2023-2024 NET Program Realignment: Difference between revisions

Hello! Jeremy Van Keuren here This page is composed in the [[wikipedia:First-person_narrative|first person]] so I can type and edit faster.

== Summary ==

* Address the fall-off of meeting attendance at routine NET Team Meetings;

* Encourage the growth and development of block-scale neighborhood teams.

Two other important notes about this proposal:  

* The ideas here are reflected in what NETs are already doing and what NETs have asked PBEM to do;

* A [[wikipedia:Gamification|"gamified"]] process of neighborhood preparedness, such as has been done [https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=9094103decb2475885daa0b03ac13496 with the BEECN program];

* Development of key [[Volunteer Support Functions Introduction and Directory|Volunteer Support Functions (VSFs)]].

<br/>

Since NET's founding in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqu132vTl5Y 1994], the threat of a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake drove urgency behind disaster preparedness and response programming. That threat remains. But a new fighter has entered the ring: extreme weather events caused by climate change. Extreme weather, such as heat domes and snow storms, have (and will continue to) take lives and result directly in more NET volunteers deployed for more hours.

=== Organizational changes ===

Any organizational restructuring should imply a restructuring of resources as well. Though nothing is set in stone, we should prepare ourselves to have less access to resources in the immediate future, and also prop up the [https://friendsofportlandnet.org/ Friends of Portland NET] for fundraising more if, for no other reason, than a fiscal backstop. [[wikipedia:The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper|We must be ants, not grasshoppers.]] ''However'', few teams are cozy enough with their neighbors to fundraise for their teams, and PBEM/NET needs to encourage a higher level of direct engagement with neighbors at the block-scale level.

=== Revisiting the purpose of a NET ''team'' ===

| [https://kathmandupost.com/national/2022/07/10/locals-are-first-responders-during-disasters-but-they-are-ill-equipped-and-untrained Locals are first responders during disasters but they are ill-equipped and untrained]</ref> PBEM staff have also heard consistently from NETs that they want to connect more with the community on their street/floor/block level, but they don't feel entirely sure how to do that or how to keep those non-NET neighbors engaged.

If we accept that the primary reasons for meeting as a team are earthquake response planning and training/socializing, then we should structure NET to facilitate those activities.

=== A few of the NET program's known issues ===

* '''Team Service Area boundaries are not logical.''' For over 20 years, teams have organized by neighborhood association boundaries. But if we decide that a team's response area is for earthquake response, we cannot expect even a well organized and highly trained group of NETs to take on the area encompassed by even a small neighborhood association. The average Portland neighborhood is 2.5 square miles and has 16,000 people living in it. A robust NET of 30 highly trained volunteers would immediately spread themselves too thin.

* '''NETs want to engage with the neighbors who live around them.''' Related to the Service Area issue, Glenn and I hear consistently from NETs that they want to help get their immediate neighborhoods prepared. That is, the level of the block, the street, or (in the case of apartment/condo buildings) the floor. But PBEM has not provided clear and engaging paths to doing that.

== Program Realignment Proposals ==

I'll take these one at a time...

=== Centralized Deployments ===

=== BEECN ===

'''Nothing changes here''' either, at least for now. BEECN program goes on as it has. BEECN volunteers continue to operate independently of NET.

=== Training Centers ===

This might confuse folks a bit because '''a Training Center is a role for a ''person'', not a place.''' Calling this role a "training center" puts the parlance in line with organizations such as [https://goto.hsi.com/safety-management-software?leadsourcelvl1=MKT+-+Google+Adwords&leadsourcelvl2=EHS+-+US+-+Search&leadsourcelvl3=safety-management-software&kw=safety%20training%20programs&cpn=19753733452&utm_term=safety%20training%20programs&utm_campaign=SMS+-+US+-+Search+-+EHS+Essentials&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=5110386882&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_cam=19753733452&hsa_ad=652468232856&hsa_kw=safety%20training%20programs&hsa_grp=147979472832&hsa_mt=b&hsa_ver=3&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=aud-470099037279:kwd-14027133&gclid=Cj0KCQiAr8eqBhD3ARIsAIe-buNZGM0PqhVO2p1ufMbrJ-BCnt8VdGKCmwYwO1CO7nAVW7AJEIDD7hIaApwrEALw_wcB HSI]. Glenn, for example, is an HSI Training Center.<ref>If you're wondering, HSI is the organization through which PBEM certifies for Stop the Bleed, First Aid, Wilderness First Aid, and a smattering of other stuff.</ref> In that role, he can schedule HSI classes, assign instructors, and certify trainees. It's the same idea here, but for Portland NET. The role would be available to any active NET volunteer in good standing.

