Maryland RACES Interoperability Committee (MRIC) Meeting Minutes for April 25, 2009: Pat Scolla hosted the meeting at the Harford County EOC. Thank you Pat. ------------------------------------------------------- ATTENDANCE: The meeting was called to order at 10:30 AM. The following RACES Officers (or their representative) were in attendance: Allegany - Anne Arundel - Frank Winner Baltimore County - Joe Krystoforski Baltimore City - Caroline - Carroll - Calvert - Cecil - Will Owen Charles - Dorchester - Frederick - Garrett - Harford - Pat Scolla Howard - Dave Prestel Kent - Bob Lovell MEMA - Montgomery - Fred Bader and William Hatfield Ocean City - Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg Queen Anne’s - Somerset - St. Mary’s - Talbot - Brett Hammond Washington - Bob Long Wicomico - George Remhoff of Cecil County also attended. The jurisdictions listed above with no name, did not send a representative. ------------------------------------------------------- AGENDA: A motion was made by Bob Long to approve the following Agenda as distributed earlier this week. Seconded by Bob Lovell. Motion passed by unanimous consent without objection. - Welcome - Attendance - Review Agenda - Approval of Minutes - Update MD RO Contact List - New 80 meter net frequency (Dan Blasberg) - Winlink Frequency List (Ray Brown) - Update MD RACES Freq list - Publishing RACES Contact info? (Chuck Hodell) - MRIC Winlink Tech Support contact procedures (Dan Blasberg and Bill Clark) - Discussion on HF Net test results/schedule - Lunch - Finish HF Voice and Additional Equipment Sections of our Interop Doc - 2009 MRIC Interoperability Exercises - Simplex net - Next Meeting Agenda - Adjourn ------------------------------------------------------- Approve Minutes: A motion was made by Fred Bader to approve the January meeting minutes as distributed earlier this week. Seconded by Frank. Motion passed by unanimous consent without objection. ------------------------------------------------------- Contact List: The Maryland RACES Contact List was reviewed and updated. A motion was made by Bob to approve the RO Contact info, seconded by Dan. It was approved without objection by unanimous consent. A copy will be emailed to the MRIC email reflector after the meeting. ------------------------------------------------------- 80 Meter Freq: Dan reported there are no 80 meter frequencies that don't have a net running on them at some point. He recommended we stay with the frequency previously agreed to. ------------------------------------------------------- Winlink Freq: The discussion on Winlink frequencies was postponed until the next meeting with Ray Brown can attend. ------------------------------------------------------- Freq List: There were no changes to the Maryland RACES Frequency coordination list. ------------------------------------------------------- RO Contact Info: The discussion on how much RACES Officer contact information we want to make public was put off until the next meeting since Chuck could not attend. ------------------------------------------------------- Winlink Tech Support: No change since last meeting. ------------------------------------------------------- Web Site: Brett reported that Bill Bickley of Kent County graciously created a web site for MRIC (www.marylandraces.org). Part of the web site will be accessible by the public, and some will only be accessible by Maryland RACES Officers. Only approved documents authorized for public release will be accessible by the public. We discussed creating a discussion thread for a contribution to be made by Dave Prestel. Also Brett will talk to Bill about adding the following links: About - what we are doing right now. History - What we have done so far (milestones). Contact - TBD. Web Master contact link. Links Button - to other RACES sites. Suppliers - of equipment Also, Brett will address the following concerns: Verify that everything is not accessible by the public (i.e. readable). Ensure ability for all ROs to distribute documents to MRIC members. Add Home page links to other Maryland RACES web sites. ------------------------------------------------------- HF Test Results: No further comments regarding HF test results. Dave Prestel volunteered to draft a new section to recommend procedures for establishing multicounty contact in the event of loss of region-wide communications. ------------------------------------------------------- Interop Document: Motion by Pat that MRIC not recommend specific equipment in guidance materials. However equipment used by jurisdictions will be posted to the MRIC web site for reference. Seconded by Dave Prestel. Baltimore County - Yes Cecil - No Harford - Yes Howard - Yes Kent - No Montgomery - Yes Prince George’s - Yes Talbot - No Washington - Yes Motion passed 6 to 3. ------------------------------------------------------- Motion to "delete Appendix A as re-written without guidance on which equipment meets these requirements" by Brett, seconded by Pat. Motion failed by voice vote. ------------------------------------------------------- Motion by Bob to accept the document as amended. Seconded by Dave. Baltimore County - Yes Cecil - Yes Harford - Yes Howard - Yes Kent - Yes Montgomery - Yes Prince George’s - Yes Talbot - No Washington - Yes The motion passed, 8 to 1. ------------------------------------------------------- Motion by Pat to submit to the Association for approval. Seconded by Joe. Baltimore County - Yes Cecil - No Harford - Yes Howard - Yes Kent - No Montgomery - Yes Prince George’s - Yes Talbot - No Washington - Yes Although it appeared this motion failed during the meeting by not getting a 2/3 vote, while working on the minutes later I found that the vote actually passed with 6 YES, 3 NO. I believe during the meeting one of the votes may have scrolled off the top of the window resulting in an inaccurate count. Therefore, the interoperability document will be passed to the Association for approval. ------------------------------------------------------- Motion made by Bob Long: "Be it resolved that MRIC expresses its appreciation to Bill Bickley for his work to create and maintain an MRIC web site for the dissemination of interoperability recommendations." Bob Lovell seconded it. Motion passed by unanimous voice vote. ------------------------------------------------------- A motion to adjourn was made by Dan, seconded by Bob Long, and approved by unanimous consent at 15:03. -------------- end of minutes ---------------