Page 1 MGTRO1 Version 1. 3 3/1/92 THE RADIO OFFICER (The Key to Success) Part 1, [Category: MGT] THE RADIO OFFICER: A DISCUSSION AND PERSPECTIVES The use of Amateur Radio operators in a structured program by local governments is called RACES---Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service. Every county should have a RACES unit. Legislative hearings in 1983 took the State to task for letting RACES disappear in most areas in California and directed the State OES to bring the RACES back on line and take its place with other local government volunteer programs such as those for reserve deputy sheriffs, reserve police officers, volunteer firefighters, etc. RACES is a part of your government. It is not a separate, detached or outside organiza_tion. RACES volunteers are your government's deputy communications personnel, your reserve of Amateur Radio operators. They comprise a pool of skilled communicators with reliable and sophisticated radio systems at no cost to the government. They are entitled to the privilege of being enrolled in RACES in every county or community. RACES Radio Officers are appointed by the State, county and city emergency management agencies they serve. They are a part of the agency staff and expected to be treated as such. The Radio Officer should be provided a job description, provided the organization practices and policies, learn the relationships to other agencies, attend staff meetings, may be sent to training sessions/seminars, provided space to work and resources to carry out the management of a program that would otherwise be staffed by a paid posi_tion in past years. In short, the Radio Officer should be made to feel a part of your staff as would a paid employee. We, in turn, expect the same interest, professionalism and dedication from any RACES Radio Officer. We can appreciate that it may be difficult for emergency services managers to accept this if you have never had an unpaid [qualified] volunteer on your staff. It can also be difficult to grasp the RACES program where it has been dead in many areas for up to 20 years. The State legislature has mandated that this oversight be corrected. This, coupled with reduced budgets, makes the use of skilled volunteers in law enforcement, fire suppression, search and rescue, and communications sound and practical. Amateur Radio operators are a valuable resource of skills and in-place communications systems and equipment at no cost to government. [Done correctly] their availability and usage is called the RACES program. In short, they are assigned directly to you or to whomever you have delegated the emergency communications function. In effect RACES is managed by the department to whom you have delegated the emergency com_munications function. The RACES Radio Officer is not a paper assignment just to place a name in a plan or a doomsday roster and then forget about it. We have, unfortunately, received reports of some jurisdictions where this seems to be the case. Here are some of the varitions: 1. The OES agency does not understand the RACES program, lacks information, is mis_informed by outsiders, and/or is unaware that every county and State OES Region should have an active RACES unit. [There are many city RACES units as well, but for good management reasons we do not generally advocate new RACES units in cities of under 500,000 population. A partic_ularly troublesome emergency management problem exists if there are city RACES units in a county that has no bona fide county RACES program. Our office will he pleased to work with you to successfully overcome any of these shortcomings.] 2. The RACES officer is not adequately fulfilling the expectations of the position. [Have you provided a written job description? This office will provide model Radio Officer and Communicator job descriptions for the asking.] 3. The RACES Radio Officer is not the right manager for the job. Can you rectify this problem through closer supervision, assistance from our office, or by replacing the individual? 4. Failure to integrate and maintain close and harmonious relations with ARES--the Amateur Radio Emergency Service sponsored by the American Radio Relay League. All ARES members should be enrolled in RACES, but the individual's preferences should be respected by categorizing each RACES member as 1st level response, 2nd level, and so forth. This is the job of the Radio Officer and his/her staff. 5. Failure [of the government agency] to permit the RACES personnel to be used as frequently as possible in exercises, special events for training purposes, and real emergencies. Volunteers will not and cannot be expected to perform in the manner you expect if they are not either trained or used on a regular basis. 6. Radio Officer failing to stop by the office at least once or twice a month as a bare minimum. Failure to do so can excuse the OES agency from observing step number 7. Failure to do so will also doom your RACES unit and program to failure. 7. OES agency's failure to remember that the Radio Officer is a regular member of the staff and should, for example, receive distribution of all staff memos, pertinent cor_respondence, appropriate clerical support, and appropriate work space. The Radio Officer (or an assistant) is to be invited to staff meetings, conferences, appropriate in-government training, and other employee functions. The Radio Officer should have an "in" basket at the office. A well informed volunteer feels the pride of belonging and should serve with the same professionalism as paid staff. The Regional Radio Officer, or where none is appointed, the State Radio Officer, or State OES Coordinator, will meet with you and your RACES Radio Officer to discuss these and other subjects to create, improve, or maintain a proper RACES program. At one extreme is the government administrator who feels that a volunteer can't be expected to do a job as well as an employee. The other extreme is the employee who feels that anyone who is expected to accept responsibilities and meet minimum performance expectations should be paid; i.e., "If you expect me to do that, then you should go hire someone!" Both extremes, of course, are unacceptable in successful volunteer pro_grams. Again, RACES is only as good as government expects it to be, allows it to be, directs it to be and trains it to be. Perhaps you have heard of a recruiting problem -- not at all unusual: "We would like a RACES unit but we can't find a RACES Officer." What they are saying is that they cannot find a ham with the requisite organizational and management skills