'Ships for Scholars
Show Notes:
Guests this month:
Dr. Barb Russo, IAEM Scholarship Commission Chair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbrussophd/
Savannah Baker, IAEM Scholarship Commissioner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/savannah-baker-1000/
Other items referenced:
IAEM Scholarship Commission website : https://www.iaem.org/resources/scholarships/commission
2024 Scholarship Application: https://www.iaem.org/2024-scholarship-application
Scholarship Application Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSs9kDOC0Dk
Donate to the Scholarship Program!: https://www.iaem.org/resources/scholarships/donate
Infamous speech by former FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor (the autographed bullhorn was auctioned for the Scholarship Program) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPy61pQ53P0
IAEM’s Support Our Weather Partners Campaign: https://www.iaem.org/Groups/USA-Committees/Government-Affairs/NWS-Budget-Support
Upcoming IAEM Regional Conferences: https://www.iaem.org/Events
IAEM Plugged In Virtual Conference: https://www.iaem.org/virtualconference2024
IAEM Connect Calendar: https://www.iaem.org/events/member-calendar
Transcript:
Justin Kates:
Hey, everyone. It's Justin Kates with the Just In Case podcast. And this month, a little bit different than previous months, because Taylor had a conflict and is not available. So she left me to try and keep this thing going, which I expected this was going to happen eventually, where she would quit and say that this is not a really good use of our time. So for the three subscribers that we do have, I'm sorry. We're on the downward trend right now. This month for our April episode, We're going to have a conversation with Barb Russo, who is the Scholarship Commission Chair, and then Savannah Baker, who is a Scholarship Commission member, but also a previous recipient of the scholarship program. We're going to talk all about what the scholarship program looks like, how to get involved, how to contribute, and how to apply if you're interested in doing so. But like each month, I'll start off with some updates on what's going on across the world of IAEM. So let's start off first with one of the big items that came up, which was the Hill visit that we did during March. So for those of you that weren't aware, what we ended up doing was the International Association of Emergency Managers, the National Emergency Management Association, and the big city emergency managers went down to the Senate and gave really a presentation on what we called the state of emergency management. And through that process, we talked about a lot of our legislative policy priorities at the time, ranging from Funding programs like the Emergency Management Performance Grant, talking about some current legislation that's in progress within Congress that we want to support, really trying to educate Congress members, but also their staffers and other interested parties on what we're trying to do as emergency management and how we could get their support. I think we were a little skeptical at the start that we would actually be able to get people to show up and listen to us, but we ended up having a full room during the event, which was unbelievable, standing room only. And not only did we have congressional staffers there, but we also had members of other professional associations who have really been interested in figuring out ways that they can partner with us. So, for example, One of the big things that we try and do is work with some of our associations that are more focused on mitigation. And so there were a lot of questions from the National Institute of Building Sciences, from groups that are doing work in that space about how emergency managers can help contribute to our work to reduce risk in communities across the country. Another big item that came up during this was we had questions from some of the congressional staffers around things that they're concerned about, whether it be the AM radio endorsement act that we're trying to support or some rulemaking by OSHA on emergency teams within employers. They were interested in what our views and perspectives from our associations were for that. So that was another great opportunity to engage with them. So I want to thank Russ Strickland, who is the Secretary of Emergency Management for the state of Maryland, and also the NEMA president for inviting us and allowing us to sit in on really what NEMA has done for many years, which is a Hill Day that the state directors go out and visit with their reps and senators. It was great to have IAEM there at the table as well. Another big item that is related to the Hill Day, that night before we had our Hill Day, we got some very bad news from Congress about some shifts in funding around our emergency management performance grant. the Homeland Security Grant Program, significant cuts for federal fiscal year 24 that are going to impact emergency managers. And so one of the things that we're doing behind the scenes with the Government Affairs Committee is looking to see how can we do some grassroots advocacy to get out to our representatives, our senators, Make them aware of what emergency managers do, the important role that we play in our communities and in our organizations. And just make them aware of the need for federal fiscal year 25, which is currently being planned out right now, that we need not only those funding opportunities restored, but we're asking for an additional 20, we're actually asking for $100 million in next year's budget as an increase from our normal EMPG funding streams. The White House has approved a $20 million increase. We need Congress to step in and support that increase as well. So there's a lot of work ahead from the policy side and legislative side that we need to keep