By Bob Buddemeier

The opinions and attitudes expressed are those of the author, who has past experience with, but no current responsibility for, READY Team activities.

 

“Whistling past the graveyard” is an informal idiom that means to act or speak as if one is not afraid or is relaxed when they are actually nervous or afraid… It can also mean to ignore a threat or problem, or to proceed with a task while ignoring an upcoming hazard, hoping for a good outcome.  — Google AI summary response to a definition search.

So who is whistling past the graveyard?  Could be you – Read on.

There is a resident group at RVM known as the READY Team. (Ready stands for Resident Emergency Assistance Designed for You).   It was organized as the Residents Preparedness Group (RPG) five years ago, and has grown into an organization with nearly 90 active members, and a unique role among resident organizations – it is a specific component of RVM emergency and disaster response plans and operations.  Remember that; it’s significant.  To learn more about READY (which I strongly recommend):  Log in to MyRVM, click the Activities & Amenities tab in the main menu, then click on Groups & Activities, and scroll down to click on the READY icon.

READY grew out of concerns about how we would survive, as individuals and as a community, in the event of the inevitable and potentially devastating Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake.  The existence of other potential disasters was forcefully demonstrated by the Almeda wildfire in 2020, when RVM called for an evacuation of all residents.

Many lessons were learned from the evacuation experience, and continue to be learned as we look at other possibilities.  Like power outages, with which we are quite familiar – but so far, only with the baby ones of a few hours.  Consider an outage of days, especially in a summer heatwave or the depths of a cold dark winter.  It is precisely that latter possibility that has been warned about by a Bloomberg News article on the increasing likelihood of radical attacks on the power grid in the days around and after the upcoming election.

So what is the organization READY to do, and why, and how?  Try to pay attention, since one uppercase READY won’t be nearly enough when it hits the fan – a whole lot of lowercase ready individuals will be needed too.

On the midnight shift, there may be as few as a dozen employees on campus to look after nearly a thousand residents — and those assigned to the licensed care areas are required, by law and contract, to remain in their assigned facility. Under serious emergency conditions, it will be impossible for staff to meet resident needs, much less their desires.  The READY team – combined with prepared and informed residents — is an auxiliary RVM resource that can fill SOME of the gaps in safety and security provision under extreme conditions.

1.   Even under the best of conditions, when we are fully staffed and all systems are working, there is NO WAY for the RVM administration to reliably communicate promptly and efficiently with more than a fraction of the residents.  When the power is out, the problem is much worse.

The READY team consists of coordinators for each high-rise floor and for cottage neighborhoods.  These in turn are grouped into areas, each with an Area Coordinator.  All coordinators have hand-held radios; local coordinators talk to their Area Coordinator, and the Area Coordinators talk to the Resident Radio Room, which is in direct contact with the RVM Incident Commander — who talks by radio with RVM staff and the County and City emergency agencies.

Coordinators are first on the list to get the One-Call-Now emergency notifications, and know to self-activate if a major problem is obvious (such as an earthquake).  Once the radio network is established, instructions are passed to the coordinators, who then set out on foot to contact all of the people in their neighborhood or floor, and tell them face-to-face what is happening and what to do or expect.  Not only does this greatly improve the chances that everyone will get the message, but it permits the coordinator to make sure that the message is understood, and to assess and report back on problems.

2. Assistance: Once the communication responsibility is met, Coordinators may help other residents if they can safely do so. They are expected to know the residents in their area of responsibility, including abilities and disabilities that might be important in an emergency.  At a minimum, directing reports of needs or problems to RVM or other volunteers is expected, but many forms of direct assistance are possible. These range from advice and reassurance to opening garage doors without power, helping put pets in their crates, or, in the high-rises, assisting residents with getting access to the emergency power outlets in the halls.

Coordinators are not expected to administer first aid unless they are qualified, and choose to do so.  However, in order to provide as much coverage as possible, The READY team has sponsored first aid courses for coordinators and other residents, and has located medical kits with first aid supplies in campus locations readily available to the local coordinators and other qualified providers.

