General Meeting Minutes
Date: Sept. 24, 2015
Venue: St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church
Attendance: Ruth Talford, President, Red Cross; Dan Christopulos, Secretary, IOCC; Dennis Walter,
HSEM MNVOAD Liaison; Tom Anderson, LDS; Judy Rue, Salvation Army; Kim Dettmer, LSS; Dan
Frank, Initiative Foundation; Katie Halladay FEMA Region V (phone); Chelsey Christ, Intern; Julie
Anderson, presenter, MEMA; Marty Forseth, EMS/Public Health/BART; Bob Rexeisen, MNARES;
Marie Putnam, Salvation Army (phone); PJ Doyle, Red Cross (phone), Andrea Perez, Hennepin County
(phone); Patrick Woletsko, Otter Tail County (phone); Ashley Emory, Headwaters; Dave Korus, Team
Rubicon; Ann Foster, MNARES; Mark McGilvry (phone), NECHAMA; Paul Oby, MNARES; Ed Olson,
Min-Wis. Baptists Convention.
Welcomed and Introductions – President Ruth Talford called the meeting to order at 6:01 pm and asked
those present and on the telephone to introduce themselves. The attendance is recorded above. She then
introduced our guest speaker, Julie Anderson from MEMA.
Guest Speaker: Julie Anderson Julie.anderson@state.mn.us gave a presentation on social media,
some of the different channels available and how to best utilize them.
Facebook: 31% of seniors and 66% of millennials (15 – 34) still use Facebook.
People in social media love pictures. NECHAMA has 2,500 “Likes” on a post that was posted 5 hours
ago. To increase visibility you need to “like” others. This is the key. You should go on and “like”
others so that they will like you back.
Twitter: To stay up on what is happening use Twitter. Use it immediately for it to be effective.
Hashtags are the #. You can search by hashtag. This is good for events. The beauty of Twitter is to find
out what the people are saying. A lot of reporters have their twitter handle available. Whoever you would
like to cover you, follow them on twitter.
Lawmakers also love twitter. You can google lawmakers on twitter. If you follow them, they will follow
you. And, they will retweet what you send.
For further questions you may contact Julie at the email listed above.
Approval of Minutes and Treasurer’s Report
Ann Foster motioned and Dan Frank seconded to approve the minutes; PASSED
Dan Frank gave the Treasurer’s report on behalf of Cheryl Vennestrom
Tom Anderson motioned and Ann Foster seconded to approve the treasurer’s report; PASSED
MNVOAD Committee Reports
Conference Committee – Judy Rue, Chair (kb0tdk@visi.com or 763-427-0822) reported that the
committee met on Sept. 8 and filled most of their org. chart. They had a good discussion about timeline
and what we need to do, but most of the major things like speakers, large donors must be approved by
NVOAD. Please forward any suggestions to Judy. The official conference dates are May 22 – 25, 2016.
The first day is for committee meeting and the full conference gets underway with the opening luncheon
on May 23. We are also looking for items for the silent auction that are Minnesota unique. There was
also discussion about what types of activities to offer. Many of these things would need to be within
walking distance.
Membership Committee – Chaired by Marie Putnam, (mlputnam@peoplepc.com) who reported that they
met in August and discussed about criteria for membership and how to reach out to possible members.
They also worked on a one page letter/talking points about MNVOAD. They also worked on basic
recruiting strategies and drafted letters about reaching out to others.
Communications Committee – Liza Brazelton is chair (lizasmf@gmail.com) Andrea from Hennepin
County gave the report that she and Liza met yesterday. The looked at the MNVOAD website, and if they
are going to upgrade, they want to do it by the end of October. They also talked about how to integrate
the NVOAD conference into our website. They would like to start a Twitter account and might look at a
YouTube channel mostly about the conference. They want to work more closely with the Membership
Committee to see how they can drive traffic to the website.