pushing on. We're going to need the help of the membership. to really push some of these activities. We also, you'll be seeing on the government affairs front here shortly, an effort that we're doing with the National Weather Service to help support some of the funding shortfalls that they're going to have for this year. We're putting together some template support letters, graphics that emergency managers across our association can use to help sell the importance of the National Weather Service and the important role that they play in helping us as emergency managers to alert and warn the public during some sort of a crisis situation. We also had a really, really successful diversity equity inclusion open house this past month. Lots of members attended. And really the purpose of this open house was for us to take the recommendations that were provided by IAEM's DEI consultant, who had just finished up in February, and talk to the membership about what's next. How do we go from here? Where do we prioritize some of these initiatives? How do we get these moving to the next step? We had lots of questions from members, and I literally went through each and every one of them, read them out, or engaged with the folks that they actually attended during the meeting. and try to provide answers on where we're headed next. We have at our upcoming board retreat at the end of April a whole half day scheduled to look at those recommendations and start to prioritize them, identify whether there's funding commitments, staff commitments, changes to our association policies and procedures or our bylaws, things that we'll need to start tracking for the coming months. So a lot of work ahead there. The other thing that I wanted to mention regarding our board retreat, we're starting to get the final plans in place for that. We have our members of our Safe Events Task Force coming to present to the board with their recommendations on how we ensure that our events are as safe as possible, but also how we ensure that they're a welcoming, inclusive environment for our members and other visitors who attend. So we're looking forward to hearing their suggestions and recommendations. And again, now having to go through the process of approving those and putting them through the implementation process. So another big item for our board retreat. If you don't know, there is a virtual conference that IAEM is hosting, April 18th and 19th. And so hopefully, if any of you are interested in doing professional development, but from the comfort of your own home, we would highly recommend that you take a look at the upcoming virtual conference. The other nice thing about the virtual conference is the sessions are recorded. So if you're not available on the 18th and 19th, You can easily go in at any time and see those sessions and they will count towards your conference attendance for your CEM. There's also some in-person conferences that are on our way, including the Region 1 conference, which will be on May 2nd in Massachusetts, the Region 4 conference, which will be June 4th through June 6th in Alabama, and then the Region 6 conference, September 19th through the 20th in Texas, and Region 7's conference from August 7th through 8th in Kansas. So if you're in any one of those regions or want to travel out to any one of those regions, you certainly can do that as well. And to close this out, yesterday evening, we had our virtual happy hour, which went really great. These are an opportunity for us to, again, engage with the membership and have informal conversations about what's going on in IAEM and get feedback and input on how we can adjust our programs and provide better services to the membership. So there's a lot of stuff going on at IAEM. Definitely appreciate the support of our members. And hopefully for this coming month of April, we'll have even more stuff to announce when we have our next podcast episode in May. So let's shift gears now and introduce our guests. We're going to talk today about the scholarship program that IAEM has, which is really a key component of IAEM and one of our two commissions that we have at IAEM. For those of you that aren't familiar, IAEM has a variety of different subgroups, including committees and caucuses. You remember from a One of our previous episodes, we had a couple of caucus chairs that attended. But commissions are sort of a very important role because they are almost self-governing in a lot of cases. They're really responsible for helping to organize their specific function within the association. So one of those programs is our scholarship commission. So I'll introduce Barb Russo and Savannah Baker. Barb, maybe we start off with you. Just tell us a little bit about yourself and what got you into the scholarship program here at IAEM.
Barb Russo:
Yeah, thanks, Justin. I'm Dr. Barb Russo, and I've been on the commission now for about five, six years. Elevated to chair almost two years ago, so I'll be fulfilling that term as commissioner chair at the end of December and handing over the reins. But I was attracted to the commission in particular as an academic. So, I serve a dual role in life. I consider myself a pracademic. I'm both a practitioner and an academic. I'm a full-time college professor at the University of West Alabama, but I also work for Spin Global as a consultant in both the private and public sectors. So, we bring both of those roles together. But it's really important, the purpose that we serve as the scholarship commission in terms of really helping further education from a money and a financial standpoint because you know we know the cost of education can be a barrier for many many students and so by being able to raise funds and then turn around and distribute them every year is probably the most important function we serve as a commission anyway.