3. Education and information: In a disaster situation, staff and resident volunteers can only alleviate some of the problems; they cannot prevent or solve all of them. Individual welfare will depend substantially on individual preparedness.  One of the READY team’s major activities, other than training its members, is informing and persuading people about the importance of preparedness – of having a basic inventory of supplies (food, water, clothing, meds, household supplies and equipment) that can get them through the period (several days to a week) before rescue and relief activities are well established after a disaster.

Item 3 in the list above is, perhaps surprisingly, one of the most challenging parts of the job.  It is easier to stop arterial bleeding than it is to pound common sense into somebody who is too thoughtless or too optimistic to stop whistling and take a good look at the cemetery. It is all too common for volunteers to get a reaction along the lines of “Why should I do all that stuff?  I pay RVM good money to take care of me.”

WRONG!  Your money isn’t nearly good enough to staff and equip a 24/7 emergency response department.  The RVM professionals on staff and your fellow resident volunteers are doing what they can to help everybody make it through very hard times.  But they know that in the worst case, it won’t be nearly enough.  If you don’t want to think about it for yourself, let them do it, and take their advice.

To download a list of contacts and access to information about how to prepare and how to volunteer, Click Here.

And stop that damn whistling!

Organ Recital:  Friday, August 23 at 2 p.m., Dr. Peg Evans will perform in the SOU Music Recital Hall.  Contact Mary Jane Morrison for further information.

Arts and Crafts Fair:  The 2024 Fair will be held on November 6.  Reservations must be submitted by September 30; contact Jill West, 6449, for reservation forms.

RVM Energy Audit:  Representatives of the Energy Trust of Oregon made a presentation to interested residents on the energy audit currently in progress.  Additional information disseminated by the Green Team and RVM administration.

 

 

By Joni Johnson from an interview with Jody Willis (Chair of the Landscape and Grounds Committee)

Fire protection is always an issue on RVM residents’ minds during the summer.  The Medford Fire Department and RVM Administration both feel that our high-rises would be safe in a fire emergency and able to withstand any kind of imminent danger.  Anyone needing evacuation from the cottages would go to either the Plaza or the Manor.  Last fall we had a practice run on Horizon Lane for anyone including their pets.  It was very useful both for the residents and for the administration.  I believe that Jens Larsen is planning one for the Quail Point side as well. And if a evacuation is required, it would be as the need arises, depending on the situation.  So it might just be one street at a time if at all.

One of the issues facing RVM is the high grass in back of the health center and the Plaza.  Jody Willis, as chair of the Landscape and Grounds Committee, walked the campus very recently and met with Drew Gilliland to talk about that and other issues.

Because of more rain this Spring, the grass behind the high-rises has indeed grown quite a bit.  However, the grass itself poses very little danger.  Even if a fire does reach it, the consensus is that it would burn very quickly and then die down because of lack of fuel.  Areas that pose higher danger are where low lying branches or tree debris, especially fallen limbs, are on the ground, so the landscape crew has been cleaning up fallen debris and low branches. Before the Almeda fire, that area was used to dump landscape cuttings, but now it is primarily grasses. The grounds crew has also cut back grasses that were next to the roads. The existing roads will act as fire breaks and emergency irrigation lines will dampen the existing foliage  if a fire threatens.  The landscape crew has also been pruning the trees that touch any roof tops.  The fire that occurred a year ago on the slope below the manor reduced fuel and fire risk in that area.

Both water conservation and fire safety make moving to sustainable gardens around each cottage really important.  Every resident has the ability to make their home safer by ensuring that vegetation is about five feet away from cottage walls. In addition, it is important to use low-flammability mulch.  (MULCH – materials applied to the surface of soils to enrich them and conserve soil moisture).  The best option, of course, is rocks and gravel.  Mulches such as decomposed granite, gravel, or rocks offer superior fire-proofing as landscape mulches and should be used when mulch is needed within five feet of buildings or near any combustible structural materials such as siding or decking. Any fallen or windblown leaf litter or debris that has collected on the rocks must be regularly removed to prevent small debris fires from igniting structures. Live plants, even when irrigated, are not recommended within five feet of buildings.

