On August 11, the MCM Workgroup held its second monthly call of the project year. It was my first day working as a Senior Program Analyst at NACCHO and I was announced as the new NACCHO staff lead of the workgroup. On the call, representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) described a webinar presented on August 13, where the completion of the Operational Readiness Review (ORR) tool using the CDC JOIN website was demonstrated. A recording of this webinar will be posted on the CDC JOIN Site.

Jennifer Lixey (Michigan Department of Health and Wellness Promotion) demonstrated ORR crosswalk tools that were designed to both assist jurisdictions with locating relevant documentation from previous Technical Assistance Reviews and streamline the review process across local jurisdictions in Michigan. The MCM workgroup also had an opportunity to discuss comments of their 2014-2015 draft work plan. As part of the work plan, the workgroup discussed working on two NACCHO policy statements and submitting abstracts for the 2015 Preparedness Summit (abstracts are due September 23). In addition, workgroup members were asked what activities they were doing with respect to the Ebola outbreak. Some members mentioned that they were in the process of updating their infectious disease protocols with airports in their jurisdictions and others mentioned that they were disseminating CDC guidance about Ebola with regional partners when appropriate. The next call will be on Monday, September 8.