Justin Kates:
Absolutely. And I appreciate you giving some perspective on why you got involved, why you got interested in the Scholarship Commission, because I think one of the key things that we're always trying to do within IAEM is make the connection between emergency managers and something they're passionate about, a place where they can find a home within our very large association. So that's great. Savannah Baker, so you're also a scholarship commissioner, but you've had the opportunity also to take advantage of the scholarship program. So tell us a little about yourself and how you got involved in this.
Savannah Baker:
Yeah, thanks Justin. So my background with IAEM actually starts out really funny. I found IAEM and the scholarship particularly via Google search. I think it was my sophomore year of college I was Googling emergency management scholarships, anything related, because at the time, I wasn't completely sure what emergency management was. I just knew I liked planning. I liked thinking about what could go wrong. And it was a way for me to really get out and serve the community. And my quote unquote phrase that I used when I was in college to really describe what I loved was make a difference. And so that kind of catapulted me into the world of IAEM, and I've loved it ever since I received it. I think it was, I forget which year exactly, but it was either 2018 or 2019. And shortly thereafter, I joined the scholarship commission. So it's about, I think, similar with Barb, about five years now that I've been on the commission.
Justin Kates:
Wow. All right. So I guess you'll be taking Barb's spot when she's done as the chair. I don't know about that, but we'll see. So I guess the first question that comes to mind with the scholarship program, how do you – well, I guess maybe we start off. Tell us a little bit about sort of the makeup of the scholarship commission and how big is it and what do you guys do during a normal yearly basis?
Barb Russo:
Sure. Interesting kind of background. Let me give you a little bit of history. So the commission itself is fairly, I guess, young in terms of probably some of the other commissions, caucuses, and things that are within IAEM. So the commission itself began in 1999-2000 kind of as a a dream, a thought, an idea. And it was then that it was formed. And so it granted its first scholarship in 2001 to its first awardees. But from what I understand, it was obviously very limited and kind of grew from there. And at that point, it was, from what I understand, a very small commission. And it was half the size, even when I joined five, six years ago. About a year ago, we expanded membership of the commission to about 30 members. And the rationale for that was to bring more diversity in terms of the membership From where our members came from we wanted more membership from various Positions within emergency management. So we've got an excellent representation of private and public sectors Everyone from you know, the the medical setting to state and local government federal the military Academia has a couple of representatives. The USA Council does. Oceana has a representative. So really what it does is bring a whole new meaning to diversity within the scope of the folks we have sitting on the commission. It's very important to have that representation, especially when you talk about the fact that these are the folks who actually review those scholarship applications. They're also the folks who create the questions annually for you know, the essays that we give the students to write about, you know, you couldn't ask for a better group of folks to work together. And so the more the merrier we felt was going to be very important moving forward. We awarded the first scholarship in 2001. And in 2017, we actually expanded the program to include part-time graduate students. So as the years went on, we kind of built this program out. So to date, we have helped 78 students, awarding almost $179,000 in scholarships. You know, last year we gave out $5,000 to an undergrad student, a graduate student earned $4,000, and then we had two part-time graduate recipients that earned $3,000 apiece for a total of $15,000 in scholarships. So, you know, that kind of demonstrates that, you know, we're flexible, we understand the competitiveness. And we do try and reward those, you know, for the work based on the ability of the funds that we have, you know, that we raise throughout the year.
Justin Kates:
Absolutely. So, you know, I think with all of the groups within, you know, there's always very, very committed individuals that are involved in their specific area within the whole organization. How does one get involved in the certification commission? Because I know both you, Barb, and Savannah, you play different roles based on positions that have been crafted on the commission. So how do you get involved in this?
