The challenge for CERT program staff is that the basic training course itself is not the program. The additional work to develop and maintain a program is the oncoming train most of us face as soon as we start to offer the basic course. And let’s face it, that course also represents the initial investment in CERT volunteers that could evaporate fairly quickly. Once participants have completed their basic training, they tend to need other kinds of assistance to stay actively involved. Addressing those needs makes up most of the day-to-day work we all have to do to maintain the volunteers, and ultimately, to build the program.

Let’s say we've connected with a critical mass of citizens. A critical mass means enough people to provide useful feedback during the initial round of training, to help spread the word among their friends and acquaintances, and to impress "the powers that be" that the community is interested in CERT training. The experience of most CERT program coordinators is that it’s not too hard to get that critical mass, but what does it the take to develop, maintain and grow a program?

The answers to that question probably vary with every CERT program, but there are some basic, elements of program management that seem to be critical for all us.

Keeping Track of all the Volunteers

Most of us have some kind of program newsletter to keep CERT members informed of upcoming events and what teams around town are doing. The newsletter is an important tool for maintaining and building the program. I f you offer drills, refresher classes, and other events of interest to program participants, a newsletter can also be an economical alternative to all the individual flyers and announcements you'd otherwise send out. What a newsletter can not provide, however, is a timely response to day-to-day questions and concerns of team members. The fact is, the really active program participants, the folks who recruit new trainees and work on getting their team organized–need really active attention.

Most CERT program coordinators would probably tell you that the volume of phone calls from active volunteers is something of a dilemma: We wouldn't want to eliminate these calls, even if we could; however, it's hard to return the calls in a timely manner. There is no solution outside of adding and training more staff, but there is a simple practice that can help with the dilemma: pre-printed "tip sheets" that can be mailed to callers rather than spending a lot of time on the phone. A hard copy version of the information also provides them with an easy way to pass this information along to other members of their team. Some examples of "tip sheets" that provide quick response to typical phone call inquiries are:

Some staff believe that overall CERT program quality is most affected by the quality of the trainers. All of us would probably put great trainers among our top priorities. On a day-today basis, how do we maintain and build the corps of trainers? Here are some of the ideas from programs around the country:

"We try to provide formal recognition of the trainers by the program participants, and by the trainers peers and supervisors. For the trainers, this recognition seems to be as much of a motivation as the pay they receive."