EDITORS:

MARY FISCHER

SHEILA HALL

TERRY SWANSON

December 2007

LEARNING MORE ABOUT OUR TEAM MEMBERS

JAMES F. OFFRINK

Jim Offrink is Pastor of the Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Flint, Michigan. He ministers to a merged multi-racial and multi-cultural congregation which is currently building a new structure. He is also the on-call Crisis Coordinator with the Incident Management Team, Inc. in Novi, Michigan.

Jim received his Bachelors degree in Sociology from Michigan State University, before earning his Masters degree in Divinity from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California. Since that time, Jim has participated in a vast array of continuing education courses. He is a certified firefighter and advanced firefighter instructor, as well as a former Illinois Certified EMT. Jim has had extensive training in Hazardous Materials and other firefighter related courses. He is also a Certified Chaplain with an advanced education in Critical Incident Debriefing, Critical Stress Management, and Pastoral Crisis Intervention.

Jim is an active member within his profession and his community: he is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress; the Chaplain Commander of the Fire and Police Departments for the city of Flint, Michigan; a member of the NAACP; member and two term president of the Greater Flint Council of Churches; president of the Greater Genesee Valley Critical Incident Stress Management Team; a member of the Genesee County - Weapons of Mass Destruction Advisory Committee; a voting member of the Institutional Review Board of McLaren Regional Hospital; and a consultant to the Genesee County Emergency Management Department and County Public Health Department.

Jim joined DMORT in 2002 as a mental health/stress manager. His deployments include: working with the FEMA Logistics Center in Fort Gillem, GA following Hurricanes

Charlie through Ivan in 2004; working in the morgue in Mississippi as a Safety Officer, Tracker, and Stress Manager; and as a Mental Health Specialist and Stress Manager in Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Jim is recipient of the Commander’s Award for

Meritorious Service to DMORT V, and has received Citations for Service to DMORT-FEMA in 2004 and 2005. In 2007, Jim was appointed to the position of Chaplain for our Region V team.

Jim currently resides in Flint, Michigan. When he finds time for leisure activities, Jim enjoys visiting with the Flint City Police and Firefighters. He also escapes the church pastorate on a moments notice to do stress management in situations where help is needed. Jim truly enjoys the outdoors and has become very familiar with smaller wilderness areas in many states. Hunting, hiking, horseback travel, fishing, boating, and wilderness survival are some of his favorite activities. Over the past several years, Jim has been has been re-involved in woodworking - especially Shaker style furniture. He is also working on his 1954 Jeep engine and has almost completed the restoration of his 1968 Airstream trailer. Jim also likes to collect and refurbish old hand tools, boasting a collection of over 50 different types of specialty hammers.

All in all, Jim certainly is a “mental” boost to our Region V team!

DISTINGUISHED MEMBER AWARD ("Volunteer of the Year") NOMINATIONS

NDMS has once more requested that we send them the name of Region V's
nominee for the Distinguished Member Award so that he or she may be honored
at the 2008 NDMS meeting in Nashville.

This is, of course, a difficult task at any time because we have so many
truly outstanding team members in Region V.

Please send me the name of your candidate by January 5 so that we can then
narrow the field and conduct an election (by January 15) that will produce
just one nominee to be forwarded to NDMS.

Previous Award winners (Julie Saul, Bob Shank Jr., Don Bloom, Brad Targhetta,
Sue Atwood, Robert [Bubba] Stevens, Mike Gedert, Mary Fischer, Dave Hunt and
Leslie Eisenberg) are not eligible.  (I am not eligible because I say so.)

DO NOT REPLY ON THIS MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE MEMBERSHIP

E-mail your nomination to me at:
saul@dmort.org <mailto:saul@dmort.org>

Please send your candidate's NAME ONLY (no text or other commentary) and
"sign" your full name.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS WITHOUT VARIATION

Thank you for your cooperation.

Frank

Dr Frank P Saul (PhD, DABFA)
Regional Commander
DMORT V
National Disaster Medical System
OASPR/OPEO
US DHHS

saul@dmort.org

TRAINING REMINDERS

Online Training:

If you have not completed the IS 100, 200, 700 and 800 courses, please do so immediately. You can access these courses at http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIweb/IS/. Once you have completed the course and taken the final exam, send a copy of your certificates to Sue at susan.atwood@hhs.gov. Please note: these courses are a REQUIREMENT by HHS and your future deployments and paid trainings will be negatively impacted by your non-compliance.

National Training Summit 2008:

Mark your calendars. The NDMS National Training Summit, formally known as the NDMS National Conference, will be held March 15-19, 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee. March 15th and 16th have been reserved for the National DMORT training. You will be alerted via e-mail with all updates regarding registration, reservations, and any additional instructions once this information becomes available. It is unknown at this time how restricted each team will be to the total number of members that can attend. It is imperative that you inform Sue of your e-mail changes so that you are able to receive all updates and notifications. The website for the Summit is: http://ndms.chepinc.org/#.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns regarding training.

Have a safe and happy holiday,

Jan Simons, TO

jan@dmort.org

CONDOLENCES

Region V would like to express their sincere condolences to Todd and Sabrina Grisier on the passing of their daughter, Chelsey, on December 18, 2007 after bravely battling a long illness. Todd was a valued member of DMORT V until the FAC Team became a freestanding team. He is currently a member of the FAC Team. Please keep Chelsey and Todd's family in your prayers this holiday season.

Region V team members also express their sympathy to Jim Adams - on the passing of his mother on November 20, 2007.

The Region V Leadership Team and the “Voice of V” Newsletter Editors wish everyone a safe and happy Holiday Season.