We had a great meeting tonight! There were 52 attendees, including representation from the Multnomah County Office of Emergency Management (MCEM) and the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM). We had five new people with us this evening.
The meeting was started off by our EC, Nathan N9VCU, who covered general business and announcements, and then presented certificates to two members who recently completed their ARRO certification. Michael AE7XP made an announcement about the NET Net, which is held at 20:10 every Sunday night on the ARRG 147.040 MHz (100.0 Hz tone) repeater – this is MC6 in the regional frequency template.
Chris Voss and Alice Busch from MCEM addressed the membership, thanking us for our service, and presented certificates of appreciation to the volunteers who helped with the Eagle Creek fire response. Mark McKay, also from MCEM, presented certificates of appreciation to those who helped with communications in Grant County during the solar eclipse in August.
A panel of six folks – three ARES volunteers, two Multnomah County employees, and one City of Portland employee – talked about their experience in Grant County during the eclipse. They had some very interesting stories about the technical and logistical challenges they encountered, and lessons learned.