the Alps County office of emergency management in Brighton, Colorado. I have a question mainly to the fact that it sounds like FEMA corps is going to be mainly response, whereas local emergency managers actually spend most their time in preparedness, rather than response. Will there be a great deal of projects for FEMA corps at the local level in preparedness? (Rich Serino): Right now initially we’re focusing on not just response but recovery as well, and focusing on initially part of the disaster. Right now some of the funding methods we have, we have to focus on response and we have to focus on recovery as well, and some mitigation, and we plan - it’s eventually (unintelligible) FEMA (unintelligible) grows in numbers as well, so we’ll - a lot of our time for FEMA will always be spent preparedness (unintelligible) a lot of - believe it or not the majority of the money is a lot of times spent actually on recovery. That’s where we’re going to spend a lot of focus in the FEMA corps as well. We have a question. I missed who it was from, but a question up there really on that stage that we have a (unintelligible) training, but are they training in ICS (unintelligible) of the administrative functions and (unintelligible). (Terry Quarrels): Yes, as part of the metro program here, I had many questions concerning what courses that the FEMA corps would be able to get. When they come to work in the JFO, we have training ongoing in every disaster. Part of this is going to be that as we determine what structure we need to manage a disaster, we’ll go into the incident command system as to how we - ICS, as to how we organize for the most effective response and recovery efforts. And saying that, part of the core members and my job here is working with them came up with questions concerning what opportunities are there for training. CMI offers many of the online courses that they can take, the 100, 200, 700, and 800 courses which clearly prepare them for how they will work in the incident command system and structure that would be prevalent in a joint field office, so there will be opportunities for them. There’ll be training administered in the joint field office, and then they’ll go about working under the ICS structure as they move to the field portion for conducting, whether it’s public assistance, individual assistance, or the community relations that they will be in support of. (Rich Serino): Great. Thanks, (Terry). Let’s see. Any other questions on the phone? Anybody in the room, any other comments or question on this topic? Okay. Can you use the mike just so people can...? Woman: Can you make it clear what a JFO is, (unintelligible)? (Rich Serino): This is a good point, because (unintelligible). (Terry Quarrels): Sorry about that. This is (Terry Quarrels). I’m the federal coordinating officer. Whenever we have a Presidentially declared disaster under the Stafford Act, one of the requirements is to establish a joint field office. I refer to that as a JFO. A joint field office brings together FEMA, the state or other federal agencies, volunteer organizations, so that we work as a unified, coordinated effort in how we respond to the disaster. So the joint field office, JFO, I use that acronym as well as EMI, which is the emergency management institute. It is a FEMA training institute in Emmettsburg, Maryland. Many of the FEMA courses are taught there, as well as the center for domestic preparedness in Aniston, Alabama where the FEMA corps members will depart for tomorrow. (Rich Serino): Great. Thanks, (Terry). Any other comments or questions in the room? Right now we’re going to have - slide to our second topic today, is how to engage people in substantial leadership and service opportunities. To start the conversation, we have (Paula Ginstok), the director of individual and community preparedness at FEMA. She’ll tell us more about being prepared as counseling groups and can also introduce a member of the council. Additionally we’ll have our favorite think tank tweeters, one of them, to talk about the team (unintelligible) program she’s involved in. But first, (Paula), can you kick it off? (Jeannie Moran): Yes, actually, this is (Jeannie Moran). I’m filling in for (Paula), but... (Rich Serino): And can you speak up a bit? (Jeannie Moran): Yes, sure. Is that a little bit better? (Rich Serino): A little bit. (Jeannie Moran): How about now? Is that even better? (Rich Serino): Much better. (Jeannie Moran): Okay great. Like I said, this is actually (Jeannie Moran) filling in for (Paula), but I’m very thankful for the opportunity. I’m the youth director for FEMA preparedness, and like I said I’m really excited about this call. The fact that it’s happening is just really important to us because we believe that engaging young people in substantive trainings and educational and volunteer opportunities truly does and will continue to result in a cultural paradigm shift. So I truly commend our leadership and the leadership of so many public surveying government like in the room, and non-government organizations for bringing youth preparedness to the forefront of our minds and efforts. Youth preparedness programs are happening all over the country. They’re in schools. They’re in afterschool programs. They’re in churches, houses of worship, and in school clubs. Some are a few hours long, some are weeks long, some are days long. Some are even camps. I’m going to be going to Alabama to - Alabama be ready camp to watch