this position re_quires. There are at least four steps an agency shouldn't overlook in finding their Radio Officer: (1) First, prepare a written position description for the Radio Officer and a general statement of standards and expectations for all the RACES personnel. (These are avail_able from this or any Region Office and are very helpful in briefing any potential ap_plicant; it is better to state these items up front to minimize your disappointment in signing up the joiners, non-producers, the unmotivated and inexperienced volunteer.) (2) Ask your local hams or Amateur Radio club(s) to propose Radio Officer candidates. (3) Ask the next higher RACES echelon if they can provide a Radio Officer. This is a common and effective method. A county may be able to provide an experienced Radio Officer for one of its cities, and the State might be able to transfer a skilled individual to a county in need. (4) Make known your requirements to the ARRL ARES (American Radio Relay League's Amateur Radio Emergency Service) emergency coordinator. RB019 through 022 HOW COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEERS CAN BE USED QUESTION: I am new at using volunteers in our government. How can I use volunteers in communications? ANSWER: [Besides the skills of the Radio Officer, some assignment skills for your un_paid professional communication specialists in government service are: -voice radio operators for tactical and formal traffic; -digital operators for packet radio, AMTOR, and radioteletype. This can include unli_censed people skilled at typing messages into computers; -monitor receiver operators to listen for information, news or intelligence from broadcast, public safety and ham radio stations; -Net Control voice operators. This takes a special and uncommon skill that you should identify and recruit in advance of their need; -Shift supervisors. Trained volunteers to manage the other volunteers; -Shadows. A shadow is a radio operator who brings his/her own two-way radio (usually Amateur Radio) communications and accompanies a key official around the clock as long as that official is on duty. The shadow is also capable of operating the official's own radio, cellular telephone, etc.; and -Comm Unit Leaders on incidents. Where the Incident Command System is used for the public safety communications resources and Amateur Radio is also used, their should also be a ham Comm Unit Leader. The two should work side by side throughout the in_cident. This has unfortunately not been the case during the past five years of most of the major state and federal forest fire operations in California. This could be attributed to growing pains because the use of volunteer communications was virtually unknown by the fed_eral government and for less than ten years among a few state units. We strongly rec_ommend that the federal or state Comm Unit Leader assure in the future that there be a volunteer Comm Unit Leader who will work where he works throughout the incident. This can eliminate the confusion and problems that do and will arise, no matter how well the volunteers have served in the past. Volunteers must not be allowed to function without tight coordination, direction and control from those they are serving. State and federal wildfire suppression organizations are urged to amend their ICS checklist for their Comm Unit Leader to include establishing a volunteer Comm Unit Leader that works for and with the principal position. As we enter the fifth year of drought in the West, it behooves us all to preplan, organize, train and stand ready more than ever before. The threat grows as the budgets shrink. Our agency knows that there are vol_unteers and there are volunteers. We recruit, train and promote the use of those we call unpaid professional communications specialists. We recognize that there are volunteers who can be defined as self serving or loose canons; they are not of concern because they don't have to be recruited and they can be dismissed. No government agency should be the least bit reluctant to do the latter. A major portion of our volunteer management orientation is spent on this aspect of not being reluctant to select and reject. RB164, 165 RADIO OFFICER'S DATA BASE [Duplicate in Mutual Aid Section: "Essential Mutual Aid Records, etc.] RACES personnel helping out on incidents outside of their jurisdiction is a common occurrence. This is part of MUTUAL AID operations and procedures. It is not necessary to be registered as a Disaster Service Worker in more than one jurisdiction. This practice is, in fact, improper. A Volunteer should have only one ID card and should surrender an old card when transferring to a new jurisdiction. As a part of the Communications classification of Disaster Service Workers, all RACES personnel are a part of the CALIFORNIA MASTER MUTUAL AID SYSTEM. To access additional Amateur Radio resources through this system, a jurisdiction con_tacts the next level up of government. For example, a City Radio Officer would contact the County Radio Officer with the request. The County Radio Officer will coordinate with other city RACES organizations and his own organization to fill the needs. If the County Operational Area organization cannot fill the need, the County Radio Officer contacts their State OES Region RACES Coordinator, who will work with the other counties in the OES Mutual Aid Region to obtain the needed resources. This system does not prohibit the establishment of AUTOMATIC AID AGREEMENTS be_tween the Emergency Management Organizations of two (or more) adjacent jurisdic_tions; the Regional RACES Coordinator, however, should be advised when an Automatic Aid situation is in progress, so that OES Region staff is aware that resources in those jurisdictions are not available. Accurate records are a prerequisite for Radio Officers at all levels --- city, county and OES Region. Every new Radio Officer needs to develop and maintain a roster of names and telephone numbers for their counterparts in neighboring jurisdictions. If yours is not complete and current, we urge all emergency management agencies and Radio Officers give this top priority. Another bad fire season be around the corner. A major earthquake could happen at any time. Your jurisdiction could receive a request through channels to provide RACES operators for an incident hundreds of miles away or even in an adjacent state. This has happened in prior fire seasons and, where RACES was still in the formative or non-extant stage RACES mutual aid response was slow, disorganized and inefficient. Region Radio Officers