Newport Beach CERT News

Press release from the City of Newport Beach:

Newport Beach CERT volunteers,

We hope that you are all doing well, staying safe and doing your best to get through this challenging time. All active Newport Beach CERT volunteers should have received our annual CERT letter in their mailbox. You may have not received the letter if your address changed and you have not updated your new address in our online CERT Volunteer Management system. If you did not receive our annual CERT letter and think that you are still an active Newport Beach CERT volunteer, please email nbcert@nbfd.net.

The annual CERT letter reviewed some of our upcoming events and training's. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we will hold all of our training's and meetings via zoom, until it is safe to resume holding them in person. In terms of upcoming events, the next CERT “All Hands” meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 17th at 6:00 pm, via zoom. We are excited to have Newport Beach Fire Captain Cameron Hutzler and his crew present on their recent deployments to battle two wild land fires. If you would like to participate in the CERT “All Hands” meeting on November 17th, please register through the CERT Volunteer Management System.

For 2021, we will hold the 13th annual State of CERT awards banquet on Wednesday, January 27 at 6:00 pm, via zoom. We will also hold the 2021 CERT mandatory re-certification classes via zoom or until it is safe to hold them in person. As indicated in the CERT annual letter, there are 8 scheduled CERT mandatory re-certification classes scheduled in 2021 with the first one in February and the last one in June. In order to remain an active Newport Beach CERT volunteer, you must log into the CERT Volunteer Management system, update your information and enroll in one of the mandatory-re-certification classes. You then must attend (via zoom, until we are able to hold them in-person) the mandatory class that you enrolled. All Newport Beach CERT volunteers that would like to remain active must log into the CERT Volunteer Management system. Your CERT annual letter indicates the date of your last log-in. If you have forgotten your username and password, please email nbcert@nbfd.net.

Please remember to enter all of your CERT volunteer hours through the CERT Volunteer Management system by the end of the year. Please enter volunteer hours for everything that you have done to better prepare yourself, neighborhood and community. If you have questions about what you should enter or difficulty with entering your hours, please email nbcert@nbfd.net.

We have also set our spring 2021 CERT program schedule with a Thursday day program and a Saturday program that both begin in late February. Based on the success of the fall 2020 CERT program and in an effort to continue to hold the program as safely as possible, we will hold both spring 2021 CERT programs utilizing the FEMA/CAL OES approved onlineCERT.org training program in conjunction with Newport Beach based zoom training's with the in person “hands-on” portion scheduled when safe to do so. If you have any friends, family or neighbors that are interested in CERT training, please encourage them to enroll in one of the spring 2021 CERT programs.

We look forward to seeing you all (via zoom) for our CERT “All Hands” meeting next month and for our 13th annual State of CERT Awards Banquet in January. Although holding these events via zoom is not ideal, we hope that it will allow all of you to participate safely from the comforts of your home. Please log-into the CERT Volunteer Management System, update your information, register for CERT training's and enter all of our volunteer hours for 2020. If you have any issues, questions or concerns, please email nbcert@nbfd.net. Stay safe.

This press release was produced by the City of Newport Beach. The views expressed here are the author’s own.