hundreds of tweens go through a disaster, a mock disaster, after a week-long training camp, and you know, there’s even this huge contingency of teen cert programs that are popping up or growing larger. You’ll get to hear from (McKenzie) later on, a little bit about that great program that’s going on across the country. You know, these programs, they come in all shapes and sizes, and we firmly believe it’s not a one-size fits all, but the thing about these programs is they all address preparedness in a community-tailored way. And here at FEMA, we think it’s our job to support these programs through technical assistance, training, like we have our youth preparedness workshop roadshows that is going on right now, forum accessibility to share best practices, making materials available to program leaders, and of course partnership development. I want to be really sure to respect the amount of time that I have, so if you’re interested in anything that I just talked about, and being informed about any of our initiatives, do visit citizencorps.gov and click on youth preparedness. Our #1 suggestion is probably just to sign up for our children in disasters network which is the first link that you’ll see on that youth preparedness page, so hopefully that’s the one takeaway, and it’ll connect you to this growing family that we have. One exciting thing that we’ve done recently is to create the first ever FEMA youth preparedness council. The YPC for short is made up of 13 13 to 7 year olds and one chair, so we have 14 members. Our council makes sure that they youth’s voice is integrated into literally everything that we do. The members have experiences with surviving disasters, being trained volunteers in emergency functions, or in most cases both. Today you’re really lucky to hear from one of our members, (Jason Reed), who was selected because of first his just natural leadership skills, and also his background and training, and definitely because of the clear and ambitious goals he has to help FEMA spread this message about youth preparedness. So thank you so much for the time today, and I truly look forward to working with all of you to engage our young people today, hopefully to become the future prepared leaders of tomorrow. And with that I - (Debbie), (Administrator Serino), did you want to have (Jason) just start? (Rich Serino): So I’ll turn it over to (Jason) and (unintelligible) just wondering (unintelligible) have a question on the phone or a comment they can hit one, press star one, and also if they have (unintelligible) let’s turn it over to (Jason). (Jason Reed): Good afternoon, everybody. (Deputy Administrator Serino)... ((Crosstalk)) (Jason Reed): I’d like to thank you for the opportunity today to address the nation in this teleconference. I’d like to begin with discussing the youth preparedness council and just kind of explaining how that works. There’s 14 members as (Director Moran) said, and it’s usually one for every region. There’s a few regions with more than one representative. If you’re (unintelligible) - excuse me. If you’re the (unintelligible) director, or if you’re in any youth preparedness initiative at all, I do recommend you contact your (unintelligible) preparedness officer in your FEMA region and get in contact with the council member for your region. They’re very, very interested in helping out. We’re looking at a lot of huge projects in the coming year, and we’d love for as many organizations and people in the general public to be part of that as possible. In anticipation to a few key questions, I’m going to go ahead and talk about how this selection process went a little bit, and how I was selected. I was nominated by (Colonel Richard Griffith), Indiana (unintelligible) patrol. (Unintelligible) is the United States Air Force auxiliary. We conduct 90% of search and rescue missions in the United States, and the vast majority of that is done by youth, people under 21 and under 18. If you’re interested in contacting the (unintelligible) patrol, the best way is through the Web site. As (Unintelligible) said, we’re (unintelligible) and bring that up. It’ll give you a lot more information if you’re interested in using them or possibly joining their organization. I’m the executive officer for emergency services for Indiana, and that’s kind of how I got my affiliation with FEMA, is through the nominations that (Unintelligible) had made. My experience mainly comes in (unintelligible) Indiana, on March 2nd of this year. My primary job was to search the surrounding area around the high school for survivors after the tornado and made sure it was just safe and in general. It was quite the storm. It was really a twister manifested in real life. A school bus impaled a house. It was quite the tornado, but anyway that’s where my strength mainly comes from. I work on both the actual ground operations side and in the (unintelligible). I think that’s just about it for me. If anybody has any questions or if you’d like me to discuss how you can get involved after those questions. (Rich Serino): Yes, thanks, (Jason). Actually I have a few questions for you. The first I think was - we’ll go to (McKenzie Kelley) on the phone. Are you there, (McKenzie)? (McKenzie Kelley): I am here. Can you hear me? (Rich Serino): And you’re going to have to speak up a bit because we have a (unintelligible). (McKenzie Kelley): Okay, great. Well thank you, (Deputy Serino), and on behalf of the Williamson County