need to know how to contact every participating county in their Region and, in some cases, cities. Every county Radio Officer should know the names and telephone numbers of their Region, cities, and adjoining county Radio Officers. It is a common practice for jurisdictions to equip their Radio Officers with a radio pager. We recommend this practice. (Any level calling for mutual aid assistance usually requests a specific number of personnel, the personal skills required, and the type and quantity of communication equipment required. A Radio Officer or agency should not put out a call for "all available Amateurs report to --- ." Whenever possible we will try to pre-alert jurisdictions to the possibility of a mutual aid callup so that you will be better prepared with an answer if and when you are called. In major incidents that are common knowledge, you should survey your resource availability before you are called for mutual aid. Then, if possible or appropriate, report to the next higher echelon Radio Officer what you have willing and able to re_spond; i.e., city to county, county to State OES Region, Region to OES Headquarters. Many mutual aid requests may come direct to State OES Headquarters (from CDF, USFS, etc.); it helps us a lot when we have heard from those Regions that have RACES resources available to respond. Those Regions with hams ready to go will usually get the nod. There are increasing requests for ATV (Amateur TV). Radio Officers should develop who and where they are on their data base. We also request that all ATV teams be reported now to your State OES Region Office so that we may build an ATV data base. What is re_quired are the principal contact names and telephone/pager numbers. All Radio Officers (at all levels) should include all ARRL EC's (Emergency Coordinators) in their resource data base. There are many hams whose services are available only in a crisis or on an infrequent basis and choose not to be a member of a RACES unit. This is why we urge all hams to register as Disaster Service Workers so that they can serve without any administrative delays. By the same token, we expect ARRL EC's to keep RACES officials posted with any information necessary to achieve and maintain close coordination. RB015 and 016 HOW TO HELP YOUR RADIO OFFICER Emergency management agency managers frequently ask what your Radio Officer should know. Many of the subjects have been covered in past Bulletins. Several Radio Officers have recently suggested the importance of their knowing about, understanding, and cooperating with the other public safety communications managers in your government. This will help to enable your volunteer communications resources to fit it in better than if they are held aside as a last resort, when all else fails, or a doomsday resource. Such RACES units usually fade away not too long after being organized. If they are an outside group, they may not be equipped with adequate training and preconditioning from you and your jurisdiction. Any volunteer is only as good as the training he or she seeks and receives. We have heard from many Radio Officers who support the premise that they are of more value when they gain an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the public safety communications systems in their area. They are en_couraged to become members of their local Associated Public-Safety Communications Officers chapter. Some jurisdictions pay the APCO dues for their RACES Radio Officer and broaden the scope of their duties to include all volunteer communications services. We know of several people who have entered the public safety career field in this manner. RB166 RADIO OFFICERS AND ASSISTANTS. Every RACES radio officer in every jurisdiction should have at least two alternates. There are several reasons for this. 1. A radio officer cannot perform satisfactorily around the clock. 2. No individual should be indispensable. 3. The alternate, or assistant, radio officers should be used in key staff positions responsible for such activities as training, operations, administration, records and so forth. Every position should have depth. RB86-17. Compilers note: The following RB 207(l992) is included with additional data: QUESTION: To have a RACES unit for our government, we need to only appoint a RADIO OFFICER, right? REPLY: That's a start, but there's more to it than that. The Civil Defense or Emergency Services Director, or designee, appoints the Radio Officer. Then it's the responsibility of that Radio Officer to appoint (as a rule) assis_tants and/or alternates which should be subject to your approval for reasons to be indicated. Initially the Radio Officer thinks in terms of communications, but as the relationship between the emergency management agency and the Radio Officer deepens, the astute Radio Officer finds ways of assisting in the fields of administration, management, and sometimes even in that of affecting short and long range policies. In general, we think in terms of three levels of responders to any type of emergency: Level 1 is fully registered, trained, and serves on a regular, frequent, staff basis. The Level 2 volunteer is registered, likely untrained and often intermittent in participa_tion. Level 3 people are unregistered, training uncertain, not at all interested in be_longing to the government agency, but willing to come out and 'help' at times of his/her own choosing. What is said here refers only to Level 1 people. The well selected Radio Officer, like the well selected paid staff of the agency, is fa_miliar with the span of control and selects assistants who specialize in specific activi_ties: such as administration, operations and technical. These key assistants may well be properly subject to your approval as the appointing authority since in some instances you may have to work directly with them instead of the Radio Officer (if he/she were away, ill, or injured for example.) Here, the position to which the Radio Officer re_ports, or responds to, is the RACES Coordinator (as well as what other title may apply locally). With a minimum of oversight the Radio Officer should carry out the day-to-day mat_ters; but with the clear understanding that all policy matters should be approved first by the RACES Coordinator. We encourage the creation of such depth in the RACES orga_nization and finding means and ways to use the volunteers besides just radio commu_nication operators and equipment providers! --Cary Mangum, W6WWW, California Chief State Radio Officer. RB 207 See Mgt: Radio Officer, Part 2 See Mgt: Radio Officer, Part 2