FEMA THINK TANK Kick-off in Milwaukee - MARY GLASS speaks on behalf of Milwaukeeans

MILWAUKEE, WI - On January 26, 2012, Deputy Richard Serino and the FEMA THINK TANK visited Milwaukee at UW-Milwaukee, 2200 E. Kenwood, to kick-off the first National Conference Call of the FEMA THINK TANK.

Milwaukeeans were not represented; and, NO elected city or county official was present - not even those who had stakeholders in the flood areas.

Mary Glass, Chair/CEO, Milwaukee Professionals Association, made a strong statement of the importance of Inclusion to Deputy Serino, Think Tank members and over 600 people across the air waves. She spoke during the Conference Call and shared how important it is that ALL are at the table for the Emergency Preparedness plan for Milwaukee and other Urban cities. She particularly mentioned how she felt as an African American and not finding stakeholders that were African American in the audience sharing and planning for implementation.

You can hear first-hand the FEMA CONFERENCE CALL - CLICK. Glass's comments are toward the end of the tape.
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Also, view President Obama's video.
CLICK for video

Call for Elected
Glass took up the advice on the Hurricane Irene video of President Obama (shared by Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and Administrator of FEMA, Craig Fugate) as well as the face-to-face encouragement of "get-involve" by Deputy Serino and Mr. Lawrence C. Reed III, Deputy Administrator Director, Bureau of Planning and Preparedness, State of Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs. She is moving ahead to have positive news to share on February 15, 2012 - the next FEMA THINK TANK CONFERENCE CALL.

Glass said, "It not about the FEMA THINK TANK or the local-state-federal officials, it is making sure that the half-million Milwaukeeans are prepared neighborhood-by-neighborhood in the likelihood of a disaster - natural or otherwise." "Right now we are NOT prepared."

African American, other People of Color and the Work-Challenged (un-, under-employed; un-, under-degreed and certificated; un-, under-financed neighborhood-level business; disabled; and re-entry - especially those returning from WAR, INCARCERATION, BOOMERANG EMPLOYMENT, BOOMERANG RETIREMENT and DEGREED students without employment) have not been included.
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What is the FEMA Think Tank?
The FEMA Think Tank has two main components:

•Online Forum: Submit your own ideas, comment on others, and participate in conversations meant to generate creative solutions. The forum is open to anyone who wants to discuss a variety of emergency management issues, such as how as we prepare for, respond to, recover from, or mitigate against all types of disasters, as well as ideas on how we can continue to integrate the whole community.


•Monthly Conference Call Discussions: Deputy Administrator Serino will conduct monthly conference calls to discuss some of the real-life solutions and ideas that are generated by this online forum. These calls will be open to the general public and captioning for participants who are deaf or hard of hearing will be provided. The Deputy Administrator will travel to a different location each month to personally meet with members of the emergency management community.

The first call took place from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday, January 26th 2012.

The Twitter hashtag is #femathinktank.

For more, CLICK.