This has been a great topic and I'm not trying to cut it short, but
I want to throw a twist in to keep discussion here, at least
partially addressing Certification.

Question - What part, if any, would a standard certification, on the
lines of the NRCEV certifications, play within this discussion?

Part of this discussion revolves around have "enough" for folks to
do to keep them interested and part deals with gaining the trust of
served agencies so that they are comfortable including EmComm
volunteers on a regular and meaningfull basis.

In the KY Region 5 exercise Don mentioned there were hams that never
worked together before or served agencies were not familiar with.
Was any part of the after action discussion about credentialling and
or standard training?

Just curious - what your input?

Chris, NG3F
NRCEV


--- In NRCEV@yahoogroups.com, "homingin73" <Homingin@...> wrote:
>
> Doug wrote:
> >That is a lack of a job to do. Fortunately
> >communications emergencies are rare events.
>
> I disagree. With a little effort, hams COULD have important jobs
to
> do on a week-to-week basis. There are potential clients that will
use
> us. It may be true that "all else fails" events are rare, but
> communications disruptions do occur regularly. If hams are ready
and
> callout systems are in place, we can serve agencies in these
> emergencies, getting valuable on-the-job training and developing
> excellent rapport with agency leaders.
>
> Take a look at www.hdscs.org
>
> This ARES group has never had an "all else fails" disaster, but in
25
> years it has responded almost 100 times to provide valuable service
> when hospital patients' lives were at risk due to comms
interruptions.
> Ask any hospital disaster planner or Emergency Medical Services
> Agency person in Orange County about ham radio and they will have
> plenty of good things to say because of this continuous level of
> preparedness and service.
>
> That brings me to my beef with ARRL leadership -- it has been too
> focused on "all else fails" Katrina-like disasters and has not paid
> enough attention to hams' providing valuable support in
the "little"
> emergencies that will cement our bonds with agencies and get us
ready
> for the really big events.
>
> 73,
> Joe Moell K0OV
> Assistant Coordinator, HDSCS
>