Page 1 MGTOrg1B Version 1. 3 3/1/92 Subject: ORGANIZATION 1B, [Category: MGT] ESTABLISHING AWARENESS OF AND CONFIDENCE IN RACES [Original title:] DO WE KNOW OUR CUSTOMERS? DO OUR CUSTOMERS KNOW US? As volunteer communicators, RACES members can and often do make real contributions in emergency and disaster situations - if the government agencies we work for are aware of us and our capabilities. If the RACES is known only by a limited group, most likely the agency that controls it, much of its usefulness may well be lost. The RACES is supposed to serve all branches of government involved in emergency services, not just the agency to which it is assigned. Thus a RACES unit assigned to a fire department may pass traffic for law enforcement, medical, logistical units, and others. If any or all of these agencies are unaware of the RACES communications abilities and facilities, they obviously are not going to use them. Even if an agency is aware of the RACES, it is unlikely to utilize it if confidence in its reliability has not been established in advance. Establishing awareness of and confidence in the RACES is not necessarily an easy task. After all, the agencies we deal with are often highly trained professionals, unused to working with and trusting "amateurs". Exercising together is probably the most effective method of creating the required level of trust. Regular contact between all the agencies that may need the RACES services in an emergency is vital between exercises. Since the RACES is very likely to be "the new boy on the block", the impetus for these contacts will likely come from the RACES unit itself. In short, training and becoming effective as a communications unit is only part of the job. The rest involves a selling job. Radio Officers take note. BILL MUSLADIN, N6BTJ, W6HIR @ WA6NWE.CA.USA.NA [Compilers note: Bill was Chief RACES Radio Officer at the time; later Assistant State Radio Officer.] RB113 RACES I.D.CARDS The ID card issued by any California government jurisdiction to a RACES operator is for the official use only of that volunteer or employee while serving that or another government on a mutual aid basis. Please do not embarrass your agency or jeopardize the retention of an official identification card by using it to gain access or for personal advantage if you are not on official business for your agency. Infractions have a way of filtering back to authorities. One action of poor judgment can undo the hard fought gains of many fine volunteers. Good deeds are quickly forgotten but negative ones long remembered. There are reportedly counties which will not use volunteers because of one bad episode in the past. It is recommended that program managers and training officers in agencies using volunteers stress this subject of ID card use and misuse. (extract from a previous bulletin on a different topic 39/87) A recent published report on a disaster echoed long standing problems in some areas. "Lack of credentials." "Police and fire personnel at the crash site often had no idea what an ARES or RACES identification signified." "Hams should have some sort of national identification card." [State OES response to the above:] This is not a problem in those jurisdictions around the country where the following premises are accepted and steps taken: A RACES unit is part of a specific local government. When a RACES person is on duty they are an unpaid employee of that one government. (Note: NOT multiple governments!). Since a RACES person is a member of that government when/while on duty, they are issued that government's identification card. They may also be required to wear whatever outer garments, headgear, and or observe other dress code requirements of their government. In short, they look and act as if they are employees and belong. All RACES duty is performed under the direction of competent authority. RACES personnel do not "self dispatch" unless they are specifically covered by written orders. The suggestion for a "statewide identification card" surfaces regularly in California. The reason this is not practical is that it would simply be unmanageable -- thousands of identical cards requiring preparation, recording, renewals, etc. It would simply resurrect the generic national 1950 civil defense card; OK for card collectors but useless at the roadblock. We recommend government ID cards, issued only after a satisfactory six month probation period, and good for three years. Specifically NOT recommended is any insignia on cards and outer garments that is not universally recognized and accepted within the community in which the volunteer serves. In the majority of the country today this includes the old RACES logo, civil defense insignia, association and club logos. We welcome your questions by return packet if we may help you in any way in this regard. RB124 [Comment by compile: If a government member (whether staff or registered volunteer) is asked to respond to a mutual aid mission with written resource order in hand as described in the section on Mutual Aid, then identification is not a problem. Any problem seems to only occur where responders have not been provided with the proper resource authority, or there is unauthorized response in anticipation of need or for other personally determined reasons.] FLOW OF COMMUNICATIONS for Mutual Aid A reminder to all local OES agencies and RACES operators is in order following several recent county exercises. State OES Headquarters in Sacramento received several messages direct from counties. This is not normally proper. All, repeat, all OES-related communications flow from cities to counties to State OES Region offices to State OES HQ and vice versa. Some county exercise messages were sent direct to Sacramento instead of to their OES Region. Several county radio operators said the messages were addressed to State OES and they assumed that meant Sacramento. In other words they were not familiar with the OES Region structure and traffic flow and telephoned the Sacramento headquarters to simulate the radio traffic. There are two exceptions to this rule: (1) Counties in OES Region 4 send RACES traffic to OES Headquarters (W6HIR) because