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	THE RUN AWAY TEAM *Frank Lucier, Editor* I got home from work the other day and my wife was reading the latest copy of NERTnews, a newsletter of the San Francisco Fire Department’s NERT program. She looked up at me and said, “you should be very proud of what these people have accomplished”, and I am! Having been the original program coordinator of the program, I have seen many changes. Since I retired from the Fire Department I have seen my replacement, my replacements-replacement, my replacements-replacements-replacement, and now my replacements-replacements-replacements-replacement bring their personal skill set to the program and make it grow.
But what has really made the NERT program a success is the commitment of the people who are trained then go on to become involved in the program. Training people is one thing, and the easiest part of CERT. Retaining people and keeping them involved is another thing and not always easy to accomplish. In the aftermath of 9/11, I think it is time we re-think how we get people involved.
I was program coordinator of the NERT program for eight years and in those years all, and I do mean all, of the best ideas for involvement and retainment were developed by the NERTs themselves. At times I felt like a stagecoach driver with a run away team of horses, I could direct them somewhat but I knew that they would keep running and pulling me along with them. And they did keep running, pulling me along with the fire department, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the twenty-first century.
The original NERT class was held in response to the community demand for the program following the Loma Prieta earthquake. After the first class the NERTs were off and running and I was in for the ride of my life. Why don’t we have a NERT Advisory Committee to assist the fire department in recruiting and implementation? How about a Coordinators Committee so that neighborhood coordinators could gather and share information? What about having a newsletter so NERTs could stay informed? How about a NERT database, a web site, a neighborhood drill, a HAM network, ICS forms, NERT pocket information card, A NERT non-profit organization, NERT ID cards……… They didn’t just pose these questions, they came with solutions and took ownership for their ideas and brought them to fruition. If you want to keep people involved you have to give them ownership for what they are doing.
	At first I was a little reluctant to give these people the freedom that ownership brings, and my superiors were more than a bit skeptical. But being a one-person operation, which is not unusual for CERT program coordinators, I soon realized that it was almost impossible to keep up with the workload of daily operations, let alone incorporate all the new duties that these good ideas the NERTs were presenting would entail. The solution seemed simple, if they wanted these new ideas incorporated in the NERT program they would have to do it themselves. And they did!
Things have changed substantially since my days as program coordinator. Homeland Security, Citizens Corp and the Presidents call to train 400,000 people in CERT over the next two years will require new and innovative ideas to make it work. CERT skills training should be but the first step for people who are joining a national CERT organization. During World War II, the Civil Defense program had organization charts at the national, state and local level for emergency management that showed where trained volunteers fit into the organization. I have a copy of the San Francisco emergency management organization chart from 1941 that show block wardens, a volunteer position, as part of operations along with police, fire, medical and public works. Why not CERT? Have we really given any thought to where CERTs fit into our disaster response? Have we really considered them as the valuable resource that they really are? CERT should be included in all emergency management org charts from the national level down to the local level. Representatives from CERT programs should be part of any emergency management planning processes. The time is right to incorporate their ideas and perspectives into our concept of emergency management. If we do not do this, I fear that we will be just going through the motions, training individual volunteers in disaster skills, but not giving them ownership for what they are doing. It’s time we let them run and pull us, as a nation, closer to true community disaster preparedness.

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