January 10, 1999
Mission Statement:
Educate all of TC through both grassroots and official means as soon
possible as to:
- what the Y2K problem is
- how they can deal with it
- what they can expect from the County in terms of real services
- what the population of TC can do as a community now to limit the distress
from these potential problems.
Present: Hope Bitzer, Carol Bloomgarden, Will Burbank, Steve Calkins, John
Coggins, Christie Cox, Tony Corradino, Paul Glover, Marie Howden, Brenda
Irvin, Fran Littin, Terry Ricklefs, Bob Yavits, Rai Hanna Zaman
Agenda:
1. Approval of Minutes
2. Show & Tell
3. West Danby Fire Dept. & liason(H. Bitzer)
4. Y2K Team (Paul Glover)
5. Second Expo (R. Zaman)
6. Hours Grant (R. Zaman)
7. Schedule Next Meeting
1. Approval of Minutes - December 13th meeting.
H. Bitzer: change "Dryden has 7,000 shelters" to "Dryden has shelter
capacity for 7,000 people". Minutes, with above change, approved unanimously.
2. Show & Tell
P. Glover discussed a cover story in Sunday New York Times which referred
people to the Cassandra project web site. There was also an article in
their Jan. 5 Business Outlook section.
J. Coggins has several video tapes on Y2K. . He will be lending them to
Gene Katz, and other group members may borrow them after Gene sees them.
S. Calkins has an article from the Northeast Regional Cooperative, which
provides important dates to watch for. He also mentioned several Y2K
related problems that he has been aware of since the first of this year.
The U.S. Defense Dept. has re-categorized "critical" systems to be
"non-critical" in order to get a better grade from the government.
H. Bitzer passed out a flyer from the Tompkins County Chapter of the
American Red Cross regarding courses. "It is imperative that people start
taking these courses."
T. Ricklefs has put her paper comparing Y2K with the Titanic on the Web site.
B. Yavits: the Digital Journal would like to provide a monthly article on
Y2K and has asked us to contribute. B. Yavits will discuss this with Gene
Katz.
2 outstanding Y2K related web sites were recommended:
- Awakening: The Upside of Y2K
http://www.co-intellingence.org/y2k_awakeningbook.html
- UTNE Reader's Citizen's Action Guide
http:// www.utne.com/y2k/index.html
Tony C. is looking for information about alternative forms of land
ownership such as land trusts. If anybody can recommend any books or other
forms of information on this subject, please notify him.
3. West Danby Fire Dept. (H. Bitzer)
A meeting at the West Danby Fire Department, to discuss Y2K preparedness,
took place on the 14th of December. This fire dept. is the only mass care
shelter in Dryden. Frank Proto, from the Tompkins County Board, attended,
and had many suggestions for how the fire depts. can work together. He suggested that we
access the Local Emergency Planning Council through the right to know law.
This is an informal group, whose new chair is Lee Shurtleff. This group
has money to produce a campaign to raise the awareness of the public about
this kind of issue.
Proto feels that his townships need to be very pro-active right now. He
also said that there is money on the State level to help fire departments,
which are also mass shelters, for massive food storage, etc.
4. Second Expo (R. Zaman)
The Second Emergency Preparedness Expo will take place on March 6 at
Women's Community Building, from noon - 4:00 pm. R. Zaman checked with
several other locations, all of which, other than the Salvation Army, were
more expensive. The Salvation Army is not available on weekends. The
Women's Community Building also came down in price to $75, which was
donated by S. Calkins. Molly Brewton will be providing a copy machine.
R. Zaman has a draft of a letter to Lee Shurtleff of the Local Emergency
Planning Council. We would like for that group to endorse the Expo and to
encourage as many county organizations as possible to participate. We also
need to contact Frank Proto from the Tompkins County Board of Reps. R.
Zaman will also contact the Mayor of Ithaca.
John C. suggested that a group of us attend a televised Ithaca City council
meeting to present our concerns. H. Bitzer asked R. Zaman to read off her
list of departments and organizations.
R. Zaman needs help with preparations for the Expo. B. Irvin and J.
Calkins will talk to her about the possibility of helping. If anyone else
can help, please contact R. Zaman. Robin Messing may be able to help. Gene
Katz has a list that may help her. She has been trying to contact him. W.
Burbank asked about the purpose of the Expo. R. Zaman and B. Yavits stated
that it was informational in nature. C. Bloomgarten asked if we were
compiling information to provide or if we were just bringing in other
agencies. H. Bitzer explained that we are doing both.
H. Bitzer said that she wants to have a table with resources on providing
classes on a variety of related subjects. Anyone who would like to provide
such a class should contact R. Zaman. B. Irvin said that Cooperative
Extension is willing to offer classes on subjects that people want that are
not on their current listing.
5. Y2K team (P. Glover)
P. Glover is looking into how our community would respond to a worst case
scenario in order to help to develop a Y2K Operating Plan. He is
interested in working on this on a community basis. He has not seen an
extensive step by step response plan on a community scale anywhere. The
main response that he has seen relates to individual households.
P.Glover has developed a concept to deal with this, entitled "Y2K Team",
which provides a list of ways to respond to potential problems that
government might not be able to help with. He has developed a six page
document outlining the various potential emergency situations that may have
to be dealt with.
The next step may be to provide this plan to the Local Emergency Planning
Council.
B. Yavits suggested, with no objection, that all members of this group read
P. Glover's "Y2K Team" document, and come prepared to our next meeting to
discuss our response. This will be placed as an agenda item at our next
meeting. All members: please read "Y2K Team" to prepare for the next mtg.
The document has been distributed via the Ithaca Y2K e-mail list. B.
Yavits will send copies to all members who are not on e-mail.
H. Bitzer would like to have a county wide forum including the upper
echelon of local officials, the Local Emergency Planning Council, local
churches etc. in order to air the specifics of potential problems and
solutions.
7. Hours Grant
P. Glover said to apply for this by sending P. Glover a letter requesting
an "Hours grant". There is a person in Trumansburg who takes Ithaca Hours
for copying. The Women's community Building may take Hours. Race Office
Equipment takes Hours for paper.
The usual grant is for 10 or 15 hours ($100-$150). S. Calkins will write
up a request for a grant.
Next Meeting: Sunday, Jan. 31, 1-4 pm.
Alternative Community School
Tentative Agenda for next meeting:
1. Approval of Minutes
2. Show & Tell
3. West Danby Fire Dept. & liaison (H. Bitzer)
4. Committee Reports
Presentations Committee
Liaison Committee
5. Expo (R. Zaman)
6. Response to Glover's Y2K Team
7. Group to bring concerns to govt. agencies (John Coggins)
8. Local Emergency Planning Council information (H. Bitzer)
· Respectfully submitted: Bob Yavits