Office of the Emergency... (Rich Serino): I’m sorry. (McKenzie), you’re fading in and out quite a bit. I’m not sure whether it’s on your end or our end, but maybe if you can just you know, try and speak a little bit louder so we can hear you. And by the way, I - it’s good to know your name, because I just knew you as MKelley007. (McKenzie Kelley): Thank you, (Deputy Serino), and on behalf of the Williamson County office of emergency management and the Texas governor’s committee on people with disabilities, I’d like to thank you and FEMA for your commitment and recognition of youth preparedness programs and the critical role that youth play in the whole community approach to emergency management. According to youth preparedness, youth make up 25% of our nation’s population. They’re the future of our communities. One of the reasons that I’m passionate about youth preparedness is because I participated in a great youth preparedness program my junior year of high school. I was involved in the health sciences program that were offered at my high school, and exposed to an emergency medical technician basic class. I actively sought ways that I could enhance my emergency preparedness and response skills in an effort to utilize them in an environment that allowed me to do so my senior year of high school. My search stopped when I became an active explorer in the explorer post at a fire department across the street from my high school. Right up until graduation I spent Mondays learning about how firefighters worked and utilized the tools they had on their trucks. I learned about emergency preparedness and more than anything I was able to see firsthand the passion and drive that first responders had in their career. They impressed upon me as a youth confidence and preparedness that my peers did not possess. I learned skills that I was able to later use in life. Now nearly 8 years later, I found my career in the field of emergency management, and I am living, breathing proof of the effectiveness of a solid youth preparedness program. I have designed the youth preparedness program at the Williamson County office of emergency management, and one of the benefits is that we are able to integrate and coordinate emergency preparedness for the whole community, including children with disabilities and access and functional needs so that before and during and even after a disaster, they are prepared. We promote interactive activities within families such as creating a family emergency response plan, and we give special consideration when working with students that are bilingual, so they can serve as conduits of information to their friends and families that do not fully understand or speak English. Preparedness creates resiliency during times of disaster. A key component to the success of our youth preparedness program and the teen cert program is the engagement of our local non-government organizations, schools, and (unintelligible). We participate in a regional citizen court council in order to receive input from our whole community. Without an accurate representation of the community, we would not be able to reach the vulnerable populations to which we serve. One wonderful outcome from inviting local non-profits to the table was the availability of Texar, a local volunteer search and rescue organization, and their ability to teach the light search and rescue portion of our teen cert curriculum. As an added bonus they also provide instructors to assist with the disaster exercise at the end of our training, of which my agency is very thankful. With limited resources in our office of emergency management, the help that we receive from our non-government partners is very much appreciated. We provide training to the students that reside in and around our county at no cost and with no budget. We bring the whole community together, discussing and sharing our needs at a table together, and we would not be successful if that didn’t happen. Youth preparedness does not rest solely on the shoulders of emergency management, but requires support and collaboration of the whole community in order to be successful. Children are highly influential, and youth today will ensure a future generation of prepared adults. Ensuring that the teen cert curriculum is available and that the whole community is involved in the development of your program will help you be more successful in reaching your goals. (Deputy Serino), thank you again for providing me with the opportunity to speak today about how important youth preparedness is in our whole community approach to emergency management. I’ll turn it back over to you now. Thank you. (Rich Serino): Thank you, (McKenzie), and so for (Jason) and (McKenzie) and also everybody in the room, especially the FEMA corps members, how can we get youth more involved in emergency management, emergency preparedness, and the ability to serve? So (Jason), and then we’ll slide to (unintelligible). (Jason Reed): One of the things that all of the members of the youth council were appointed for was how they advertise (unintelligible) in emergency services, and a lot of that is done through youth preparedness states, and (unintelligible) either through the school or maybe a county fair or something like that, a joint operation with the community, usually either certified apartment building, lease or rent, or the local school board, something along that line. So youth service America and AmeriCorps are great