The worst kind of mulches  are pine needles, red cedar bark and shredded rubber.  The best organic mulch is composted wood chips, but it may difficult to find. Composted wood chips are organic and will still burn, but tend to burn at the lowest speed and lowest flame length. If this material does catch fire, it could still ignite any combustible materials. The smoldering of this product could also go undetected by firefighters during a wildfire. If you do decide to use composted wood chips as mulch, single layers are preferable to deep pockets.

Our golf courses are also a good protection against  fire.  As Jody said, “Yes. I am a worrier.  But I think we’ve done a lot to protect the campus. We should be safe here.” And that is the general feeling here at the Manor.

Some of this info on mulch came from the following source –

https://firesafemarin.org/create-a-fire-smart-yard/mulch/#:~:text=For%20areas%20between%20five%20and,a%20widespread%20or%20continuous%20manner.

By Bob Buddemeier

Summary of key points:

1. The Complement is losing one key staff member, and another is showing symptoms of burnout.

2. We have not been successful recruiting enough new participants with the skill sets needed to continue our current pattern of publication.

3. We will experiment with lightening the load by:
—–3.1. Relaxing the publication schedule – rather than posting the issue on the 7th of each month (plus or minus a day), we will probably publish approximately monthly, as personnel time and content permit.
—–3.2. Reducing regular content – if we are low on articles and/or features, we’ll put out a slimmer issue rather than scrambling to find content. Also, we may drop the calendars if they are adequately covered in MyRVM. But,
—–3.3. We will probably reintroduce the parallel “Viewpoints” department to use for longer essays, editorials, and other types of features, rather than trying to adjust length and content to the usual Complement practices. And –

4. We will continue to solicit:
—–4.1. Additional staff members interested in writing, reporting, editing, or layout and formatting (WordPress).
—–4.2. Resident content contributions: reviews, articles/essays, memoir episodes, interviews, features – almost anything well-written and interesting.

5. This will be an experiment, which will be continued (or not) as consistent with the readership we retain and the input of assistance and content we receive.

The Context:

The Complement’s first issue was in the Fall of 2020 – we’ve been in operation over four years (the issues from January 2021 to present are archived at https://thecomplement.info/previous-issues.).
I enjoy writing, and the whole thing began when I did a few articles for hillTopics. It wasn’t as much fun as I had hoped. The print medium meant early deadlines and specific word-counts, and the use for Marketing resulted in a relentlessly positive tone and some topics being off limits.

In addition to that, there was no campus outlet (other than RVMlist) for resident contributions, either creative, editorial or informational. Also, at that point I was involved with the Residents Preparedness Group (RPG), and frustrated by the lack of a website for information distribution.

I identified a few like-minded people, and we resolved to give it a try. After a few months of thrashing around, we managed to get our site off the ground.

Now, the members of our merry band of geriatric journalists are four years older. RPG has found a web home on the upgraded MyRVM.  I am manifesting diminished stamina, and Connie Kent has been called to a higher office (a euphemism for Residents Council, fortunately not the Ultimate Elevation). Time for a reassessment.

We consistently get 200-300 readers per month, and enough compliments (the other kind) to have a warm and fuzzy feeling occasionally. We have caused essentially no discussions (I think everybody is afraid of being labeled a complainer), but we have attracted a few good contributors, although it would be nice to have some more. We are interested in continuing our Good Works, but if possible, with less effort and more participation.

Which brings us to the Summary of Intentions that began the article. Most of it can be read rather passively, except for item 4.  Please devote your attention, and thoughtful introspection, to those subjects. I think it’s fair to say  (1) on average, we get fun and satisfaction from what we do,  (2) we will welcome new people and material, and (3) it needn’t be much work to make useful contributions.

If you have suggestions, requests — or even complaints – please let us know.
Contacts: Bob Buddemeier, Joni Johnson, Connie Kent, Reina Lopez, Diane Friedlander, Tom Conger.

