Bid: $RACESBUL.339
Subject: #338 SOLVING THE IMPOSSIBLE 1/2


From: W6WWW@KD6XZ.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM
To  : RACES@ALLUS

TO: ALL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCIES VIA AMATEUR RADIO
INFO:    ALL COMMUNICATIONS VOLUNTEERS IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE
INFO:    ALL AMATEURS U.S     (@USA: INFORMATION), CAP, MARS.
FROM:    CA GOVERNORS OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES
    (W6SIG@WA6NWE.CA)  PH: 916-262-1600, 2800 Meadowview Rd.,
    Sacramento, CA  95832. Landline BBS, 916-262-1657 (Open
    to all). Internet crm@oes.ca.gov or seh@oes.ca.gov

Bulletin 339  MGT - Solving the Impossible 1/2
Release date: August 15, l994

    Experience can be a very hard teacher at times. One such
experience that leaves a lasting impression on emergency
personnel is that there is never sufficient communications
capability in a major disaster situation, especially in the
earliest stages. As a result, forward looking government
emergency response agencies have learned to use trained volunteer
communicators to supplement their full time resources from the
onset of the situation, just as they do volunteer fire and law
enforcement personnel.

    However, a major principal involved in this process is
that the effectiveness of the communicators is in direct
proportion to how well they have been trained by and integrated
as part of the parent government agency. The emergency
communications reserve cannot be "created and then left to
flounder". Its key personnel (the radio officer and assistants)
must be thoroughly familiar with the day-to-day affairs of the
agency. They are similar to other employees, albeit unpaid, in
that they must know IN ADVANCE what is expected of them and how
things are to be done.  In an emergency there will be no time or
personnel to bring them up to date on agency procedures,
processes and expectations.  Ideally, the only difference between
the unpaid volunteer and the paid staff is the volunteer's unpaid
status and the intermittent nature of their utilization.

    Although unpaid communicators are an expense to the
parent agency (in that their familiarization and supervision
involves both time, energy, space and equipment) in literally
thousands of major emergencies the cost of insuring an effective
reserve for the next major emergency is minuscule when compared
to their often priceless contributions to an effective emergency
response. They have made a hero of the emergency management
agency in countless situations with selfless dedication to
providing communications that was otherwise considered to be
"impossible".
EOM (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK)