Wednesday, October 30, 2019

KCTC - digital security

On October 10th, Terry invited Casey Peck, Jeremy Gugel and Rory White to come and present information in regards to digital security with us.

Jeremy Gugel and Rory White review tips for digital security
KCTC continues to see an increase in data breaches according to national data collected over the past several years.  Of the breaches that are recorded, small business account for 60%.  There is no one type of business affected; there is a wide variety and really anyone could be a target.
There are 3 types of breaches:
1. Cyber Crime
2. Cyber Warfare
3. Cyber Espionage
Casey Peck presenting information on cyber security
There are several ways the criminals can penetrate your system, but the most common seem to be:
- Phishing
- Social Engineering (job opportunities/social accounts)
- Public Wifi
Casey focused on public wifi for our group.  When using public wifi, be very wary as your device could be compromised by anyone else using that same wifi.  Casey suggests using some kind of VPN or not using public wifi if you can help it.  This just decreases your chance of getting breached by someone else sharing that same network.
Some final tips she shared were:
- Educate yourself and if you are a small business, your employees
- Watch public wifi
- Review your passwords
           Passwords with 10 characters could be hacked in 90 days with todays technology
           Passwords with 12 characters could be hacked in 100 years


Rory, Jeremy, Casey and Terry 



Pearl Valley Rehabilitation update

Michelle Redlinger invited Ron Semler from Pearl Valley Rehabilitation Center to join us to give us an update on their progress September 26th. 
Ron is the current executive director at Pearl Valley and is committed to changing the culture there.  He is also focused on improving and updating the facility.
Ron shared his 5 focus points to change Pearl Valley for the better:
- Change the Culture
- Ask yourself "Why are you here?"
- Change the building/facility
- Change the leadership
- Improve Retention

Thank you, Ron, for coming and updating us on your progress!

 

A perspective from our North and South borders

On September 19th Laura Bombei brought her guest, John Brinning, to discuss his experiences as a retired border patrol officer.
John worked on both the Southern and Northern borders with a wide variety of experiences over the life of his career. 

John Brinning and Laura Bombei
John started his career going to the academy to be a patrol officer and was talked into considering border patrol.  He worked in California, Washington State, Minnesota and Texas throughout his career, with a lot of time working in Texas securing the southern border.  The work he may have enjoyed the most over his years was the boat work.  He would work from the boat to secure the borders near a coastline.  
After his time in active work on the border, he retired but was not ready to step away from work.  He then taught at the academy for 7 years before fully retiring.
Thank you, John, for coming to speak to us and sharing your experiences!
John sharing his experiences with us.
 

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Turkey Dinner 2019!

This year our annual Turkey Dinner was held at UP Church in Washington on 9/9/2019.
We served a total of 530 meals with 189 guests dinning in, 341 taking carry out meals and 33 walk in the day of.

We had a great day and wonderful turn out!  Thank you all who helped make this annual dinner a success!









Safe Haven Act

At our 8/29/2019 meeting we had the pleasure of having Melissa Westphal at our meeting to share her story with the Safe Haven Act.  Melissa attended as Jaron's guest speaker.
The Safe Haven act has had 37 children declared in Iowa since the law was enacted in 2002. Melissa reports that nationally there has been over 3,500 children declared through the Safe Haven Act.

Melissa speaks to our group about the Safe Haven Act
The Safe Haven Act is a law that allows a parent to leave an infant up to 30 days old at a health care facility without fear of prosecution.  They are also allowed to call 911 to relinquish parental rights and to confirm someone knows the location of an infant who was left at the health care facility.  The act allows the parent to give medical information about the infant but does not require it.  It also requires the health care facility to contact DHS and report the infant has been taken under the Safe Haven Act.
Thank you Melissa for sharing your families experience and bringing your very special guest with you!