 

by Anne Newins

Hopefully residents have visited the large and modern Medford Library Branch, located at 205 South Central Ave. It is part of Jackson County Library Services (JCLS), which includes fifteen branches.  Established in 1919, the library system now serves 220,000 residents and provides access to books, DVDs, and other materials, along with many other services (jcls.org).  As a regular patron, I have found the system to be user friendly and a source of many books that we would not expect to find in our own Manor library.  Users can suggest books for purchase, and all my requests have been accepted.  Their interlibrary loan service is excellent.

Most residents know about the RVM library services provided by our own foundation and the extensive roster of library volunteers.  But they may not know that despite the tax-funded library amenities, our Jackson

County system needs friends, too, to deal with unmet needs.  To address some of these needs, almost all branches have “Friends” organizations, including the Medford Library branch, whose Friends group is the Friends of the Medford Library (FOML — medfordfriends.org).

I had the pleasure of meeting with Sandy Winters, who oversees Medford Library volunteer activities and external events.  Sandy managed a mystery bookshop in New York and has been involved in the book business for much of her life.  She believes in getting books to people who need them and that “everyone should have books.”

Among Sandy’s FOML activities are the coordination of the annual Rogue Comic Con fair, with was recently held in downtown Medford, and participating in the Barnstormers Vintage Fair and the upcoming Barnstormers Holiday Fair.  Clearance sales are held periodically in the library allowing people to buy books at especially low prices.

Like our foundation, volunteers are the lifeblood of FOML and it is completely run by them.  Many visitors have seen their appealing book shop located inside the library building, which is operated by volunteers such as Manor resident Joan Avery.  Joan, a retired librarian, said that “it is only logical that I would want to volunteer here. I enjoy talking to the people who come to the shop.” Besides books, the shop also sells attractive stationery, tote bags, very gently used jigsaw puzzles (only $2-$5!) and other items that would make nice gifts.  Most of the books for sale are $2 or less.

But there are numerous other opportunities beyond working in the shop. Some of these include setting up displays, promoting the bookshop, assisting with events, sorting book donations, and helping with social media. Most recently, the FOML has started a program to support the little free libraries that often are seen in neighborhoods and other locations.  Each month, the volunteers prepare bags of books that citizens maintaining these locations can use to replenish their contents.

The FOML has two maze-like store rooms filled with books and other donations, each of which must be individually evaluated. There are a number of categories, with volunteers assigned to review and determine their salability. Two RVM residents, Barbara and Fred Moore, are active behind the scenes. Fred curates the donations related to travel, including guidebooks and more literary works. He said that this section “opens our minds to what is exciting about the world.”

Barbara is on the online sales team.  She reviews the donations for possible listing on Amazon.  If books are likely to sell for $15 or more, they are listed and priced competitively. Most of the offerings on Amazon sell from about $35 to $50, although one book sold for over $500. Once a book is purchased, she is responsible for packing and mailing.  Barbara says that it is fun to see what sells; recently one vintage book sold for $85 and was sent to Hawaii.

FOML efforts have supported numerous programs that are not subsidized by the library’s regular budget. Some examples include funding Children’s Library play equipment, the Story Telling Guild and other community programs, outreach for the housebound, lectures, a ukulele music program, bags for book groups, and donating books to Access.  Access, our local food bank, will include children’s books along with nourishment.

RVM residents can help in many ways, ranging from contributing money, becoming a member of the Friends of the Medford Library for as little as $10 per year, or donating salable books, jigsaw puzzles, games, or DVDs. Volunteers are always needed.  There is much useful information about all these opportunities, as well as other topics, in the FOML website, found at medfordfriends.org.

Asked why they enjoy volunteering at the library, Barbara said that she has “been a lifelong lover of libraries.  They are resilient and keep changing with local cultures.”  Fred said that volunteering in a library is an “affirmation of the life of the mind.”  Please keep the FOML in mind as you consider worthy programs deserving of your support.