Barb Russo:
Sure, we'll be opening up another call for commissioners. Basically, each commissioner holds a two-year appointment, and so we rotate commissioners on and off. A commissioner that's serving has the ability to reapply for appointments, so we do have some longer serving commissioners That's how you can see how Savannah and I both have been on the commissioner for longer amounts of time. It's not uncommon for many of our commissioners to serve with us, go on to other committees, caucuses, and then come back because they love service on this commission. But we'll be putting out a call for commissioners in about a month or so to open the period. Our application process looks very much like the Certification Commission's application process. It's an online process where you answer some basic short answer type of questions, upload a resume and some other things that you're asked to fill out. And then a committee is formed to go ahead and review those applications and they're scored out and we make some recommendations to the board for new appointees and they ultimately make the appointments to the commission.
Justin Kates:
Absolutely. And I think that is sort of one of the other unique aspects of a commission is, is there very much, there's very specific rules on like, you know, who can fill the different positions and how they're appointed and everything like that. Whereas, you know, committees and caucuses historically had been The president would just select people. This year, we changed it so that the groups would sort of self-select their own leadership positions. But for the commissions, it's very prescriptive of how that process works, and it seems to have worked pretty well over time. Now, Savannah, so you're in a very unique position because you have seen both sides of the program. You've applied, but you've also now reviewed the applications. Tell me a little bit about what's the process for, if I'm a student and I want to take advantage of the scholarship program, how do I go about it? What's the process involved there?
Savannah Baker:
So the first thing I would say is go to the IAEM website. It's common sense, but I'm going to plug it anyway. Go to the website. Believe it or not, that does in fact have just about all the information that you need to find on there. I remember when I was doing it, I am the type of person that likes to have all the information I can have possibly in front of me, which kind of makes sense for the role I'm in now. But go to the website, find those resources, And going back to what Barb was talking about earlier, each year we have different sets of questions. So when you look at, typically there's two questions per application. It's the bigger chunk of the submission that you have to do, but it's really just gauging what you know about emergency management and your thoughts on emergency management, because it's not so much, A, we're going to grade you on a test. We want to see what you know. We want to see where your education is. We want to see how your thoughts develop. And based on that, then, along with your reference letters, your transcripts, and any other additional materials that you choose to submit, which I highly encourage, if you have other certificates, courses that you've taken that may be relevant, it doesn't hurt to submit those in addition to everything else. And there's a specific page that you can use. But then once that is done, it gets off into the netherworld until we get it for review. Really, that's the amazing Don who compiles everything and makes it easy for our world. And then we review it and we have different matrices that we'll review things by and to make it a standardized process with so many commissioners and limiting the subjectivity of this.
Justin Kates:
Sure. Well, and I can imagine after we had Jon Fessler from the Certification Commission on a couple of episodes ago and hearing about the process behind the scenes that go into sort of coordinating that across all the commissioners and And then, as you mentioned, very true is making sure that it's an objective review so that it's consistent. And that's definitely very, very challenging. So I applaud the work that you've done to make that process work. Now, if we think back to the purpose of a scholarship, I remember when I went through school, I know I applied for a bunch of scholarships. How many I got? I don't know. I think I may not have been as successful as I would hope, but I know I got a couple. I want to say that depending on the scholarship program, there were different rules on what you could use the funding for. In some cases, it was for the actual courses. Some cases, you could use it for books. I don't even know if we're using books anymore in school. I don't know. Is there any rules or restrictions on what that scholarship funding can be used for when it gets back to the student?
Barb Russo:
No, there are no restrictions, you know, once we turn the funds over to them, there are no restrictions as far as how it's dispersed, you know, and used educationally.
Justin Kates:
Sure, sure. No, and that's good to know because, I mean, I'm sure that, you know, because I also think about how some of the educational programs, just the way that they're set up and scheduled and things like that, when you get billed for your semester hours or how you get billed and how it's combined with other scholarships that you have or financial aid. I'm sure it gets very – so this sounds very straightforward and easy and intuitive.
