Ticker for April 15, 2005

                
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April 15, 2005     April 15, 2005     April 15, 2005     April 15, 2005



Greetings From Durant

The Entire Ticker Staff sends a hello from Durant, OK, where the
OCS Outreach folks conducted another OK-FIRST Training Workshop today.
OK-FIRST is the Oklahoma Mesonet's public safety outreach program,
which provides data, service and hands-on training to emergency
management officials in 175+ jurisdictions across the state.

The program gives OCS staffers the chance to work with Oklahoma's
greatest resource: Oklahomans. Integrating data from a top-flight
network like the Oklahoma Mesonet is just an added benefit.

In the last eleven weeks, the program added 19 new participants,
about 40 assistant-level participants, and recertified more than
50 existing particpants. Additionally, in early March, OK-FIRST
welcomed representatives of 14 other states interested in starting
their own OK-FIRST-like programs. That meeting was funded by Harvard
University's Innovations in American Government program, which
recognized OK-FIRST as one of the nation's five most innovative
government programs in 2001.

For more information about OK-FIRST, please visit
http://okfirst.mesonet.org