organizations that the youth council membership used a lot in their projects, and advertising basically is the best way to get youth involved. One thing I noticed in my work with the civil (unintelligible) is knowing (unintelligible) with 90% of (unintelligible) in the United States, and no one knows about it. So clearly we’re not advertising. We really need to work on that, but advertising and engaging, you really have to engage your people. And giving ownership in the project they’re working on, if you just give someone a project and say do this, but you don’t have any authority to do it with, you’re not going to get the best result from your people. You have to delegate the authority to get the project done, give them ownership in the project, so that they feel like it’s their action, and really invest in your people. Give them the credit and the acknowledgement that they deserve. Just because they’re kids doesn’t mean that they can’t run an operation. The largest operation I recently ran was the Indianapolis Air Show. I had about 80, 85 people under my command running security for an active (unintelligible) at the Indianapolis Air Show, and (unintelligible) security for all the aircraft. Just because they’re young doesn’t mean they can’t run things, so really give the authority - give ownership in the project, and the time you invest will be a double return, really. (Unintelligible) that you put into your people will come back two and three fold. (Rich Serino): Okay. Okay. Go ahead. (Jacqueline Keller): All right, so my name’s (Jacqueline Keller), and (unintelligible). And I would say more or less (unintelligible) (McKenzie) had been asking about, or asking some questions that are so critical, and in the case of (unintelligible) and the other branches, I would say corps members are our greatest asset in terms of spreading the word, because you know, half the guys are going (unintelligible) but when I’m (unintelligible) this program and I’m trapped by the (unintelligible) and their values and their demeanor. That is what’s going to strike me and draw me towards the program. Graduating from a good college over the course of that time, I met several people who were alumni of AmeriCorps in the various programs. And it was them that really drew me in and made it seem like a program that I wanted to be a part of, and a part of my life I put my energy into. So speaking for my generation, I hope they don’t mind, but I think we are a group that really responds to our peers, and so when we see someone like ourselves in similar situations, either just graduating high school or just graduating college, and they’re saying to us, you know, if not now, then when? And that’s what I am going to - or I hopefully (unintelligible) and what will (unintelligible). (Rich Serino): So we’ll be able to draft (unintelligible) now to be our spokespersons (unintelligible). (Jacqueline Keller): Absolutely, and if you - if we don’t all go through it, take what we’ve learned and gotten to know, you know, it’s - it loses a lot of effect and the power and you know, (unintelligible) the gift that we’ve been given with this education if we can’t (unintelligible). (Rich Serino): Okay. Man: For me, and this is kind of paraphrasing, actually, words that were said today, and (unintelligible) that show us bold courage. It’s a true valid quality for those who seek to change the world, and AmeriCorps and CCC and FEMA corps has actually instilled that I know in all of us. They’re just being there. We’ve - they’ve kindled that fire for us that’s there. They’ve kindled that passion, that flame for us to go out into our communities and do that. They’re through us, seeing our stories, people are drawn to us. They see that we’re here to serve, and they want what we want, but it’s just showing that passion that you have to the people around you and showing that passion to the youth of today, that you see that you’re making a difference and then it draws them to say that’s what I want to do as well, so I would just say anybody who would love to join, any youth members that seek that passion to speak into their lives and encourage them to actually join a program like AmeriCorps or CCC or FEMA corps. (Rich Serino): Great. (Joseph Trimble): Hi, I’m (Joseph Trimble). I think like (Jason) said earlier, that (unintelligible) really be part of how you get more youth enrolled. They actually have to know about something if they’re going to volunteer for it. Also we need to understand how we can (unintelligible) community, which is great, but also how it can benefit themselves. If I join AmeriCorps, how does that help me, my community, and my region, Gulf Region of Alabama. So (unintelligible), while actually financially I realized that it was helping me just as much as far as training (unintelligible), as far as the opportunities, the people I was meeting, as far as the different areas, meeting different corps members, I mean from different areas, and learned more about different areas. If you were able to advertise and put out there how much you learned and how much training, the opportunities you have and not just with FEMA but with the people out in the council volunteers, you know, basically everything we met here, if you could tell (unintelligible) how much that changed them, they’d probably be more apt to. Certainly, especially, if you came in to tell them. Okay. Woman: (Unintelligible). Me personally, anytime I hear about something that I don’t