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To collect volunteer contact information of those interested in serving on the Local Planning Team for updating the Hazard Mitigation Plan for Berrien County.

This form serves as a nominating form. Self Nomination is recommended. Members will be notified of appointment by Emergency Management once they are made.

A Task Force is used to describe a team of people who are working toward the same goal , but they come from different backgrounds and agencies. In this case, a diverse team is being sought to be members on a task force to help update the County's Hazard Mitigation Plan.

The membership commitment is to attend and participate in planning meetings. Data and input is needed and members will present information that is found to represent the point of view from those they represent. A Local Governmental Leader will represent their view from the perspective of their community. A Fire Chief may represent the view of a professional emergency responder. A Community Group member may represent the interest of the disabled. Depending upon your background, you would represent a different view from other members. You would be expected to ensure that the view you represent is a consensus view of those you represent. For instance, the Fire Chief used as an example above, should actively seek out advice from other Fire Chiefs to present a consensus opinion or actively encourage those with opposing views to become a member of the task force. or submit a comment/statement to the task force explaining their opinion. There will be a likely meeting cadence of monthly, with some months not needing a meeting, and others needing two.

The same effort as a member is expected. However, additional work will be done to organize meetings, help with logistics, advise and guide the planning contractor, approve plan content, solicit members, help collect data, and guide the project to success. This will likely be a cadence of biweekly meetings.

Emergency Response Community – members and/or leadership of immediate responders who are tasked with prompt emergency actions to treat injured, protect public proximal to the hazard, bring the impacts under control, and restore local services.

Local Government Team - members and/or leadership of the administrative aspects of local or county government, planning/zoning officials, and community boards with policy-making authority or who are responsible to give recommendations to the local authority. The focus of this group is to assess the design of the community’s emergency preparedness effort and make strategic recommendation for engineered controls that can lessen the impacts of hazards or create policy aimed at lessening or eliminating impacts.

Private Sector and Critical infrastructure – Organizations that privately serve the community with critical services or goods that are considered essential to the functioning of a healthy and resilient community. 4 Priorities in Critical Infrastructure are the following sectors: Energy, Transpiration Systems, Water/Waste Water, and Communications. These are priorities because all other critical infrastructure relies upon these sectors and they are considered immediate lifelines to communities.

Community/Special Interest Groups – members will represent established community groups with an interest in disaster mitigation implementation. If no established groups have petitioned for application, then this group may be represented by an individual that has no such affiliation to a community group and act as an interested community member. This category is intended to be very general and broad, however; priorities should include groups who can speak to increasing access to those in the community who may need additional accommodations to access emergency care/services during a disaster; those who are considered experts in creating economic stability, and/or those who serve as advocates for segments of the community that may be more vulnerable to the impacts of disasters.

Individuals in Berrien County who are not affiliated with an organization but are interested in disaster mitigation planning.

While we can't accommodate every schedule, we are going to try our best. We understand many reoccurring meetings already exist and would like to get a handle on what those blackout days look like. Provide days below in which you know you will be booked already due to reoccurring events.