City Wide Drill as Networking Opportunity

I participated in the City Wide Drill on April 22nd. The City Wide Drill is a disaster preparedness drill sponsored by the Fire Department and utilizing the NERT squads. NERT stands for Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams and we NERTs are trained by the Fire Department.

We all know that when disaster strikes, the Fire Department will be overwhelmed and we are going to have to help ourselves. We live in earthquake country. It's a question of when, how soon, not if.

I like these drills. I always learn something and I always meet interesting people. And we have self-sorted. We are all interested in helping ourselves and our community. We believe in being prepared. We are willing to commit a certain amount of time and energy to learning and participating in activities that contribute to the greater good.

I ran into two people I hadn't seen in a while. One is a woman I see when I facilitate labyrinth walks at Grace Cathedral. And one is someone I met at a previous drill. And I met some folks I did not know.

I'm going to get more involved. I want to learn how to use a Ham radio -- you know that a lot of the language of the Internet, with handles and codes, comes from the Ham radio world. I want to learn more about setting up the command centers. So, I have a new node in my network and I'm going to pursue this connection. And what makes this so powerful is that it isn't about me, it's not about selling, it's about something other than myself.

My suggestion to you is: "Get out there. Do something. Participate in some community activity." It's up to you what that will be and what you can commit to. But it's fun, it's an opportunity to move in different worlds, and it's good for more than just the individual. Find your City Wide Drills and your NERT groups. Join them.