ARRL Board accepts National Emergency Response Planning Committee report

The ARRL Board of Directors accepted the Report of the National Emergency Response Planning Committee (NERPC) when it met January 19 and 20 in Windsor, Connecticut.

Upon dissolving the committee with its thanks, the Board set in motion a process to identify and implement action items in the report as soon as possible.

ARRL First Vice President Kay Craigie, N3KN, chaired the 13-member NERPC, charged with developing comprehensive recommendations to improve the League's response to regional, national and international disasters. Among other things, panel members evaluated the responses and actions of ARRL and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)
during Hurricane Katrina as well as lessons learned.

"If 'lessons learned' are not followed by 'behaviors changed,' then the lessons have not been learned at all," the report concludes. The report describes disaster preparedness as "a moving target, moving faster all the time."
No recommendations, plans or systems should be considered "the permanent answers for all circumstances and hazards," the report asserts.

The unprecedented scope of the Katrina response placed ARRL Headquarters into a leadership coordination role through national-level requests for help from served agencies such as the American Red Cross. While the level of expertise in emergency communications and emergency management among US radio amateurs is growing, the report noted, so is the expectation that the ARRL provide first-rate leadership and guidance.

Among the report's wide-ranging recommendations and suggestions:

• enhance ARRL and ARES training in basic message handling.

• develop a continuing education course covering installation, configuration, and use of Winlink 2000 for e-mail.

• formally establish a national ARES volunteer database for use during major disasters and establish training criteria.

• institute a Major Disaster Emergency Coordinator (MDEC) function to coordinate responses to large-scale national or regional disasters or emergencies.

• become better acquainted with the emergency response needs of distant ARRL sections, such as Pacific, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Alaska.

• improve working relationships with national-level served agencies.

• ensure ARRL staff training in the Incident Command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS) and, as necessary, adapt ARRL's emergency response structure to the Unified Command model.

In addition, ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, has appointed an ad hoc committee to study issues relating to background investigations as they apply to ARRL Amateur Radio volunteers and to recommend a background investigation policy.

Source: The American Radio Relay League

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