Minutes for the AAEM Legislative Trip Meeting

November 5, 2008 @ 1:00 pm in Clanton

Attendees: Max Armstrong, Sandra Lucas, Sonny Brasfield and Mike Evans

The meeting began promptly at 1:00 pm with some general discussion about last year’s trip and Max gave us an overview of the trip last year. Sandra suggested that as we start making the schedule that it is important that we talk to the scheduler for the representative and not necessarily one of their other assistants. She stated that setting up the meeting with the scheduler was the key to getting in to see representative. Sonny suggested that if we could get an EMA person from that representative’s district to call and schedule the meeting they might be more receptive than if someone outside of their district called to schedule.

Sonny also extended and invitation to our group for Wednesday morning March 11 to attend the NACO Breakfast where we could eat with all of the elected representatives from Alabama. We would need to let sonny know the head count from our group if we plan to attend.

1. The first topic of discussion was in regards to the possible dates for the AAEM legislative trip. We discussed the dates of the NEMA Conference being March 6-10 and the NACO conference being March 7-11.

We determined that the dates for the AAEM Legislative Trip will be:

March 8 thru March 12

· Sunday March 8 – Travel to DC

· Monday March 9 – Determine who to meet with (FEMA, NWS, DHS, etc.)

· Tuesday March 10 – Meet with Legislators

· Wednesday March 11 – Meet with Legislators

· Thursday March 12 – Travel home

Sandra explained to us that Tuesday and Wednesday would be the best days to schedule meetings with our representatives. She explained Mondays are tough depending on their travel schedules and that most of them go home on weekends and will use Monday to meet in their districts. We also discussed that all AAEM personnel on the trip would meet at a time to be determined on Monday to go over any last minutes changes. We also need to determine what other agencies we want to meet with on Monday; NWS, FEMA, DHS, PSC or any other agency or organization. We talked about the other conferences and that we needed to get a copy of their schedules so we would have visibility to schedule meetings when Sonny and Brock would be available. Scheduling will be paramount because we want Brock as involved as much as possible without interrupting the events he needs to attend at the NEMA conference.

2. The second topic of discussion was regarding who would attend the trip and Mike Evans outlined the individuals that Ellen had in the notes from the Board meeting in October which discussed the following attending the trip:

· AAEM President , President-Elect, Chair & Vice Chair of Legislative Committee

· 4 Boards members designated by vote of the board

· There could be some other EMA reps if their agency could pay for the travel

· Brock and Sonny will be there and that Sandra would attend as well

3. The third topic was regarding the Hotel arrangements and the costs and locations of hotels in that area. Mike Evans referred to some information that Ellen forwarded me from October where Brock was willing to help with the costs; however we needed to find a hotel with more reasonable rates than last year. Sandra stated that she could help us figure out where to stay based on her knowledge from residing in that area. Sandra said that the hotels in the Crystal River area are close to the metro and have reasonable rates and that the area is nice and that is one potential option. We also talked about which airport to use and that if everyone flew into Reagan National you could take the metro to the hotel and use the metro for all of the other traveling. A ticket covering the entire trip to use the Metro could be purchased for about $10 to $15.

4. The fourth topic was the ACCA Conference Legislative Presentations in December. Sonny told us that the main audience in this meeting would be EMA personnel and that Brock will give an overall update from the state perspective, Max and Mike will focus on the Legislative trip for our portion and Ellen will give the President’s update.

Tasks to be completed from the meeting:

Mike & Max

· Set date and time for the legislative committee meeting

· Start making preliminary arrangements for he trip

· Start scheduling the meetings with the representatives

· Start developing the Talking Points

Sandra

· Work with Brock regarding a committed amount of monetary support with the hotel rooms

· Work with the legislative committee on the Talking Points with Brocks input