Emergency Communications Advisory Committee 2010-2014

1. Emergency Communications Advisory Committee 2010-2014 Final Proposal to the ARRL Programs and Services Committee and Board of Directors ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio

2. Emergency Communications Advisory Committee 2010-2014 • Contents • ECAC history • The final report & proposal: Evaluating ARES and NTS together • The four assigned tasks • The four step process we followed • The final report itself • The appendices: recommendations and tools for implementing our proposal • The NTS counter-proposal ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio

3. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • ARRL Emergency Communications Advisory Committee (ECAC) • Ad hoc - existed from June 29, 2010 to January 31, 2014 • Advised the ARRL Programs and Services Committee (P&SC) • Worked on a variety of large and small tasks • One member from each ARRL Division, plus RAC (Canada) • We met online via Go To Meeting • Shared information via a private email group and web page • All meetings were recorded for those who couldn’t make it • Led by two chairpersons: • Dale Williams WA8EFK (2010-2012) • Jim Cross WI3N (2012-2014)

4. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • Smaller Tasks • Evaluate the need for a national ARES member database • Make recommendations for a national ID card • Evaluate need for ARES credentialing • Evaluate need for ICS typing • Look for ways to improve training programs and obtain accreditation • Make recommendations for ARRL equipment loan program

5. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio Major Tasks: #1 Evaluate and make recommendations for an improved inter-Section mutual aid (ARESMAT) program, and a Major Disaster Emergency Coordinator (MDEC) position #2 Evaluate NTS & ARES in four key areas, suggest ways to improve both programs and cooperation between them. The rest of the presentation is about this task.

6. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • Evaluating NTS & ARES – Planning for their future • The specific issues the P&SC assigned: • Evaluate and make recommendations on the following: • ARES and NTS objectives and organizational structures • Training, certification, and credentialing • Relationships with served agencies • Integrating the ARES and NTS programs

7. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • Step one – gather information – surveys and interviews • Broad and deep experience within the committee itself • Members talked with local leaders and experts • Evaluated and discussed the NERPC and ARESCOM reports • Created and submitted seven on-line surveys from 2011 to 2013 • ARES – 1 for SECs and Section staff, 1 for DECs and ECs • NTS – 2 for leadership, 2 for all participants • Emergency Managers

8. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • Step two – analyze the results • We analyzed the results – and we discussed them – a lot! • We learned – that creating good surveys isn’t easy – and that results aren’t easy to correlate unless you have really good software and someone who knows how to use it. We didn’t. • We learned several things from NERPC and ARESCOM: • Our evaluation and report must be from the 30,000’ level • Follow-up is needed to assure the report is well understood, and to improve its chances for acceptance and eventual implementation

9. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • Step three – develop ideas and proposals • We continued talking – a lot! Weekly and sometimes twice-weekly three hour meetings for almost two years • We held several joint meetings with key NTS staff (several committee members were also active in NTS) • Mike Corey and Dave Sumner joined us for several meetings • Step four – write the report • WA1ZCN took on the job of principal writer, taking all our ideas and discussions and putting them into prose • We edited, wrote, talked more, re-wrote, and re-wrote again

10. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio Our final report on all four areas (24 pages, single spaced) was delivered to the P&SC on November 19, 2013

11. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • 1) ARES and NTS objectives and organizational structures • The objectives really haven’t changed much over the years: • ARES provides public service and backup communications to local and state government, NGOs, and the general public • NTS provides medium to long-haul message handling and delivery for ARES, the public, and others • Most survey respondents felt that ARES’ & NTS’ current organizational structures work well with a few exceptions: • Cooperation between Section Traffic Manager and NTS • National coordination for exercises and major disasters • National strategic planning for both programs

12. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • 2) Training, certification, and credentialing • What we learned: • ARES’ training is uneven and inconsistent across the country – a real problem for interoperability and mutual aid • NTS doesn’t have a formal training program, although it has some materials, likely making it difficult to bring in new operators • Many agencies would like our training to certify us as qualified, none of which is true of ARRL training programs because they lack formal accreditation • ARRL currently has no means of providing officially vetted credentials to prove a certain level of training and experience • Only 55% of ARES leaders have taken EC001, Intro to Emcomm. • 88% have taken IS-100, Intro to the Incident Command System

13. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • 2) Training, certification, and credentialing • What we proposed: • Develop a training/testing program and submit it to ANSI for accreditation to allow ARRL to certify members’ skills • Develop more and better training products, including professionally produced videos on a wide range of topics • Find a way to reduce or eliminate the cost of taking EC001 • Create a voluntary ARES member online credential database • Issue an optional plastic ID card with a QR code that links to the member’s specific credentials on the database

14. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • 3) Relationships with served agencies • In short, they’re not bad! • Most surveyed emergency managers have a good opinion of ARES • Our mission with Red Cross is changing due to technological advancements, with less emphasis on Welfare messages • ARES members are the backbone of National Weather Service Skywarn program • FEMA recognizes our importance and contributions, and may take steps to enhance our role in the future • We recommended that ARRL provide greater outreach and support to emergency managers, and professional relationship training for ARES leadership

15. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • 4) Integrating the ARES and NTS programs • Very difficult job to analyze and resolve – thousands of man hours • Both programs have very different management systems and cultures • ARES is almost 100% local, and it needs to be due to different needs and resources • NTS has a national structure built around its system of networks, with national leadership • BUT… • There needs to be a mechanism to allow the two programs to coordinate training and exercises • ARES needs national support in a number of areas • NTS would also benefit from some outside support

16. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • What we believe ARES could use nationally… • More and better training materials • Accredited training program • Better leadership training program and materials • Improved interoperability • Voluntary training standards • Voluntary operating standards and best practices guidance • Voluntary group performance standards and recognition • Support with developing served agency relationships • Closer working relationship and coordination with NTS • Credentialing and member identification • Inter-Section mutual aid coordination (ARESMAT) • Rewrite & update the ARES portion of the PSCM

17. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • What we believe NTS needs nationally… • Support for closer integration at the Section level • Assistance developing a comprehensive online training program • Help in understanding and dealing the wide variety of ARES’ needs • Support for recruiting and retaining members • Re-write and update NTS portion of the Public Service Communications Manual (PSCM) • A 30,000’ view of the program and its relationship with ARES for strategic planning

18. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • The Big Proposal: Bringing ARES and NTS closer together • We decided that merging ARES and NTS would cause more problems than it would solve due to fundamental differences in structure and culture • Proposed a “joint support committee” for both programs • Working name: Joint Emergency Communications Committee (JECC) • Committee would provide program support and top level coordination – adds NO command structure or bureaucracy • JECC would have authority to create and implement voluntary programs and standards, but not to require compliance • 6 elected members – 3 ARES, 3 NTS, plus one appointed by BoD

19. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • The Presentation to the Programs and Services Committee • The report was emailed to the P&SC chairperson November 19, 2013, and distributed to all its members • ECAC chair Jim Cross and vice chair Dave Colter WA1ZCN were invited to discuss the report and proposals with the P&SC during their December 2013 regular teleconference meeting • P&SC members told us it was the best researched and written report they’d ever seen from an ARRL committee at any level, but had lots of insightful questions for us to answer • The report was forwarded to the Board of Directors, who voted at their January meeting to send it back to P&SC for a more comprehensive review, due to the scope and importance of the recommendations. Now, we wait for further action!

20. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio • NTS’ Counter-Proposal • Not everyone in NTS agreed with the ECAC proposal • NTS submitted its own unsolicited proposal concurrently with ECAC’s, written by NTSD coordinator Al Nolmeyer, W3YVQ • NTS leadership felt that a command structure was needed, that anything voluntary was too weak and couldn’t solve any problems • NTS proposed a national structure for ARES that mirrors their own, with ARES coordinators at the NTS Region and Area levels • NTS proposal would add 13 new coordinator positions nationally • NTS’ stated key goal is to “compel” ARES to fully implement interoperable local NTS-affiliated nets and the radio email layer (NTSD and Winlink) with the goal of full geographic coverage • Proposal did not propose a mechanism for developing training materials and systems, voluntary standards and best practices, etc.

21. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio Download the documents and read them for yourself: www.arrl-mdc.net/ECAC/Documents.html Also includes the four NTS counterproposal documents.

22. ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio Atlantic Jim Cross, WI3N - Chairman Central Vacant Dakota Jim Zahradnicek, KDØS Delta Jim Coleman, AI5B Great Lakes John J. McDonough, WB8RCR Hudson Jim Mezey, W2KFV Midwest Reynolds Davis, KØGND New England Dave Colter, WA1ZCN – Vice Chairman Northwestern Chuck Verdon, W5KAV Pacific James R. Latham, AF6AQ Roanoke Charlie Miller, AE4UX Rocky Mountain Jeff Ryan, KØRM Southeastern Rick Palm, K1CE Southwestern Grant Hays, WB6OTS West Gulf Glen Reid, K5FX RAC Doug Mercer, VO1DTM (did not participate) Board Liaison Greg Sarratt, W4OZK Staff Liaison Mike Corey, KI1U Administrative Liaison Sharon Taratula