American Red Cross and Civil Air Patrol sign renewed MOU.

[Jaison009]

For those interested...

The American Red Cross has signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Civil Air Patrol. This agreement reinforces the efforts of the Red Cross to expand and formalize partnerships with government agencies and partners at all levels – Federal, Tribal, State and Local.

"The Red Cross is excited to formalize our partnership with Civil Air Patrol, whom we have had a strong history of collaboration and support," said Amy Mintz, senior director for Emergency Management Coordination. "With our shared core value in volunteerism and common mission to provide emergency services to the community, our work together is a natural fit."

Since its creation after World War II, the Civil Air Patrol has worked with many government and non-profit organizations to provide emergency assistance to air crashes and natural disasters. The Civil Air Patrol is a congressional-chartered auxiliary of the Air Force with over 50,000 members and cadets.

"The American Red Cross and Civil Air Patrol both have a long history of supporting communities in need, and this agreement provides a framework for our personnel to work and train together to do that for years to come," said John Desmarais, senior director of Operations for the Civil Air Patrol.

"Though CAP obviously provides a lot of airborne capabilities, this agreement goes beyond that and gives our members from all walks of life with varied experience opportunities to support in many capacities on the ground with our partners from the American Red Cross in areas like shelter support and communications."

The MOU was signed during the Civil Air Patrols Annual Conference in Las Vegas Nevada on August 14. Representing the American Red Cross was Charles Blake, division disaster executive for the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Division. The MOU was signed by Major General Jon Vazquez of the Civil Air Patrol, himself a former Red Cross volunteer and Disaster Action Team (DAT) member.

[Eclipse]

http://www.capmembers.com/media/cms/NHQ_ARC_AMERICAN_RED_CROSS_MOU__15__8DC1BE129507B.pdf

Does nothing but "encourage" establishing contact locally, Corporate missions only.
Better signed then not, but establishes nothing new, nor anything that couldn't be done before.

[Johnny Yuma]

So does this mean we start flying blood again?

[duttoncpa]

No flying blood in Kansas.  We had a request from ARC for a transport flight and the NOC refused it.  Not life or death so it doesn't meet the FAA exemption, even with a commercial PIC.

[Walkman]

It would be nice if the MOU included a price break on their first aid classes for CAP members doing ES quals.

[sardak]

From the Oct-Dec 2014 edition of "CAP Vector":

We will be announcing several liaison positions to partner organizations that we would like to fill in the coming weeks. Anyone with experience with the ... American Red Cross... interested in serving should get their applications prepared to submit.

Mike

[Jaison009]

Thanks for posting this Mike.

From the Oct-Dec 2014 edition of "CAP Vector":

We will be announcing several liaison positions to partner organizations that we would like to fill in the coming weeks. Anyone with experience with the ... American Red Cross... interested in serving should get their applications prepared to submit.

Mike

[UWONGO2]

It would be nice if the MOU included a price break on their first aid classes for CAP members doing ES quals.

While nice, the ARC needs to have some value from the MOU too. If all they get out of the deal is less revenue from their first aid classes, I doubt they'd be willing to sign on the dotted line.

[Eclipse]

I can tell you from direct, relevant experience and MOU-type conversations with a state scope
that the ARC is not terribly interested in the conversation.  The fact that there has not been an MOU
since the mid nineties should tell every one that.  That the document places no specific expectaitons
or requirements on either party is further evidence.

They are well-funded and well-staffed and rarely so short-handed that they want to turn things over to
another organization, whether in reality or spirit.  Without having access to any numbers, my >guess< is that
the ARC has 3-4 times as many full-time employees and CAP has total members, and probably at least that number of volunteers.

They are happy to mine CAP membership for people to join the ARC, much less so to have CAP members
performing in uniform.

The same goes for most similar organizations, county health departments (PODS), etc., etc.

This is a harsh reality CAP needs accept and embrace if it's ever going to carve a niche for itself in the
DR arena.  It needs to be at the primary table with a specific not easily replaced by others (cops don't fight fires,
fireman don't enforce the law, etc.). 

Air ops are the only place CAP has an advantage over these other agencies, but the clock is ticking on that as well.

[RiverAux]

Quick internet search shows about 30,000 Red Cross employees. 

[Eclipse]

Lower then I thought, but presumably
no empty shirts, either.

[Jaison009]

We also have about 98 volunteers nationwide for each  paid staff (that volunteer number is growing as we continue to restructure the organization resulting in a decrease of paid employees).

Quick internet search shows about 30,000 Red Cross employees.

[sardak]

Not trying to make an issue out of this, but the latest Red Cross tax return (FY 12, ending 6/30/13) shows 28,973 employees with an estimated 400,000 volunteers, which is only 14 volunteers per paid staff.

I didn't realize how big the "biomedical services" component of the Red Cross was, around 2/3 of both income and expenses.

Mike

[Jaison009]

Mike,
Thanks for bringing this up.  The majority of the employees fall under Biomedical services. I often do not include them when talking about humanitarian services. Including biomedical you are right, it is only 14 volunteers/1 paid staff giving a 93.25% volunteer rate. Take biomedical away and you get the 98 volunteers to paid staff ratio. My region just merged with another and we have just over 60 paid staff covering the entire two state area that is now the most disaster prevalent region with over 6M citizens and nearly 200K square miles of area and tribal territory.   Of those paid staff, 16 are disaster with over a thousand volunteers between the two states. Many regions are in the processed of mergers as we write. Sorry for the confusion.

Not trying to make an issue out of this, but the latest Red Cross tax return (FY 12, ending 6/30/13) shows 28,973 employees with an estimated 400,000 volunteers, which is only 14 volunteers per paid staff.

I didn't realize how big the "biomedical services" component of the Red Cross was, around 2/3 of both income and expenses.

Mike

[sardak]

Thanks, Jaison for clarifying that. I was thinking along those lines and was logging in to revise my post to note the possibility that most of the paid staff are probably not in disaster services.

For the curious but less motivated, the 2012 IRS Form 990 for CAP shows  61,751 volunteers and 182 paid employees.

Mike

[Eclipse]

Far less today.