Barb Russo:
Yeah, we try to make it easy. And the thing we're running into, and this came up yesterday during our webinar, we did a webinar for scholarship applicants, and we've been doing this the last two years to help streamline the process and inform students, is the fact that so many institutions' semesters are no longer traditional. You know, normally we had a spring, we had a fall, we had a summer. Now with accelerated semesters and year-round schooling, nobody is on the same schedule. So it makes it very difficult for us to even now hammer down a really good window to even open the scholarship application process. So we're doing the best we can trying to get it where we are early in the spring and still get transcripts from them and still get like funds dispersed in a reasonable time, which for us is like in time for that traditional fall, you know, initial semester, but it's difficult to really just literally accommodate everyone.
Justin Kates:
Yeah, no, I can definitely see that. You had mentioned this webinar. We'll make sure we put that in the show notes, that way folks can see that as well. But it sounds like your call for applications is closing fairly soon here in April, correct? So tell me a little bit more about that process, when stuff has to be due by and how that works.
Barb Russo:
Yes, our uh application window, I believe is closing out on tax day the 15th Um, so it's it's already been open for for a few weeks already. I think almost two months savannah, uh, correct me if i'm wrong, um We give them a pretty pretty broad window to get this stuff done. But as you can imagine we get the procrastinators Um, but but the last two years we've we've really made an effort to get a video done um to just Get through some of the the quirkiness of the process that we we keep seeing over and over again And we had some pretty good attendance, um yesterday and have gotten the video up Uh for this home stretch and uh, they asked really really great questions that we hadn't seen before Um, and so it's it's good good to see and they've given some food for thought that i'm going to take back to the commission um, and and hopefully we we can help accommodate and help some more students
Justin Kates:
Absolutely, and Savannah, maybe you can kind of answer this question. I think it was covered a little bit, but is this open to both graduate and undergraduate students, or are there any restrictions there?
Savannah Baker:
It's definitely open to both undergraduate and graduate students. So, in that, there are different categories, actually, because we know they're at different levels, and they may have different writing styles, having gone through both undergraduate and graduate school myself, I understand what different approaches and different mindsets are in that. And even before I came on, there were different categories, too, of undergraduate, full-time graduate students, and also part-time graduate students.
Justin Kates:
Absolutely. And Tell me a little bit more about these categories and either of you can answer this. Are there different scholarships that are available? Are there specific things? I know like on the awards and recognition side, we have some different types of awards for certain sectors within emergency management or somebody can win an award that's just focused towards region four as an example. Have you broken up the scholarship program into different categories and maybe just tell us a little bit about what those categories are.
Barb Russo:
Um, they're really not broken down into categories per se just by the level Um, and we honestly don't determine the award amounts. Um until we complete the scoring and you know the students are ranked and then we take a look at what's in the budget and as a commission we will actually determine you know how that money will be dispersed and so not every year Could there possibly be, say, for example, two part-time graduate student winners? So one reason last year for the two part-time graduate winners, the scores for those two students were extremely tight. So the commission decided to award two there. In the past, we've had two full-time graduate winners. So that's why we don't like to lock into anything because it's really based on how much money we raise during the year, how well the market's doing, because our money is obviously invested in interest earning accounts, that money in that endowment. So if the market's good, we may have more money to play with because we have awarded more than $15,000 in a given year based on good times. We do have scholarships, however, that are associated with certain things. So the Canadian scholarship named after Samuel Prince is the undergraduate scholarship, however, It's it's not guaranteed to go to a canadian for example, okay, although it's uh sponsored per se by our friends, um from the canada, um membership, um and then um, we've got the Bob Bohlmann award, um, Even though um again not specifically tied to that. Um, they're just pretty much named scholarships Um there but they're just broken down into those categories that we mentioned
Justin Kates:
Absolutely. That's very interesting to hear. From my experience in Region 1 as the Region 1 president a number of years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Bob Bohlmann very early in my career in New England. Talk about somebody who is an embodiment of the mentoring and future of emergency management. That's great to see that connection, to see that legacy shift over into our scholarship program. That's really fantastic. So, Savannah, you have had the opportunity to be a winner of the scholarship program. Tell us a little bit about what that means and kind of give us the perspective of why this program is so important based on somebody who has been able to take advantage of it.
