Major changes are coming at Team Rubicon
Due to the rapid growth of our volunteer base, and our desire to engage that base more regularly here at home, Team Rubicon is restructuring the organization to allow for more effective response to both large and small domestic disasters. It feels good to grow!
For the last year and a half, Team Rubicon has operated out of three domestic regions (West, Midwest, and East); but as more veterans become aware of TR, and as more domestic opportunities arise, it’s obvious that it’s time to decentralize further. As 2011 comes to an end, Team Rubicon will begin operating out of 10 geographic regions, each carved out according to FEMA’s regional model. This effort is the final iteration of TR-Transition, a project that was put into the planning phase earlier this year and focused on initiatives to help TR’s veterans transition from the military into civilian life. TR-Transition has now become TR-Domestic; a veteran-focused effort by Team Rubicon to engage large groups of veterans here at home for continued service in local disasters. The goal is one day TR Veteran Emergency Response Teams (VERTs) will be the go-to standard for disaster response by our states and municipalities; there’s really no reason why not.
The first region to pilot this model will be Region VII (Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska) and will be under the direction of TR’s Ford Sypher, an Army Ranger veteran and TR Team Leader in Tuscaloosa and Joplin. Ford and Co. are hanging their sign up in Kansas City (FEMA Regional Headquarters…how nice), and would love it if TR-Nation supporters would swing by with some home-made brownies—actually Ford will pass on the brownies, he hasn’t eaten a carb since 2004. TR-VII is currently developing a volunteer recruitment model that will engage local veterans and begin developing them into a community of first-responders. TR-VII is also focused on executing a fundraising campaign to build long-term, community-driven first responder networks and public service programs.
Team Rubicon Domestic Goals:
• Provide top-tier disaster response capabilities that augment Federal and Local authorities in the preparation for, and aftermath of, natural disasters.
• Engage more TR volunteers in disaster response activities in their local communities.
• Develop a community of recent OIF/OEF veterans with the common goal of continued service.
• Develop meaningful service projects that promote TR awareness, team building, and provide a legitimate service for a veteran or community need.
• Develop and implement a training pipeline that will provide valuable skills to veterans looking to transition into emergency services, police and fire.
• In the spirit of TR, continue to be totally self-sufficient.
Our hope for you, TR-Nation, is that by moving to this model you can feel an even closer connection to TR. We will no longer be that totally awesome organization headquartered a thousand miles away in Los Angeles, now we’ll be that totally awesome organization that has a team right in your back yard (literally, if you were just the victim of a tornado). Want to be a part of building VERT’s in your community? Join us across the country when we RUN AS ONE on March 18, 2012.
Jake Wood and William McNulty
Co-Founders, Team Rubicon
Let me know if you need help in the Dallas/FW area – would be happy to assist in any way I can!
Katherine
Jake,
You and I had talked quite some time ago on the phone, shortly after the Haiti mess.
I would still like to have an indepth converation with you and your group regarding collaborating with some of our veterans projects that we have started in the NW (and spreading across the US) in Emergency Managment and Public Health.
We are training vets in both fields and finding employment ops for them. We are currently working out of Region X FCC, NDMS.
Let’s talk, I have friends who are trying to do the same as you and you all can get together and do the best for the vets and save $$ at the same time.
Terry Clark
Coordinator
Medical Reserve Corps
Island County
islandmrc@yahoo.com
National Medical Reserve Corps Assoc
Vice Chair
Resilient Communities Foundation
Co Founder
Let me know if I can help in region 5. More than happy to jump in!! I should be back in CONUS sometime next month.
Joe
Being in combat with the Marines in Vietnam (as a medical corpsman) I have witnessed chaos first-hand. I am still interested in becoming part of your organization.
I am a volunteer staffer at the newly formed Wounded Warrior Project, Phoenix Outpost. We just put on a Soldier Ride, I am actively coordinating with the state’s Department of Veteran Services to help train our volunteers to assist in their ongoing state-wide veteran’s outreach program.
As a 28 year Army veteran with combat experience as a Divisional Engineer Officer who served for 15 years in the reserves as a Corps- level Logistics War planner, I would like to get involved in mission planning as well as operations,
Bill Hunt
Hey Josh
As always if there is anyway I can help with this transition and new developments or the overall mission,just let me know. I’m always standing by to assist when needed.
I’m building a veteran based green disaster relief bus in Denver. I’m in the planning stages of converting my Crown Super Coach II to run on grease and biodiesel with solar and wind to support the communications equipment. We need to install Bunks, a small kitchen, satellite Internet access and on board power generation to support veterans assisting in disaster relief. I would love to work on this with veterans from the grown up that would use it in service.
Would like to help out in Region II. I live outside of Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst, where there are a lot of Reservists and Guardsmen coming through, in addition to the active duty personnel. Would be a great way to help people transition and continue accomplishing great things.