Doug, you touched on several good points...

--- In NRCEV@yahoogroups.com, Doug Younker <dougy@...> wrote:
> Even if there was a competence standard to meet and
> it's meet, there may be always one obstacle present
> that may keep the EMCOMM being looked at as at the
> same level of professionalism of other volunteer provided
> emergency services. That is a lack of a job to do.
> Fortunately communications emergencies are rare events.
> While they are always possible, but the probability of
> one occurring is low as compared to the probability of
> volunteer emergency medical of fire fighter volunteer
> being paged out.

This a certainly true, and it highlights the difference between
Emergency Services versus Disaster Services. Police, Fire, and EMS
are Emergency Services with a frequent recurring mission. Emergency
Communications falls in the overall category of Disaster Services.
We only have a mission when the regular infrastructure has failed
either directly or indirectly.

> As an ARRL member and an ARES® volunteer I'm forced
> to admit the ARRL has been out to lunch for a long time
> in making ARES® a "unprofessional" organization.

I'm not sure that I would blame the League FOR putting the "amateur"
in Amateur Radio -- but they certainly have done almost nothing to
enhance the professionalism of Amateur Radio in general or ARES in
particular.

The League should be taking a leading role in improving ARES but
instead they are more interested in patting themselves on the back
and introducing an almost totally unnecessary long-haul
communications system to meet a non-existant need.

> In reading over the NERPC Report, I'm not sure if
> they are really prepared to start to make it such now.

I don't think there is much hope for the League to take any stand
that would alienate either its ruling class of old timers or the new
generation of computer geeks. (And I say that as a Extra Class
operator who has been licensed a quarter century and a self-avowed
computer geek).

As long as Hams are under the misconception that hams talking to
other hams during an emergency is somehow "Emergency Communications"
there is little hope for any improvement within amateur radio at the
national level.

The only way that ham radio can be taken seriously in emergency
communications would be if ham radio operators choose to take
emergency communications serioiusly. This is NOT going to happen
from the top down, but there is some reasonable chance that it can
happen from the bottom up.

The worst obstacle that ham radio faces (besides ham radio operators
themselves) is that we are rapidly running out of 'Served Agencies'
who are willing to even consider utilizing ham radio operators.

73 de Tom
N4AOF, WPOL710, ex-DA1NB, ex-KGQ9027, etc, etc.