# '''A list of NET volunteers who want to be Training Centers:''' Glenn and I would need to put out a formal request for NET volunteers to become Training Centers. Our intention would be to get several, at least, in every geographic segment of Portland (North, Northwest, South/Southwest, Southeast, and East).  

# '''Internal work on MIP signups:''' Glenn would need to program MIP to include this new volunteer role, and we would need an intake process for training events to put them on the calendar.

=== Block-scale earthquake response teams ===

In the presentation, I refer to these as Neighborhood Earthquake Response Frameworks (NERFs), but that only somewhat belabored acronym is proving unpopular. We need to workshop it a little, it seems. But the ideas behind it haven't changed: As the section title implies, this is a curriculum where NET volunteers '''''have the option''''' of organizing their block scale communities.

I'll take this apart step by step:

==== 1.) Team decides on a Team Service Area ====

I've already drafted the policies that would govern how Team Service Area boundaries would be formed; '''you can read them at the [[Team Service Areas]] wiki page.'''

* A contract in place to manage online mapping. We already have a GIS tech in mind, and he's the same person who designed all of [https://pdx-net.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html these NET maps].

* A date on the calendar by which all NETs who plan to develop a block scale earthquake response framework turn in their maps for review by PBEM and publication.

==== 2.) Initial community outreach ====

* Get the Speakers Bureau running, which will allow NETs to request a preparedness instructor for a neighborhood meeting;

* Create a guide on how to hold hybrid meetings for volunteers.

==== 3.) Conduct a Capacity Assessment of the neighborhood ====

* To decide what the content of a Capacity Assessment worksheet is and deciding what planning steps are relevant enough to go on it;

* To design the Capacity Assessment worksheet and guidance for NETs on how to use it.

'''From the Capacity Assessment comes two products:'''

* To design an input system that would extract Capacity Planning data and post it as a dashboard;

* The dashboard, designed similarly to the BEECN dashboard.

==== 4b.) Neighborhood Earthquake Response Frameworks (not NERFs?) ====

* Automate linking Capacity Plans to a Response Framework template (should be easy to do with the software PBEM has access to).

=== A Two Year Cycle ===

I envision this process of Assessment and Planning on a two year cycle. Over the course of two years, a neighborhood assesses, plans, and meets goals. At the end of two years, they re-assess, consider expanding or retracting their Service Area boundaries,<ref>''However'', I do also envision that teams would have the option of changing their Service Area boundaries at any time they choose.</ref> set new goals, and move forward.  

[[File:VSF Badges.jpg|alt=The VSF badges.|thumb|''The VSF badges.'']]

=== How do ATVs and VSFs fit into this plan? ===

* To finalize policies governing ATVs and ATV status;

* Volunteer position descriptions for key VSFs, such as medical response, communications, and search and rescue.

== Timeline ==

* Complete volunteer position descriptions on key VSFs such as comms, medical, etc. so that NETs can assign them to ATVs.

* Complete online surveying tools for Capacity Assessment, Capacity Planning, and response frameworks.

=== Phase 2 (these steps would happen in order) ===

# PBEM calls for interested volunteers to declare themselves as Training Centers.

# PBEM publishes the Training Center directory, and training events are managed through the calendar in MIP.

# PBEM reviews revised Team Service Areas.

# Response Framework dashboard goes live.

=== Phase 3 (these steps would happen concurrently) ===

* Block-scale teams head into their two-year cycle.

* Groups of block-scale teams glom together (as an option) into federations of response teams.

== Q&A from NET Volunteers ==

===== Q: Will there be support for NETs who want to start a NERF but have no other nets in their immediate area? =====

== Notes and References ==