Bid : $RACESBUL.305


TO:    ALL ES, CD, AND PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTORS VIA AMATEUR RADIO
INFO:  ALL RACES OPERATORS IN CALIFORNIA
INFO:  ALL AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS
FROM:  CA STATE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES   (W6SIG@WA6NWE.CA)
          2800 MEADOWVIEW RD., SACRAMENTO, CA 95832 916-262-1600
          LANDLINE BBS OPEN TO ALL 916-262-1657
RACESBUL 305                  December 20, l993
Subject: MGT   Observations  1/3

Bulletins 305, 306 and 307 resulted from a five-state RACES tour in
September by Stan Harter, State ACS Coordinator:

When I started this tour I had in mind the comment we sometimes hear
from out-of-state that "the RACES Bulletins don't apply to us because
nothing ever happens around here. Or because everything always happens
out there in California".

Driving along the highway's I found myself musing, "it's no different
in California. Throw a dart at the map of California and it's safe to
say that somewhere that is a jurisdiction that says that hardly
anything ever happens here, too. Given the variety of state, county
and municipal governments there is bound to be somewhere that events
seem to skip by and officials consider it unnecessary to plan for
communications emergencies. Not all of the hundreds of jurisdictions
in California have a RACES program if they feel that they cannot
justify the use of the RACES and other volunteers in government
service.

Fortunately, there is a work-a-round in an emergency for which they
are unprepared. What then happens is that they reap the benefits of
mutual aid, neighboring governments helping neighbor governments;
which includes paid and volunteer staff ready, willing and able to
work in other jurisdictions than their own when requested and
authorized.

Even so, however, there are places where neighbor helping neighbor
seems to fall down. In one area I was appalled to learn from a deputy
sheriff search and rescue coordinator that he is subject to arrest if
he sets foot in a particular neighboring county on a SAR mission. In
any language, that's hard to take. To a lesser degree one occasionally
hears something similar in communications, where more enlightened and
intelligent volunteers suffer such restraints and sometimes throw up
their hands in disgust and take there desire to serve elsewhere.