Savannah Baker:
Absolutely. So I, and Barb can attest to this fact, I will, I would say I'm a huge advocate for the scholarship commission. I think for me, having gone through this process and seeing realistically the difference that a couple thousand dollars makes on your schooling, it makes a difference and it propels you further. And for me, it was a lot more than just the money, being connected and figuring out, hey, there's a specific organization for emergency management. When I went to a smaller school in the Midwest that I didn't really know it existed, then propelled me further to meet people outside of my region. So outside of Region 7, I got to meet people from the Northeast. One of my really good friends who was a year prior to mine was from the Northeast. I also got to meet individuals in Region 4, which is where I ended up working. And through those connections and having those community built, I was able to have those connections be a solid foundation and they were able to say, hey Savannah, check out this opportunity or kind of just be a bug in my ear and advocate for me, which has been amazing. And also speaking to the mentorship that I've been able to receive on the commission itself.
Justin Kates:
Absolutely. Well, and again, and I think this is, again, the real reason behind the different subgroups within IAEM is everybody finds Sort of the program or the caucus, the committee that's for them, you know, and they build lifelong friends, lifelong networks. And that's great that it's in this case, it's being done for something that really provides sort of a of feedback and service back to the emergency management community through the scholarship. So that is very great to see. So let's shift gears now. And since we've talked about the commission, how to become a commissioner, we've talked about what's the process for all of this. But ultimately, the question that nobody's asked yet is, where do we get the money? from to do the scholarship program. So Barb, maybe tell us a little bit about how do we build the endowment of the scholarship program? What's that approach?
Barb Russo:
Yeah, well, we shake people down. We shake people down hard and heavy. Well, for us, Justin, of course, the biggest fundraiser we have always relied on has been that live auction at our annual conference. Um, but that's you know, it's going to be a game changer for us this year because we don't have that to rely on Um because in colorado, there's not the space Um, so, you know, we've got to come up with plan b and and so, you know for us Some of the other alternative fundraising that we always do, and we've got one going on right now, is one of our online auctions. And we do several online auctions during the year. And they have everything that ranges from challenge coins to patches to vacation packages, which are pretty awesome. People can pick up sweet deals with that. and then also what we will be able to do at the annual conference is our other just silent auctions and bonanza basket bonanza raffles all of those do do really well we accept donations for those types of auction items we just won't have the the biggie live auction this year and that'll give us some time to kind of retool that Um, and we do accept just general donations, um, you know through the website Uh for those just wanting to give on like a giving tuesday or employer match donations. We're happy to take those One area that we are exploring that is actually new for us Is looking into estate planning type donations um Our subcommittee that is dealing with that, Jay Park, is heading that effort, kind of mirroring it after what educational institutions do as far as estate planning. That will certainly be one direction. We're also looking into corporate giving. That's another avenue that has been untapped for us. But we're open to any suggestions from anyone within the association. Feel free to talk to any of our commissioners. Email us at the address on the website. Hit me up. Always looking for fresh ideas. I'm not going to throw it out there yet until it's formalized, but we've got an optional event That we plan on using for a fundraiser out there in colorado That don and them are putting together and so we're looking forward to participation in that and we'll just plug some gaps Until the live auction comes back, but I think this is a good thing it's it's forcing us to think outside the box and And we're just looking forward to finding new ways to up that endowment, because we love giving the money away. There's no doubt about that. And we love taking it in. So if anybody out there is inclined to donate, just hit us up.
Justin Kates:
Well, what we'll do is I'll make sure in the show notes to put the links to where the future scholarship auction postings will be, and then also how to donate, those types of things. One of the things you had mentioned, and I'd love to hear from both of you on your perspectives on this is, The baskets at the conference are, they're always something when you think about it, like there's some crazy ones that come out. And so I'd be interested in hearing from your experience, what was the best basket you've seen in your time? with the scholarship commission. I can kind of tell you mine. For those that aren't familiar with IAEM's org structure, we have a region for each of the FEMA regions that's out there. Typically what will happen is each of the regions will do a basket for the scholarship silent auction. Region 1 had some of the greatest New England stuff in it that We really pulled together one year, a bunch of good stuff. Maple syrup and the stuff that you're familiar with from New England. But yeah, some of the baskets I've seen, especially the university ones, are kind of funny. So, Savannah, I don't know if you have a favorite basket that you've seen in your time.
