Training

I went to the San Jose chapter Red Cross for my orientation training. It ran from 8-3pm, headed by a veteran volunteer, Jim McGill. He spent the class going over procedures and watching videos about what do expect as a volunteer, but most of it were details no new person was going to remember. The class had about 50 people, mostly seniors but some youngsters.

I was interested in learning about the background of the organization, but he didn't spend much time talking about it. I did learn that the Red Cross is an international organization that started in Switzerland by a guy who just wanted to organize service around WWI. The American Red Cross is one of many "societies" that concentrate their work within the country they're located. Generally, one country's society does not assist another, unless explicitly invited.

The main aim of the Red Cross is to provide immediate relief from a disaster. They made it clear that it was not a welfare organization, and that they only help people directly affected by the disaster. Thus, volunteers are instructed not to provide assistance to poor people in the Gulf States that didn't lose their home, which is redundant since those people probably didn't have much of a home anyway. In general there was a lot of rules and standards that this instructor tried to impress on us. I remember hearing "Generally, this is not the purpose of..." and "We're not into doing ..." a lot. One story was of a registered EMT who tried to give medical care to a client (what the Red Cross calls the people they are trying to help), but was reprimanded because his assignment was to serve food. It wasn't wrong, just not encouraged.

I also learned that the Red Cross is different than other "holistic" aid organizations like the Salvation Army because they only do a speficic set of things, which includes mostly setting up shelters and performing mobile feeding. They do a lot of collaboration with other orgs to fill in the gaps, such as actually preparing food which is the specialty of church orgs like the Southern Baptists. They also rely on MOV's (memos of understanding), arrangements with local businesses and restaurants to provide services/donations in the event of an emergency. Which means that the organization is helpless where it doesn't have pre-arrangements. All this seems to make the Red Cross rather inflexible.

I have painted a pretty sour picture of the Red Cross in general, but that's because it seems like a clunky organization. Leaving training, I was told to expect a call when I was needed. There was no confirmation of it being tomorrow, a week, month, etc. from today. In addition the words "patience" and "flexibility" kept coming up when discussing the organization, and the instructors were already preparing us to expect a lot of waiting around before and during deployment. Personally, it has caused my initial spirit of enthusiasm to wane. But I reasoned that the trip will be a learning experience in the worst case, which I am satisfied with.

A few days after orientation I went back to recieve specialized training to be an ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle) driver. ERV's participate in mobile feeding, where these U-Haul type vehicles drive out to affected areas and deliver hot meals to people who are in need. To get the certification I had to go through another class and took a road test in a huge rental truck. I'm definitely excited to drive an ERV, and the word is that Katrina relief is in huge need of drivers. It would be great to visit people and help them out while getting a chance to go out and see exactly what the devastated area looks like. I'm hoping I will get called up soon.