really know about, my first thing is I go (unintelligible), see a visual, because I’m a visual learner, so I know that a lot of our corps members are doing like blogging and blogging on their own, but I feel like if it’s done, you know, as a part of the (unintelligible), it’d be a little more precise. So for instance, when we all (unintelligible) I don’t need personally, I felt like in the video, I was like, what should I bring? What should I bring? And all I could get was, don’t bring a lot, don’t bring a lot. And I’m like, that’s not telling me nothing. I don’t know. But I feel like video would be more of an asset to them based on (unintelligible) or even (unintelligible) when it comes to researching the program as far as after you get accepted. (Rich Serino): That’s actually a great suggestion, and you know, because we’re looking for ways, and I’m going to be selfish here for a minute. This typically has not been FEMA approved, because you know, some of you look (unintelligible), but a lot of you look (unintelligible) and CCC and then (unintelligible) and found in the book (unintelligible). Woman: Okay. (Unintelligible). A way to just market FEMA corps, I think, as far as like just a college intervention, but it should be a part of not only that year personally (unintelligible). And then as far as the partners, but normally (unintelligible), they have a - they’re very influential upon you, so your department chair tells you, oh, FEMA corps, (unintelligible) you’re going to really look into it. So I feel like reaching out to the majority of college campuses with emergency management of field and urban planning field, and public administration field will really help. (Rich Serino): Thank you. That’s a (unintelligible) issue. Thank you. (Lori Thompson): My name is (Lori Thompson). I’m at (unintelligible), and I think it would be good for you to market for FEMA corps, so physically might be in - you know, you talked earlier about the reservists, when they’re not - here’s exactly what I think we tend to be a magnet for (unintelligible). So we have a lot of (unintelligible), especially last year going through the historical flood (unintelligible), and they were out on the ground for, gosh, two months. Maybe part of the charge for them on the ground is to visit local schools and educate the counselors in those schools, talk to youth groups and clubs inside the high school, (unintelligible) high schools, and start educating the educator about FEMA corps, to make it a career path. (Rich Serino): Great, thank you. Okay. (Kate Rafferty): This is (Kate Rafferty) with CCC. One thing that also all of you around the table will be part of is one of the powerful pieces about just in CCC is the visual, are the photographs of the teams working, and the members speaking with (unintelligible) survivors, and we haven’t got anybody to take a picture of yet, so now we will, and we will have the ability to have clips that we can have on YouTube, and so this is why we invited such a photogenic group this time around. It’s all part of the application process. We kind of looked at (unintelligible) to see who was coming. (Rich Serino): Really? Really? (Kate Rafferty): That’s right, talented and good looking, so I think that this is - we’re going to maximize our ability to catch you in the act if you will, out there working with survivors, speaking with communities, interacting with leaders at the community level so that we can get those visuals that were mentioned earlier and get them on YouTube, get them on our publications as well as FEMA’s publications, and as when we talked about how you’re going to help us with first time around, that’s going to be one of them, helping us not only have the story but to have the photographs that will inspire people to consider this. (Jason Reed): Hi, it’s (Jason Reed) again with the youth preparedness council. One of the things that I noticed all the time at EMAs and the state emergency (unintelligible), and it even came over to when they were (unintelligible) emergency preparedness is they taught at them, not to them, and you really need to speak to the kids directly. If they think it’s a message that you tell every kid in the nation, they’re not going to listen, but if you personalize it a little more, just gear it towards them, towards the specific audience you’re working with and change it up a little bit, make it fun and engaging. One of the things I do when I’m trying to get people involved in EMS is (unintelligible) something that’s (unintelligible) related and throw a little competition in there. Literate this is what I do. We go to a class on how to (unintelligible) and how to relay someone to a (unintelligible) and medically, but you need to have the (unintelligible), so it’s a little different, so when we’re teaching first aid and medical, we use (unintelligible), and you have to load it properly and carry that person to a certain line and come back, and the first person back wins. But if you mess up or do it improperly to the point that you would injure the victim, you have to start all over again, so just make it fun, engaging, a little more (unintelligible). Engage the youth with stuff they’re interested in. Competition motivates a lot of people; that usually helps. Another thing, start younger. People think you have to start at you know, 12, 13, 14. It’s fine to start at 8. FEMA proved that with the step program. It’s really a great program. I’m actually getting