Savannah Baker:
I think that the two that come to mind, I can't remember where the first one was from, but the second one, I remember Canada brought in their jerseys. Oh, wow. Using different things. I can't remember what year it was. Um, they started plugging together, but they had brought in some hockey jerseys, I think a baseball jersey. And that was really cool. I think I was working in the basket bands of that year and people were solidly going in. It was just creative. It was more iconic for them. And it was just fun to see really personalities come out in that. But then the other one, I think it was more recent, was a basket around barbecue. So I'm either or somewhere in the Midwest, South Texas area. Um, Coming from the Midwest and with Kansas City being relatively close to where I grew up, I appreciate good barbecue.
Justin Kates:
That's right.
Savannah Baker:
It was fun to see a basket kind of with that idea in mind.
Justin Kates:
There you go. How about you, Barb?
Barb Russo:
Man. All the baskets are phenomenal. Um, all I can remember as of late was and it's only because people were buying tickets like Out of control was that unicorn basket. Oh, yeah That was all blinged out beyond belief and i'm like, are you kidding me? But there were women and men like maniacs buying tickets I mean, you know how to buy the whole world to win that thing But yeah, I mean, but I love the college themes and the college swag baskets. I always loved the school ones. There's just always stuff that's cool in the basket bonanza stuff. You can't go wrong. You can't go wrong.
Justin Kates:
You're right. You definitely can't go wrong. And we know who made that unicorn basket. She is a unicorn fanatic. I don't know. Hopefully, she listens to this podcast. But I'm sure there'll be something similar at this year's event. I hope so. The other piece behind this is not just the baskets themselves, but some of the items. And I think one of the most you know, just memorable items that we ended up having there for the scholarship auction was the megaphone that was used by Pete Gaynor during the power outage. I mean, that was – talk about like an opportune situation where – and for those, again, that don't know what we're talking about here, we at our Savannah conference – not last Savannah, but the Savannah before that – We were in the plenary session with FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, and right in the middle of his session, the power to the whole building goes out. We're talking about everything for an extended period of time. We screwed around for a while. I figured, okay, what are we going to do? They waited and waited and waited, and some smart people started coming together. And there was a megaphone that was going to be, I guess, auctioned off or something. Somebody pulled it off the table, gave it to him, and he did his presentation from this megaphone. And we're talking about a massive room. And one of the vendors had these portable lights. And so they put the portable lights right up in the front of the stage. And that was how he did his whole presentation that year. At the end, he signed the megaphone, and then it was auctioned off. And from what I remember, it made pretty good money. So yeah, there's some crazy stuff with the scholarship auction. It's always a good time. So I think what I'll kind of leave us with here as our last question, I'm interested from both of you on your perspectives on this. What can we do in the future with the scholarship program? Do you have like a pie-in-the-sky idea that you think like something we should explore or something that would be really cool if we were able to pull it off? What could we do for the future of the scholarship program? So I'll start with you, Savannah.
Savannah Baker:
Mine is actually pretty simple, I would say. So I'm just thinking about a lot of students who may be in my position. They may not know IAEM exists, and they may not know emergency management specific scholarships are out there. So I think as professionals in this world, it's a matter of engaging with students and also saying, hey, this opportunity is out here for you. It's designed specifically for you. But then on the flip side, we also have student positions on the scholarship commission. So if you want a way to dip your toe into what IAEM commissions and service for the organization looks like, it's a great opportunity. I know that's one of the things I've advocated very heavily for is having student presence on the commission.
Justin Kates:
Absolutely. Yeah, and you're right. It's a great opportunity to dip your feet in to kind of see how you can take a leadership role on, which that leads to sort of a career of opportunities to kind of serve in leadership roles. So absolutely great opportunity. What about you, Barb? What do you think is sort of the future of the scholarship program? What could we do?
