The ARRL just issued its
National Emergency Response Planning Committee Report to the ARRL Board of Directors January, 2007.
I think it is worth reading since the ARRL has to address many issues common to the Aux as well.
And maybe the most interesting aspects of the report are the manner in which the ARRL is approaching both the issue of background checks (pdf pages 15 - 17 "Credentialing and Chain of Command") and FEMA courses (pdf pages 19-21 "Training / Recruitment Issues and Recommendations") as opposed to the way the Aux handled them.
Here is part of the discussion on the FEMA courses.
quote:
For many years, Amateur Radio has longed to be taken seriously by governmental authorities as a professional-quality resource in disaster response. Although there are areas of the country where achieving and maintaining emergency management agencies’ respect is still a struggle, Amateur Radio’s service during 9/11 and the major hurricane disasters of the 21st century has brought us a new level of respect and new opportunities at the national level.
Being taken seriously as a resource comes with a price, however. It is a price that must be paid by individual volunteers, not in dollars but in precious personal time. When the federal
government instituted the National Incident Management System (NIMS), it imposed a set of
requirements on state and local emergency management agencies and their personnel.
Affected personnel include not only paid employees of emergency management and related agencies but also volunteers such as those in volunteer fire companies, ARES, and RACES. If the emergency management agencies are to continue receiving federal funds, personnel must complete a number of FEMA training courses having to do with the Incident Command System (ICS) and NIMS. Individuals who do not complete the training will not be allowed to participate, even as volunteers.
These FEMA courses are free of charge, available on line or sometimes in person at emergency management offices, and not particularly difficult. The courses are useful in familiarizing volunteers with the specialized vocabulary (i.e., jargon) and principles of the Incident Command System and showing where communications fits into the ICS structure. This is valuable knowledge, because if Amateurs – particularly those in leadership positions – cannot “talk the talk” then authorities may well assume that we cannot “walk the walk.”
The above could also have been written by the Aux. But it at this point where the two organizations diverge in how they handle the issue of FEMA courses. BTW - the ARRL hasn't solved this. The difference betwween the ARRL and the Aux is that the ARRL is at least admitting to the problem and states explicitly what the problem is - unlike the Aux and its ostrich solution.
The ARRL document continues:
quote:
However, the required courses have little or nothing to do with the specific duties performed by Amateur Radio emergency communicators and may be time-consuming for the volunteer to complete. Just as many volunteer firefighters who have been on the job for decades resent being forced to take courses that they perceive as unrelated to their competency in fighting fires, many experienced ARES communicators have objected to being required to pass a set of government courses that they consider irrelevant and a waste of time.
quote:
The obligation to pass a list of FEMA courses in order to be allowed to participate with an ARES group that serves emergency management is making it harder for ARES groups to recruit and retain volunteers. For Amateurs whose participation in emergency communications is the main thing or the only thing in their Amateur Radio lives, taking these courses is not perceived as an imposition. But what about Amateurs with a less-fierce personal devotion to emergency communications? Most ARES volunteers and prospective ARES volunteers in this country also have various other interests in Amateur Radio. Their desire to take part in emergency communications, no matter how sincere, exists in some kind of balance with their other interests. Being told they must spend part of the limited personal time they have to devote to their Amateur Radio avocation in taking jargon-laden courses could be the last words they hear on their way out the door.
Before you can fix a problem, you have to admit you have a problem and properly identify the cause. I believe the ARRL, unlike the Aux, has done that. In the next sectioin, the ARRL leadership also recognizes the 'rock and a hard place' it is caught between. But it also correctly identifies who has to fix the problem - the leadership - and not do the Aux two-step and blame it on the membership.
quote:
Like it or not, these formal requirements are here to stay and more may follow. At the national level, Amateur Radio has earned the respect we always wanted, bringing us closer to the emergency management establishment. The challenge now is persuading both casual ARES volunteers and experienced volunteers to meet the requirements that follow from being part of the system. This will not be easy. The national-level ARRL must be aware of that and develop ways to help local and Section ARES officials bring their volunteers, both old-timers and newcomers, into the new era.