Region 4 has no separate RACES facility. It is co-located with OES HQ. (2) In the event your Region office is incapacitated or has not yet come up on the air. RB87-41 RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS At one extreme is the government administrator who feels that a volunteer can't be expected to do a job as well as an employee. The other extreme is the employee who feels that anyone who is expected to accept responsibilities and meet minimum performance expectations should be paid; i.e., "If you expect me to do that, then you should go hire someone!" Both extremes, of course, are unacceptable in successful volunteer programs. Again, RACES is only as good as government expects it to be, allows it to be, directs it to be and trains it to be. Perhaps you have heard of a recruiting problem -- not at all unusual: "We would like a RACES unit but we can't find a RACES Officer." What they are saying is that they cannot find a ham with the requisite organizational and management skills this position requires. There are at least four steps an agency shouldn't overlook in finding their Radio Officer: (1) First, prepare a written position description for the Radio Officer and a general statement of standards and expectations for all the RACES personnel. (These are available from this or any Region Office and are very helpful in briefing any potential applicant; it is better to state these items up front to minimize your disappointment in signing up the joiners, non-producers, the unmotivated and inexperienced volunteer.) (2) Ask your local hams or Amateur Radio club(s) to propose Radio Officer candidates. (3) Ask the next higher RACES echelon if they can provide a Radio Officer. This is a common and effective method. A county may be able to provide an experienced Radio Officer for one of its cities, and the State might be able to transfer a skilled individual to a county in need. (4) Make known your requirements to the ARRL ARES (American Radio Relay League's Amateur Radio Emergency Service) emergency coordinator. RB028 [Continuation of the "Organization" series RB019 through 022] HOW TO FIND HIGH TECH SUPPORT How To Find High Tech Support by Timothy R. S. Campbell, Director, Department of Emergency Services, Chester County, PA Implementation of a new information system for emergency planning and response may be simple for computer literate personnel. However, when viewed from the perspective of a computer novice, these first steps can seem very intimidating. Many computer implementation schemes assume that the person designing the system, network, or databases is familiar with the operation of other computers, software, and/or databases. So how can a newcomer approach this challenge logically? First, never forget that the purpose of a computer system is to assist human beings in doing their jobs faster. Computers do not inherently make people more efficient or more effective. They merely allow data to be manipulated, stored, or retrieved with breathtaking speed. They reduce mundane routine activities and free up personnel to do those imaginative and creative activities that only humans can do. Secondly, remember that you have absolute control over the computer. You can turn it off while it cannot turn you off. At worst, losing data will set you back a few days or weeks but you will never be as far behind as you were the day before you started to computerize. There are significant resources that can be utilized by an emergency management professional in implementing a computerized system for disaster management. It is up to us in the emergency management professional in implementing a computerized system for disaster management. It is up to us in the emergency management field to identify those resources in our home community and begin to involve them in our emergency management program. One of the first groups to look to is the Amateur Radio community. While we in emergency management have traditionally looked upon them as solely communicators, a closer look at the Amateur Radio community reveals that they are engaged in many more activities that have impact on modern emergency operations through the use of technology. For example, Amateurs are presently operating satellite communications from their own satellite. Emergency management does not have a satellite. Amateurs are doing video transmissions, wireless bulletin boards, and packet radio operations which are the equal of any in use in the commercial or public safety field. While your emergency Amateur Radio group may not involve people in these particular activities,,, they will know of people in the community that are engaged in them. Such individuals will almost certainly be familiar with computer operations and can provide a wealth of information to you. So begin by sitting down with your ARES or RACES coordinator and find out if there any packet radio operations or wireless bulletin boards of other Amateur clubs active in your community that can assist you. /Signed/Timothy R. S. Campbell, Director, Dept of Emergency Services, County of Chester, PA. RB 122-123 COMMUNICATION MISSION FOR VOLUNTEERS QUESTION: How do we identify an emergency communications mission for the volunteers? ANSWER: There is a planning tool in disaster management planning called a matrix. On one axis are all the many emergency functions that should be addressed by the agency and the jurisdiction. On the other axis is a list of all of the agencies and organizations involved in emergency response. For every function one agency has the primary responsibility. A letter "P" is written in that square. Then any other organization that has a support role should have an "S" entered in the appropriate block along the function axis. By doing this you may well find new participation and missions that did not exist heretofore. Here are a few examples: 1. Weather Warnings. The "P" or Primary is the National Weather Service. The "S" or Support services may be the emergency management agency, the fire department, the sheriff or police department, and the Emergency Broadcast System. Don't overlook the latter as one of your organizations unless, of course, it doesn't exist. 