CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB
 

NEXT WEEK _____________________________________________________
Monday, February 3 - noon
Cellar Restaurant, Downtown
 
Topic:  Technology and the City of Chattanooga:  the Vision, Goals, and Strategies - Amy Walker Cherry, Mayor Bob Corker's office
 
The past couple of decades have brought us a multitude of new technologies.  Taken alone these technologies are impressive, but just having these new technologies is not enough.  These technologies must be seamlessly pieced together into a plan for them to be beneficial to local area businesses and schools.  Amy Walker Cherry from Mayor Bob Corker's office is in charge of making sure just such a plan exists and is up to date.  She will present to the Engineers Club the mayor's vision of how new technology can be pieced together to benefit our city's economic development.  She will explain the goals set forth to push our city to a higher technology-driven level, and define the strategies to get there.  Specifically she will discuss highlights from the Mayor's Town Hall Forum held January 30, and highlight plans formed with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
 
January Invocation Chairperson:  Jim Couch
 
Menu:  Chicken ala king over rice, Waldorf salad, Green beans, Sweet potato casserole, and Cherry cobbler
 

OUR PREVIOUS MEETING _________________________________________
 
Marti Smith, from the Hamilton County Health Department, explained our county's plan for giving everyone the smallpox vaccine in the event of a terrorist attack.  In a sense, her presentation was a recruitment tool to rally volunteers to help out with this cause since 2,267 volunteers will be needed to properly handle vaccinating Hamilton County in a ten day period.  A total staff of 1,512 will be needed with each person working 12 hour shifts to keep 7 clinics open 24 hrs each day.  They will train extra volunteers to be sure every position can be filled if some are sick or out of town when an event (confirmed case of smallpox) occurs.  The 7 clinic sites throughout the county will be accessible through 14 bus pick-up points similar to the way the county fair has been accessed in the past.  Volunteers are needed to briefly question persons boarding buses or entering the clinic about any illness; to distribute forms; show videos; assist patients with mobility problems; run errands; receive, inventory and distribute supplies; assist patients with their children; assist police and other security in directing traffic and flow of crowds; and interpret other languages or use sign language.  Volunteers and their families will be offered the vaccine on day one after an event has been declared by the CDC (Center for Disease Control), but most volunteers are not required to take the vaccine.  The clinics should be safe places to work, because people will be screened and not allowed in if they are already contagious with smallpox.  After exposure, a person is not contagious until a rash appears in about 17 days.  The rash usually appears first in the mouth so that the virus can travel through a person's breath.  If you have been within 6 feet of a contagious person for as long as 4 to 6 hours, then you are considered to have been exposed.
 
The vaccine is a live virus of cow pox that is so similar to small pox that it helps the body to develop the immunity it needs against small pox.  The vaccine is a pin prick rather than a shot, and it will cause a pustule to form, scab, and fall off.  This is visual evidence that the vaccine has been effective.  Some of the materials to be distributed at the clinics will instruct patients in how to care for the vaccination site.  You must wash your hands if you touch it, because the cow pox virus can be spread from the sore it creates.  It takes the body 7 to 10 days to develop immunity after the vaccine is given.  If a person is vaccinated within 3 days of exposure to a person with smallpox, then they should not get smallpox.  If a person is vaccinated within 4 to 7 days of exposure they may have a less severe case of small pox. 
 
After an event of smallpox occurs, the order of vaccination will begin with the people who have been exposed to the sick person and the people who have been exposed to them.  Ms. Smith called this two levels of ring vaccination, because the first ring of people around the contagious one will be vaccinated first.  The second ring of people would have been exposed to the first ring of people.  If a person cannot or won't take the vaccination, then they will be quarantined until their exposure has not resulted in small pox (at least 17 days).  And then last, there will be a large scale voluntary vaccination that the county is preparing to administer through these clinics and volunteers.  Hopefully, the large scale vaccinations will never be needed for this virus that has been eradicated since 1977's last case in Somalia.
 
For information about other biological threats see the web site for the CDC (Center for Disease Control) for a description of category A agents.  http://www.cdc.gov/
 
Check our website at http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org for meeting summaries prior to last Monday.
 
 
FUTURE MONDAY MEETINGS ___________________________________
 
February 10: Nanotechnology - What is it and what are its potential uses? Jim Roberto, ORNL
 
February 17: E-Week Luncheon - Speaker Dave Whitfield, Clarion Downtown
 
February 24: Control Logic Model for Data Intense Environments - Tony Wheeler, Wheeler & Associates
 
March 3: The Sun - A very close look at our nearest star - Mitzi Adam, NASA
 
March 10: Properly Removing Hazardous Waste from Chattanooga - Carrie Hunt and Marty Bourquin, WR Grace & Co.
 
March 24: Update on Diamond Chemical Vapor Deposition Technology - Dale Bradshaw, TVA - Power Delivery Technologies
 
March:  MetroNet - Chattanooga raises the speed limit on data communications.
 

WHERE WE MEET _______________________________________________
Unless we note otherwise, all of our presentation meetings are held at the Cellar Restaurant in the Tallan Building, Union Square Downtown Chattanooga from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Our meeting room and luncheon service are open by 11:30 a.m. Lunch buffet is $10.00 per person (inclusive). No reservation is required. Free parking is available in the Days Inn Motel (on Carter St. and MLK Blvd,) courtesy of the Days Inn management. When you park there, be sure to place a note on your dashboard indicating you are attending the Engineers Club meeting.
 
 
QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS ? _____________________________________
If you have any questions or suggestions about program items please call Brad Baucom at 423-648-3582 or e-mail him at bradbaucom@comcast.net. You can find references to other Chattanooga Engineers Club members at our web site: www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org .