Policies and Procedures Committee – Dan Christopulos (Dchristopulos@iocc.org) reported that the
committee has met Sept. 10 and started their work by:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Finding the clause of dissolution in the MNVOAD articles of incorporation;
Drafting a Whistleblower policy;
Drafting a Conflict of Interest policy;
Reviewing a SEOC Liaison checklist.
He thanked the committee members Cheryl Vennestrom, Steve Barenbaum, PJ Doyle, Ruth Talford, and
Rick Sutphen (who undertook the initial drafting of the documents). Once these drafts are finalized they
will be recommended to the Board for adoption. The next task will be to delineate the roles and
responsibilities of the MNVOAD officers.
Nominating Committee – Tom Anderson is the chair (Tomandkaty@mac.com) and reported that they are
working with the Membership Committee to help try and identify new Board members. Specifically, we
are in need of a Vice President and maybe a President. If we know of anyone who could be of assistance
on our Board please let Tom know.
Finance Committee – Cheryl Vennestrom (cherylv@orionassoc.net) is the chair for this committee and
Dan Frank reported on the meeting that they had. They are looking at the format of the financial report
and might tweak it; they are currently using Quickbooks. They need to know when the budget is due for
next year.
MNVOAD Board Report
President Talford gave the report and encouraged new people to continue stepping up to help. She
praised the work of the committees and the fact that new members were volunteering for them. We
welcome more help and are trying to be sensitive that the meetings are worthwhile.
Member Feature & Updates:
Team Rubicon: Dave Korus, a retired police and Air Force officer gave the presentation about one of
the newest members of MNVOAD ( info@teamrubiconusa.org; 310-640-8787). When he retired he
wasn’t sure what he was going to do so he answered a call to be part of Team Rubicon. It is 5 years old
and has 35,000 members world-wide who are typically ex-military or law enforcement. Started by Jacob
Wood, their first deployment was Haiti. Internationally they can do medical, but not in the US. They
have a lot of support from the government and big corporations. Team Rubicon has two rules: “Get
s*** done; Don’t be a d***”. They can be very adaptable. They don’t take government funds. They take
care of First Responders first. They have incident management teams. They are great at documenting.
They have a watch center that is staffed 24 hours. They have a goal to increase to 60,000 members in the
next five years. They also do service projects. They really work to integrate veterans into society.
MN/WI Baptists – Ed reported that the shower unit will be based in St. Paul. They also worked in
Brainerd during the recent storms. They are doing rebuilds in MI. Local Disaster Relief training on Oct.
10 in Coon Rapids. They are going to get a smaller feeding unit that will go to local kitchens. More
information about them can be found at: www.Mwbc.org
LSS – Kim reported that Camp Noah served 865 kids in 23 camps in 8 different states. They have a tristate conference Oct. 29/30 with a possibility of scholarships. A link will be sent.
MN Ares – Paul reported that ARES will be at the Share-Fair on Wed. Sept. 30th. And they are working at
the Twin Cities Marathon on Oct. 4.
IOCC – Dan reported that IOCC had a training in CISM in Chicago in May for their Disaster Frontline
Chaplains. They also deployed a team to San Marcos, TX for Emotional and Spiritual Care and were able
to also deliver 288 clean-up buckets and 300 hygiene kits. Also almost 100 people attended a CISM
training August 25 – 28 at St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church that was sponsored by KLOVE radio
ministries.
Red Cross – Ruth reported that it was a busy summer with a lot of Minnesotans deployed outside of
Minnesota. They also responded to the Brainerd Lakes straight winds. They also have been doing a lot
of fires response and are doing a nationwide smoke alarm project and have thousands of free smoke
alarms that they can replace. In Minnesota there will be at least a dozen events. If you are interested in
participating let Ruth know because they like to do them as multi-agency events. They are having their
North Star institute in two weeks.
Next meeting: Tentatively at 6:00 pm in St. Paul on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015
The meeting adjourned at 7:57 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Dan Christopulos
MN VOAD Secretary