Birdflu Mailing List: For UU congregations: Resources highlighted at a conference on the church and pandemic preparedness, Mpls 11/16/06

[William Weir (weirwilliam]

I offer a few resources highlighted at "The Church and Pandemic Preparedness" 
conference at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis on Thursday, November 16, 
2006, insights that may be relevant to many UU congregations, including First 
Unitarian Society of Mpls where I chair the Committee on Emergency Preparedness.

Pete Raynor from our committee attended and reported to our committee meeting 
this evening. He is on the faculty of UMn School of Public Health, in 
environmental health science.

A brochure "It's Not Flu As Usual: What Faith-Based and Community Organizations 
Need To Know About Pandemic Flu" from Trust for America's Health 
(www.healthyamericans.org<http://www.healthyamericans.org/> ) is impressive 
enough that we plan on getting copies, probably enough to give one to every 
household in our congregation.   The brochure is also available as a pdf at 
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/flu/brochures/FluBrochureFaith.pdf<http://healthyamericans.org/reports/flu/brochures/FluBrochureFaith.pdf>

The Assistant Director of Domestic Disaster Response for the ELCA, Rev. Kevin 
Massey, proved to be a good speaker and uplifting motivator, with his 
PowerPoint supported presentation "Developing a Congregational Pandemic Flu 
Plan: How to care for your faith community and the wider community in difficult 
times."  For more information, see 
http://www.elca.org/disaster/pandemic/default.asp<http://www.elca.org/disaster/pandemic/default.asp>

Another handout "Pandemic Planning: Resources for the Faith-Based Community" 
referred to 14 URLs including National Voluntary Organizations Active in 
Disaster (www.NVOAD.org<http://www.nvoad.org/> )
and National Association of Church Business Administrators 
(www.nacbancc.org/AvianFlu.asp<http://www.nacbancc.org/AvianFlu.asp> ).  
Perhaps the most detailed guide for ministers and congregations is the one by 
Rev. Lee Moore of Mercer United Methodist Church 
(http://www.wpaumc-files.org/pdf-files/Influenza_pandemic_response.pdf<http://www.wpaumc-files.org/pdf-files/Influenza_pandemic_response.pdf>
 ).  

The American Red Cross has published "Home Care for Pandemic Flu" in a 2-page 
back-to-back format that was distributed to conferees and may be quite helpful 
to distribute to all households and review in advance of the pandemic.  Since I 
could not find it on http://www.redcross.org/<http://www.redcross.org/> I have 
asked its webmaster where to find a pdf version so perhaps it will be available 
soon.

The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) two-page publication "Faith-Based & 
Community Organizations Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Checklist" (Version 1.1 
January 9, 2006) was also distributed and could be quite helpful to the 
congregation as an organization 
(http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/faithcomchecklist.html<http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/faithcomchecklist.html>
 ).