QRZ! Ham Radio 4/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 4.iso/files/races/mgtorg1b.txt

Text File | 1994-11-27 | 19KB | 345 lines

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 [phone].]