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".
Emergency services administrators not yet using volunteer communicators may well wonder if such dedicated and reliable volunteers actually exist. They do, although they may not necessarily be the first group that comes to mind. In many parts of the country such people have been found and selected carefully from a pool of applicants, and then trained and employed for many years. The key elements are: selected with care and trained and employed for years.
While only a small percentage of the potential emergency communications reserve participants will have the dedication and meet the requirements to become truly professional emergency communicators, there usually are sufficient numbers. Once selected, organized and trained, they can become largely self-sustaining so long as the agency remembers to keep them actively involved in the day-to-day life of the agency.
That is, in itself, one of the essential actions that separates outstanding results from the mediocre for the agency. It is a process that is far easier to implement than to describe.
The effort required to establish a communications reserve assuredly will pay off. Check into the services that have dealt with recent disasters, such as the hurricanes in South Florida and Hawaii, earthquakes and fires in Southern California, floods in the Midwest. Volunteer communicators were indispensable in all of them.
Need help in finding such personnel? Help IS available to the agency that asks for it. Call Stan Harter or Cary Mangum 916-262-1600
s/s Bill Musladin
CA State Office of Emergency Services
Retired Chief State Radio Officer
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".
Emergency services administrators not yet using volunteer communicators may well wonder if such dedicated and reliable volunteers actually exist. They do, although they may not necessarily be the first group that comes to mind. In many parts of the country such people have been found and selected carefully from a pool of applicants, and then trained and employed for many years. The key elements are: selected with care and trained and employed for years.
While only a small percentage of the potential emergency communications reserve participants will have the dedication and meet the requirements to become truly professional emergency communicators, there usually are sufficient numbers. Once selected, organized and trained, they can become largely self-sustaining so long as the agency remembers to keep them actively involved in the day-to-day life of the agency.
That is, in itself, one of the essential actions that separates outstanding results from the mediocre for the agency. It is a process that is far easier to implement than to describe.
The effort required to establish a communications reserve assuredly will pay off. Check into the services that have dealt with recent disasters, such as the hurricanes in South Florida and Hawaii, earthquakes and fires in Southern California, floods in the Midwest. Volunteer communicators were indispensable in all of them.
Need help in finding such personnel? Help IS available to the agency that asks for it. Call Stan Harter or Cary Mangum 916-262-1600
s/s Bill Musladin
CA State Office of Emergency Services
Retired Chief State Radio Officer
RSS Feed