2. Rescue. The Primary is usually the fire department. Support role agencies may include public works, Explorer Scouts, search and rescue units and others. 3. Communications. Since this is an emergency communications planning matrix, the P for Primary is the local emergency management agency. Support roles may typically be provided by sheriff or police, fire, public works, the telephone company, cellular telephone utilities, the Civil Air Patrol and others with whom you interface in the emergency operations center. Note that I did not say RACES. That is because the RACES is not a separate or outside organization; it is a unit of the emergency management agency. The Civil Air Patrol, on the other hand, IS an outside agency. Do you have the RACES in your government? Have you looked into the CAP communications capabilities? By now you should have an idea how the Primary and Support role planning matrix works. Note that there is only one Primary for every function; there cannot be divided responsibilities. Once the organizations have been inventoried it is easier to create RACES support roles for a host of emergency situations, and probably quite a few more than you envision today. Does each department head carry local government two-way radio communications? If not, have you planned a shadow role for your RACES? RB160-161 [If you or your radio officer is unfamiliar with the shadow role, refer to the section on Operations, Training, "What is a Shadow. RB179-180". Getting Emergency Managers and Amateur Radio Operators Together. At the recent Northwest Emergency Amateur Radio workshop sponsored by the State of Oregon and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Dr. J. Michael Dunlap, W7MYU, Amateur Radio Coordinator, Oregon State Emergency Communications Center, presented "Getting Emergency Managers and Amateur Radio Operators Together." Dunlap said: "Why does and should the Amateur Radio Service compliment the public safety radio services? Because Amateur Radio is a flexible radio service with extremely high resiliency capable of bouncing back very quickly. "Oregon has merged ARES and RACES as one. We see that RACES can be executed at the state or local level. RACES management, however, is not by vote or consensus; it is similar to corporate management. "The State EOC will soon have an ARES bulletin board (BBS). It will include all of the Emergency Management Division (EMD) public information bulletins for any county or individual to pick up." He described a callsign problem when they change operators. This problem was created when the FCC did away with the unique RACES station callsigns. A participant suggested that an EOC or agency use an available club station callsign or a tactical callsign all of the time; in the latter, on voice or data, the operator uses a tactical call and signs with his own call to meet the FCC requirements. Dunlap described how the State checks into a lot of different radio nets to let them know they are there. "Professional operators can and must gain access to your EOC if that is where they are assigned. We require that they be a Technician Class licensee or higher. Our State RACES operators are trained and may be pulled to operate a non-ham radio channel if necessary. The State RACES role is to provide communications support to the State wherever and whenever needed. "We support the philosophy that the main goal of the RACES (anywhere) is to provide tactical support communications -- not health and welfare messages. To get a good Radio Officer, look for a successful manager. The staff you recruit will often be used as managers of all the previously non-aligned volunteers that will come out of the woodwork in a disaster. Your volunteer key staff cannot have divided loyalties; if you need them they must not beg off because of some other volunteer commitment. " "Characteristics to look for in Amateur Radio operators: Try to recruit as many as you can within walking distance of the EOC; it may be thee only way they can get to to work. Look for flexibility. Cool head. Appropriate class of radio license. They must be capable of listening for eight hours and saying nothing. Ability to take orders. Precision is absolutely essential. Skill and experience in message handling; all messages must be written or printed before being sent and after they have been received. Recruit people whose type of work allows them to take time off for emergencies and meetings." "Exercise and drill your hams -- the more the better! When a local jurisdiction has a drill, some State RACES operators should be on duty at the State headquarters, too, to drill with them. It is really appreciated by the locals who had to turn out for their drill, particularly on a working day. "Amateurs must have access to their EOC. Access equals functionality. Nothing kills a program faster than denying access to your volunteers. Paid staff may be eight to five but not the volunteers. Ninety-five percent of their work is done after hours. Encourage your hams to come in and use the equipment at any hour. Just because someone is a ham radio operator doesn't mean they can sit down and operate all ham radio equipment -- far from it. All the emergency communications centers should be staffed 24 hours a day during each annual ARRL Field Day. "Provide as much training as your budgets will permit. "Have your Amateur Radio operators install and maintain the (RACES) equipment and antennas at the emergency communications centers." In the question and answer period that followed Dunlap fielded questions on what kind of message forms should be used (ARRL if not prescribed by the agency); and how to deal with counties that refuse to use hams. RB134-135 FOOTNOTE TO BULLETINS-BY-TOPIC This material is the result of the interest of people from many areas around the country. Their ideas, questions and suggestions were then put into these bulletin formats by Stanly Harter, KH6GBX, State Races Coordinator, Office of Emergency Services, 2800 Meadowview Road, Sacramento, California 95832 between l985 and l992. Input and comments are welcomed by mail or packet radio to W6HIR @ WA6NWE.#NOCAL.CA [Telephone 916-427-4281.]