Barb Russo:
Yeah, I'll be honest with you. Savannah's definitely got the student piece down for us. And for me, you know, we've, we've always as a commission, we've always focused on, you know, we want this $1 million endowment goal, you know, but it's, it's just always been out of reach. And I know, and I think everyone on the commission can tell you our current methods, if you will, of fundraising are not going to get us there. The 30 people on the commission, we can't do it as the 30 members. What I'm asking for is The entire membership to participate and help us Find a way to reach that million dollar goal Because it's going to take more than 30 people to help raise 1 million dollars um, you know, and so you know that's my biggest wish and biggest ask is to find a way to get you know you don't just you know people need to recognize that you don't just need to be sitting on the commission to help make that happen and if we could get some input and some assistance from from the general membership um I think that would mean the world to this this program absolutely that's a that's a great point and um you know even um
Justin Kates:
Sometimes the ideas that are sort of most out of the box are probably from those people who are not on the commission that might just say like, have you guys thought about this? So that's a great point. So both of you, Barb, Savannah, thank you so much for joining us this month to kind of talk about This important part of IAEM that is something that I think is really important to a professional association is being able to give back and make the connection between people who are in a position where they have resources and funding, to be able to give that to folks that are sort of starting off their careers or transitioning into emergency management and are looking to sort of advance their education and could use a little assistance along the way. So thank you both for joining us this month.
Barb Russo:
Awesome. Thanks for having us, Justin.
Justin Kates:
Thank you. So to close this out today, I've got one question for the Ask the President section. And so I'll read it off verbatim here. It's becoming increasingly clear that emergency managers are expected to go beyond traditional emergency management functions to adapt to societal demands. How is IAEM changing or adapting to modernize? And furthermore, they ask, how can IAEM best support members who feel that they're being asked to do more or different things faster, better with less? So this is a good question because we do hear this quite a bit in the emergency management space about the shifting of responsibilities in emergency management. There's new things that end up on the emergency manager's plate. And unfortunately, we don't see increases in funding for our programs. So what role does IAEM have in that? So one area I would say that has been very, very big in the last year or so has been the work of our government affairs committee. As we've been going to try and support increases for things like the emergency management performance grant or changes in legislation. We have continued to use this this statement to say hey look you're asking more of emergency managers. And there hasn't been increases in opportunities for funding or resources. And this has been a great way for us to sell this important role that we play, not during just the traditional storms and hazmat incidents and other types of things that emergency managers find themselves involved in. But now we're seeing with many of the humanitarian issues, you're seeing the long-term stressors that emergency managers deal with. Even if we just look at our COVID response, you're talking about a response that was years long that emergency managers were playing a part in. IAEM really, I think, has a role to play from the government affairs standpoint to help sell that idea that emergency managers are doing more and they need more assistance to help fulfill that mission. I think the other area for IAEM to take a part in on this issue is around our professional development. Many of you know that some of the things that we do are we schedule webinars or set up sessions at the conference to talk about what are the big things going on in emergency management right now. Well, we need to expand those to consider those other topics that are not your traditional emergency management activities. And so things like understanding how we're providing support to the unhoused populations within our community, or how can we use resources to help with some of the public health concerns that are being dealt with. So if emergency managers find themselves in a position where they're tasked by their elected leadership, hey, can you figure out a solution to this problem? We'll have learned the lessons from our neighbors and other jurisdictions around the country through those information sharing opportunities like the conference and many of our webinar series that we do across the association. So those are just two examples that I'm thinking. I'm sure there's probably others that might be out there for IM to take a stand on, but certainly this is something that we do need to consider as emergency managers continue to see more things thrown on their plate. So that is it for us this month. If you have a question for me for next month, you can go to justincasepodcast.org and you can submit a question on there. But you'll also find our transcripts and our recordings from all of our episodes. The next episode will be on May 9th. And I'm sure we're going to have something lined up pretty good for that. Taylor will also be back and she can actually probably run this a lot better than I can. And so this will be sort of an episode for us to just remember is the one time Justin had to run the whole show. So thanks all again. And thanks to Barb and Savannah for participating this month. Have a good one.