I'd better hand in at least one homework assignment before the semester ends. At least, what I did learn will be useful even without the certificate. ------------------------------------------------------------ > 1. Make a list of items suitable for a jump kit for > your area and assignment. Share this list with your > mentor No assignment, so I'll discuss jump kits in general. Like ICS, the jumpkit concept is generally useful -- when AB9HG was likely to be sent on business trips on short notice, I would roll shorts, socks, and a handkerchief in each undershirt when I put away the wash -- then he could grab a roll for each day, some shirts, and his little bag of stuff and go. (These days he also needs his big bag of pills when we go somewhere.) My "embroidery gig" kit is a jumpkit -- though I'd need to take everything out of the backpack and check it against the list, if I got another chance to teach embroidery to children. I know the iron is missing, because I got tired of carrying it back and forth to Banner Making and left it in the church. (Which is where I've always done the embroidery gig so that's all right.) My pants pockets, wallet, and magic bag are mini jump kits. My cycling-jersey pockets are a check list. The overnight case that I carry on Tuesday nights usually contains my wallet, magic bag, and the stuff I might need for Handwork Circle. (The magic bag is mostly needlework tools, but also contains sunscreen, a razor, etc.) ------------------------------------------------------------ > 2. Share with your mentor a list of contacts and > resources to keep in your jump kit. I need to refresh the list of phone numbers printed on my pocket sewing kits. Should include: non-emergency numbers: Winona Lake Fire, 267-4708 Winona Lake Police, 267-8622 Warsaw police, 372-9511 Warsaw Fire, 372-9502 Kosciusko County Sheriff,267-5667 home assorted relatives medical practice eye doctor dentist vet Comments on the suggested list: [] ID cards and other authorizations driver's license, in wallet [] Copy of Amateur Radio license oops, that's still my General ticket in my wallet. When the Extra ticket came, I was distracted and stuck it in the unabridged under "certificate" and there it still sits. Fortunately, we have our own scanner and printer. [] Frequency lists and net schedules that's one of the homework assignments I haven't done yet. [] Maps, both street and topographic man oh man I miss the Book House in Albany, where if you wanted a map, you could just walk in and buy it. [] Key phone numbers, e-mail and Internet addresses [] Contact information for other members in your group, EC, DEC, SEC and others [] Copy of emergency plans [] Resource lists: who to call for which kinds of problems [] Log sheets, message forms [] Operating Supplies [] Preprinted message forms [] Log sheets or books [] Standard forms used by the served agency [] Letter or legal size notepads or my "portable desk". (Letter paper and a writing board in a plastic bag.) [] Sticky notes [] Paper clips and rubber bands snack bag of bands and clips just added to magic bag. They forgot safety pins, and I don't find it under "personal" or "radio gear" either. Perhaps they assumed safety pins were something everyone has, like pocket knives. [] Blank envelopes I should stick some into the portable desk. [] Stapler, spare staples or a box of banker's pins. (AKA "T pins") Pro: less space than a stapler, less likely to go wrong, more uses. Con: there are a lot more staples in a box than there are pins in a box. Other members of team may never have heard of banker's pins. More likely to stick unwary member of relief team than a staple. ------------------------------------------------------------ > 3. Using the list you created above, put together a > basic jump kit. It need not be complete, as you will > be updating the kit in time. I have purchased a second pill stick, and plan to use them in alternation so that a week's worth of pills is always packed and ready to go. This will also give me a week's warning when I run out of one of the pills, in conformance to the principle that emergency preparations should also serve a routine purpose -- else you'll never get all of: @ remember that it exists @ remember where it is @ find it in working order @ remember how to use it. I thought that my emergency lighting was a violation of the above, but one of the oil lamps is hanging on the wall as a decoration, one of the candles is behind the box of matches I regularly use to light outdoor-cooking fires, and the rest of the candles are in the same drawer with the tea candles for my party-food warmer. (The lamps are empty so that they won't gum up, but the candles will last until we remember where we put the oil.) I keep my little bag of stuff in the same drawer as the regularly-used stuff that will go into it. (Razor, sunscreen, tooth powder, toothbrush, etc.) The tooth powder is in a glass container, which is fine when I'm going to my sister's house, not so fine for a jump kit. I found an empty wasabi-powder tin, filled it with tooth powder, and put it into the drawer. Nothing in it but soda and powdered salt, so it will keep forever, and it doesn't matter if the container rusts. Perhaps I should paste a label that says "tooth powder" over the one that says "wasabi". When I buy fruit-and-grain bars for such emergencies as getting up too late to eat breakfast, I empty all the boxes into a transparent bag in the freezer to make it easy to select bars that don't match to carry in my pocket. This bag would be easy to grab when jumping, and the bars will keep at room temperature for a long time. ------------------------------------------------------------