January 29, 2015 meeting notes
The meeting was called to order at 7am by President Tom Whitfield. There were 18 members, 2 guests and 2 speakers present.
Our speakers were Debby Dotson and Chief Holloway from Spokane County Fire District 3. The district covers almost 560 square miles in southwest Spokane county. Within the district are many commercial businesses, farming, several large lakes and portions of Interstate 90 and State Route 195. District resources include about 7 full time staff, 120 volunteers, 10 stations and about 45 vehicles. They respond to over 1,350 calls a year; about 80% are emergency medical calls. To help contain costs, the district buys vehicle chassis and builds their own vehicles; they have also built 9 of their stations (for about the price of 6 commercially built stations). Stations are typically equipped with 1 command vehicle, 1 pumper tender and 1 emergency medical vehicle. Members asked how firefighting is coordinated between county districts and with DNR. Chief Holloway explained that DNR has responsibility for treed land and provides air and heavy equipment for firefighting. Both District 3 and DNR respond when appropriate and set up a unified command. The county fire districts have one dispatch center and one person is placed in charge of all county resources; the districts do not charge each other for their assistance.
The meeting was adjourned at 8 am.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
January 22, 2015 meeting notes
The meeting was called to order at 7am by President Tom Whitfield. We had 17 members, three speakers and one guest attending.
Fred won the 50/50 drawing.
Margie reminded us that there is one more week for the membership drive.
Tom announced that there will be a membership campaign to try to get interest in reviving the EWU Circle K Club. The goal is to get the club started in spring quarter.
Our main presentation was by an instructor and a student from Moody Aviation. It has existed since 1946, is the largest training program in the world for missionary pilots and since 2005 about 50% of the pilots are trained in Spokane at Felts Field. They offer a 5 year program with religious study the first year, then 2 years for airframe and power plant maintenance and 2 years of pilot training. Graduates receive a 4 year Bachelor of Science degree, have FAA certifications for airframe and power plant maintenance and have private and commercial pilot's licenses. It is a strenuous program: the student who spoke is in his final term; he began in a class of 40 and only 4 are still in the program. The cost to students is just over $100,000; there is some financial assistance available.
Carol Kreigh from Feed Cheney spoke about their "Souper Bowl of Caring" fundraiser. Feed Cheney needs about $500 a month to operate; they feed an average of 130 people on the last Monday of each month and give out food to about 65 families.
The meeting was adjourned at 8 am.
January 15, 2015
The meeting was called to order at 7am by President Tom Whitfield. We had 19 members plus one guest.
John won the 50/50 and donated it to Feed Cheney.
Three new members were presented to the club and spoke briefly about themselves and their interests.
Margie reported that the membership campaign will continue through January and the prize drawing will be on the 1st Thursday in February. Whenever a member brings a guest, that member gets one entry into the drawing; prize is one-half of one year's dues.
At the January board meeting it was decided that the 1st quarter 2015 'quarter cup' donations will go to Cheney Outreach.
Fred announced that this Wednesday at 5:30 the Cheney HS FBLA will have social media/networking training available to community members.
Our speaker was Rande Lindner, who presented information on Civil Air Patrol. He explained that CAP has 3 primary functions: search and rescue, emergency services and cadet leadership training. It is for high school age students, is an auxillary of the Air Force and owns about 1000 aircraft nationwide. He explained that search and rescue activity is down due to cell phones and emergency beacons. When search and rescue happens, the county sheriff has ground control, the state aeronautics board runs the air search and the local fire districts provide medical care support when a rescue occurs. Emergency services include making sandbags when flooding is expected. He showed slides of some past airplane crash searches he participated in and we could see how hard it is to spot a crash from the air.
The meeting was adjourned at 8am.
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