ready to do some STEP instructing in southern Indiana. It’s a fourth or fifth grader program - class. It’s an hour long, and it just gets them thinking about emergency preparedness, and then when they go home and go look, mom, I’ve got a backpack full of emergency blanket and a flashlight and cool stuff, it gets the entire family thinking, and you’re reaching more people that way. (Unintelligible) one little kid gets something in their head, it’s stuck there for quite some time. And so when you stick emergency preparedness in there, it’s going to be stuck there for a while, and they’re going to let everyone they see, everyone they come across, know all about it. And it’s a really good way to access more people, even to access those 12, 13, 14 year olds, if they have their little sister, little brother nagging them about it. Then maybe they’ll get involved themselves. (Rich Serino): Great. Thank you. Woman: I just want to add, kind of add to what you say, just saying, to make sure that we don’t exclude the older generation. I think a lot of the support from parents - I know I am a parent of integral (unintelligible) alone, and I have a lot to do. I have a lot to think with making sure that she knew that it existed. I have small kids who have no means to get to some of the activities, so the parents, and a lot of you would think about it, your grandparents. Grandma, granddad, you know, they have a lot of influence. And make sure that they get the information as well. (Jacqueline Keller): (Jacqueline Keller) here, again. We also - it hasn’t been mentioned yet, but through the last four integral feeds we already have in place what we call cappers, which is the (unintelligible) ambassador program, in which specific members on each team go out into the various communities, go there via high schools, colleges that are nearby, and other business (unintelligible) affairs (unintelligible) will actually give presentations to the students. And now in (unintelligible) we also (unintelligible), you know, now we have the pictures to go with people who are (unintelligible) and the individuals to back that up. And then also on another note there are so many youth organizations already in place, be it you know, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Club, they’re kind of premade, already there for us just to (unintelligible), talk to kids, as young as possible and get the other emergency management mentality and even just sort of looking out for your community both at a local level and at a national and global level. (Rich Serino): Great, thank you, those are great things. A couple on Twitter, one from - let’s see, (unintelligible). Talking with churches would be beneficial too, as many of you found in New Orleans and Alabama this summer, and as we know from many (unintelligible) this before (unintelligible) stories is the most powerful recruitment tool. I think it’s probably the best thing you can do, and how actually to do that. And so I thank you for those and please keep those ideas and suggestions coming. (McKenzie), are you still on the phone? (McKenzie Kelley): I am, yes. (Rich Serino): Somebody who wanted to start a team (unintelligible) program and they wanted to go about doing that, what’s the kind of top like three things that you’d say you need to do, and then if you had them, you know, maybe the two or three pitfalls that - to avoid? (McKenzie Kelley): Pitfalls to avoid? I would definitely do research. I spent quite a bit of time looking at other programs that were successful. I talked to a lot of different people that were involved already in youth preparedness programs. I even was able to attend a youth preparedness workshop that you all put together locally in my area. So I was exposed to a lot of individuals who could do it. So you want to make sure that you have support as well, so reach out to the people that already have programs and ask them what they did to get started and some of the things that you can avoid as far as getting started. And then also make sure that you invite everybody to the planning table. The whole community has a wealth of information available to you, and resources in order to get your program started. Bringing them to the table and letting them know what you’re trying to accomplish will help you make a more successful program. (Jeannie Moran): Hey, (Rich), this is (Jeannie Moran), if I can chime in if you don’t mind. (Rich Serino): Sure, go ahead. (Unintelligible). (Jeannie Moran): One of the things that I also just wanted to sort of piggyback from (McKenzie), and first of all I did a little bit of a happy dance in hearing that (McKenzie) was doing youth preparedness workshop, and turned this into something so great. For those who are looking to do the step program or the teen serve program or possibly even throughout the next year any of some of the other programs that are out there, one of the things that we’re planning to offer through FEMA, we already do this for STEP, and we’ll be in the next couple of weeks announcing that we’re going to print the materials for the STEP and teen cert programs. So those who are looking, I know that a lot of times in that first year, that initial cost is really just about printing, so that’s one resource to sort of incentivize you to connect with us when it comes to youth preparedness programs, so just wanted to throw that out there since the conversation went that direction. (Rich Serino): Great. Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Just want to throw it open to any comments that anybody has about anything involving youth getting involved in emergency preparedness, youth getting involved in disaster work, and ways that we can motivate improving what we do. Obviously if people are in this room, they’ve been already taking that first step on, so thank you all for that. But how do we continue that? Before we close this I would love to see - several minutes left, so comments (unintelligible), from (Jason)’s (unintelligible)? (Shana Koridi): Hi, my name is (Shana Koridi), and I’m (Jason)’s mom, and we’re both set in Indiana, and as (Jason) mentioned, we were sort of hit with an F4 tornado, and I think the greatest way that you can engage youth or any community is focus on the community (unintelligible) faster, because they have open ears. They are ready to listen because they’re going through that half the time, so they’re going to be your voices on helping prepare for future disasters, so we use that for people engaged in present disasters in a positive way, because they’re going through negative times, and to use them in a positive way to reach out to the schools at that time. Like I was telling (Jason), if you reached out to the (unintelligible) high school, just got recently rebuilt and those kids are back in school, if you reach out to those communities that are suffering, they’re going to go home and do a preparedness kit or get a step program going. They’re just so ready to do these things because they know that they can make a difference in their lives. If you focus on - and it’s not just Indiana. There’s - I mean, so many natural disasters all over the - you know, United States, but we need to focus on those areas and get those people involved, those citizens involved, and in a positive attribute of getting life back to normal. (Rich Serino): Thank you, appreciate it. Woman: I just wanted to say that you’re definitely right, because I’m from Joplin, Missouri, and there’s an F5 tornado that struck my hometown, and the way I heard about AmeriCorps was through them coming to my high school, so I just want to say that that is definitely a good way. (Rich Serino): Great, so I think it’s part of this like looking (unintelligible) high schools and colleges as well as (unintelligible). (Jason Reed): A possibility could be, I know we need to plan a service project, and someone had mentioned (unintelligible) to partner up with Boys and Girls Clubs, or Boy Scouts or something and involve youth with doing the same work as us, so also in addition to telling them my own experiences, they have their own experiences working with us and seeing what we do, and they can take that to their friends and their communities, so they can be (unintelligible) recruiting for us. (Rich Serino): That’s a great, great point, I think as people are mentioning, and you’re look at you know, where are you going to be? You will notice (unintelligible) to the FEMA corps members. Where are you going to be? You’re going to be in communities just struck by disaster, and they’ll follow up on points that if you take time when you’re not directly helping survivors just to maybe, you know, visit the area, high schools, area colleges and universities, as well, to reach out. So I think those are some great ideas, and one of the questions as well, get more schools and teachers involved, right to the point. I think that’s what we need to do, and one of the comments earlier on Twitter was, you know, to involve youth in the beginning. I agree with that. You know, it’s so much more in how we need to get youth involved from the beginning. We’re coming near the end of the time here, so as we wrap up, you know, today, I just want to thank everybody who took the time to present both here in the room and also those that have - people that are on the phone, and it was good to hear from MKelley007 not that I can (unintelligible). And you know, a lot of the - taking the opportunities, here, a lot of the ideas, and also could Vicksburg, Mississippi and CCC and CNCS and the folks here in Vicksburg, (unintelligible) campus, which is great. This morning, it was me, you know, one of the better - best of that (unintelligible) had the opportunity to attend, and as they showed the FEMA corps members the slide, I’m really looking forward to seeing you all in the field, or as they say down here, (unintelligible). Let’s see, all out in the field, so the conversation had to be here, the think tank has a monthly call as we do, but again, you can go online and continue this on an online forum, at www.fema.gov/femathinktank. I encourage you to everybody continue to post their ideas. The next call will take place on Tuesday October 30th at 3:15 to 5:00pm eastern time, and the theme of the call will be looking back, looking forward. We’re upgrading to FEMA think tank 2.0, so you’re looking at sort of maybe revamping, changing this, updating it, it’s been a year, and look at how we can improve doing this, and you know, specifically on this call, for a lot of people involved in the youth and youth, it helps obviously (unintelligible) it would be really great to hear your ideas of how we can continue to get more people involved, continue to stay in the think tank idea, and really appreciate that. So again, www.fema.gov/thinktank. I look forward to hearing from you and at the October think tank in (unintelligible), and again thank you all. Goodbye. Thanks, operator.