----- Original Message -----
From: "eric conrad" <ecepie@...>
Subject: Re: [React-l] REACT Certified Emergency Communicator
> this goes for the record, i hope everyone will be
> enticed to undergo such training. one thing i ask, if
> this kind of certification can be credited by the FEMA
> or any governing emergency agencies?
>
> because if it is, then it's an additional stripe to
> our ranks.
>
> 73
>
> eric conrad epie
> dv9gvu
> REACT Kaamulan 6061, Inc. based in Edmonton, Alberta,
> Ca

Right now FEMA is just beginning to look at the concept of certification for
various categories of emergency response volunteers. The position in the
August and September 2007 Draft for the National Response Plan and National
Response Framework view certification and qualification as factors to be
included in the future credentialing system, but there are no details yet.

Some fields have clearly established certification and qualification
programs already in place, particularly Emergency Medical Technicians /
Paramedics and different categories of Fire Fighters. Other fields, such as
Police, have various sorts of professional standards but do not have a
clearly established and recognized nationwide certification yet.

The situation for Emergency Communicators is probably the furthest away from
having a certification program available. The world is changing and the
EmComm volunteer community is lagging behind other emergency response
professions -- perhaps, at least in part, because there are very very few
EmComm full-time professionals. The closest thing to a professional
association is APCO (the Association of Public-Safety Communications
Officials) which is almost entirely focused on Police and Fire Dispatchers
(positions which do not generally include any technical knowledge about
radio communications). Meanwhile in most full-time emergency responder
agencies, radio communications are handled as a sideline by non-technical
push-to-talk radio operators. The need for EmComm volunteers only arises in
the case of major emergencies that either exceed response capabilities
forcing unplanned inter-agency communications or disasters that knock out
significant parts of the existing communications infrastructure. In the
past, these needs have typically been filled by CBers or Ham Radio Operators
on an ad hoc basis with little or no organization above the local level.
Such communications emergencies have rarely been of the scope and duration
to require large numbers of volunteers from outside a local area. Until
the last few years, the communications expectations of both emergency
agencies and the public have been significantly lower than we see now.
Today nearly every man, woman, and child in North America expects to be able
to instantly communicate with anyone anywhere at any time. Our emergency
response system communication "needs" reflect our non-emergency
expectations. We have emergency response systems at the local, state, and
federal level that rely on the constant availability of real-time email and
multi-megabyte computer files. All these changes are placing totally new
demands on the field of emergency communications. At the same time, we have
the post-9/11 mentality that everyone needs a dozen official documents just
to prove they have a right to exist, much less be in the area of an
emergency. The world of EmComm is changing, and we EmComm volunteers are
very slowly being dragged into the 21st Century.

Unless the world changes AGAIN, we are going to need to have some sort of
nationwide professional standard foe EmComm volunteers very soon - certainly
no later than the next five years - probably by 2010 we will see federal
mandates for a credentialing system that will require some sort of
certification and qualification program. The old days when a ham radio
license all by itself was good enough are long gone and the attitude of some
old timers that "we don't need no stinkin' training" has no place in the
real world today.

While the REACT Certified Emergency Communicator program is a small step in
the right direction, it is not broad enough to become the standard for a
nationwide certification system for EmComm volunteers. Our program was
developed specifically to identify and recognize those members within REACT
who had demonstrated both knowledge and experience in emergency
communications within the REACT framework.

There is a program just getting started which hopes to form the basis for
nationwide professional standards for EmComm volunteers. That program is
the National Registry of Certified EmComm Volunteers (NRCEV). This program
is still just beginning and there will certainly be some further adjustments
in the proposed standards for certification and position qualification as
the program continues to develop but the NRCEV is the program that I think
is most likely to gain acceptance as the nationwide standard. The
requirements established by NRCEV cover somewhat more than REACT's internal
certification requirements. For example, the entry level NRCEV
certification requires training on various EmComm topics, plus first aid and
CPR, and the minimum FEMA ICS courses required under NIMS.

The REACT Level I Emergency Communications training program meets the entry
level EmComm education requirement (as do the ARRL Level I EmComm course and
several ARES training programs). You can find more information about NRCEV
on their website at http://www.nrcev.org and the NRCEV group on Yahoo.

73 de Tom
N4AOF / WPOL710