Bid:$RACESBUL.336
Subject: RB 336 EMA /Volunteer Partnership


RACESBUL.336 OPS - EMA /Volunteer Partnership
RELEASE DATE: July 25, 1994

It takes an unusual volunteer to provide dedicated and competent
service to emergency management agencies, EMA. Such volunteers
must be ready to appear on short notice, stay at their assigned
post and duties until relieved, be willing and able to travel
where needed. They may even provide the necessary equipment at
their own expense.  They cannot be "amateurs" in the sense of
pursuing a hobby.  Instead they must devote a great deal of time
and energy to become as proficient as paid staff.  The agency they
work with must be able to depend upon their availability when
needed, their skill at assigned tasks, and their ability to mesh
into the overall disaster response exactly as is expected of paid
staff.  Fortunately there are people, ready, willing and able to
serve in such capacity.

Such a pool of qualified volunteers is a resource, the value of
which often becomes overwhelmingly evident when a major emergency
threatens to exceed the capabilities of paid staff and equipment.
Like any other resource, volunteers must receive adequate
training, needed facilities, and the attention and general upkeep
that is accorded any other resource. Recognition of the
contribution to the tasks at hand should be as professional as
anything else in the relationship. As with any staff, they respond
to honest reassurance that their work is recognized and respected;
however, their service will be quickly lost if they are merely
tolerated, or seen as a nuisance.

If the EMA makes a positive effort to integrate this nominally
"free" resource, allocate time, energy, and people to use it to
best advantage, provide its necessary resources, and develop it as
they do with any other resource, it develops a relations hip with
an open ended potential.  It also extends agency capabilities in
many directions while  providing satisfaction to the volunteers
for their time and efforts.
Bill Musladin, N6BTJ, retired Chief State Radio Officer.