Roles – Official Emergency Station (OES)

ARRL Field Organization

Amateur operators may be appointed as an Official Emergency Station (OES) by their Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) or Section Manager (SM) at the recommendation of the EC, or DEC (if no EC) holding jurisdiction. The OES appointee must be an ARRL member and set high standards of emergency preparedness and operating. The OES appointee makes a deeper commitment to the ARES program in terms of functionality than does the rank-and-file ARES registrant.

The requirements and qualifications for the position include the following:

  • Full ARRL membership
  • Experience as an ARES registrant
  • Regular participation in the local ARES organization including drills and tests
  • Participation in emergency nets and actual emergency situations
  • Regular reporting of activities.

The OES appointee is appointed to carry out specific functions and assignments designated by the appropriate EC or DEC. The OES appointee and the presiding EC or DEC, at the time of the OES appointment, will mutually develop a detailed, operational function/assignment and commitment for the new appointee. Together, they will develop a responsibility plan for the individual OES appointee that makes the best use of the individual’s skills and abilities. During drills and actual emergency situations, the OES appointee will be expected to implement his/her function with professionalism and minimal supervision.

Functions assigned may include, but are not limited to, the following four major areas of responsibility:

OPERATIONS

Responsible for specific, pre-determined operational assignments during drills or actual emergency situations. Examples include Net Control Station or Net Liaison for a specific ARES net; Manage the operation of a specified ARES VHF or HF digital BBS or MBO or point-to-point link; Operate station at a specified emergency management office, Red Cross shelter or other served agency operations point.

ADMINISTRATION

Responsible for specific, pre-determined administrative tasks as assigned in the initial appointment commitment by the presiding ARES official. Examples include:

  • Recruitment of ARES members
  • Liaison with Public Information Officer to coordinate public information for the media
  • ARES registration data base management
  • Victim/refugee data base management
  • Equipment inventory
  • Training
  • Reporting
  • Post-event analysis.

LIAISON

Responsible for specific, pre-determined liaison responsibilities as assigned by the presiding EC or DEC. Examples include:

  • Maintaining contact with assigned served agencies
  • Maintaining liaison with specified NTS nets
  • Maintaining liaison with ARES officials in adjacent jurisdictions
  • Liaison with mutual assistance or “jump” teams.

LOGISTICS

Responsible for specific, pre-determined logistical functions as assigned. Examples include:

  • Transportation
  • Supplies management and procurement (food, fuel, water, etc.)
  • Equipment maintenance and procurement–radios, computers, generators, batteries, antennas.

MANAGEMENT ASSISTANT

Responsible for serving as an assistant manager to the EC, DEC, or SEC based on specific functional assignments or geographic areas of jurisdiction.

CONSULTING

Responsible for consulting to ARES officials in specific area of expertise. OES appointees may be assigned to pre-disaster, post-disaster, and recovery functions. These functions must be specified in the OES’s appointment commitment plan. The OES appointee is expected to participate in planning meetings, and post-event evaluations. Following each drill or actual event, the EC/DEC and the OES appointee should review and update the OES assignment as required. The OES appointee must keep a detailed log of events during drills and actual events in his/her sphere of responsibility to facilitate this review. Continuation of the appointment is at the discretion of the appointing official, based upon the OES appointee’s fulfillment of the tasks he/she has agreed to perform. Official Emergency Stations are encouraged to earn certification in Level 1 of the ARRL Emergency Communications Course.

Recruitment of new hams and ARRL members is an integral part of the job of every ARRL appointee. Appointees should take advantage of every opportunity to recruit a new ham or member to foster the growth of Field Organization programs, and our abilities to serve the public.

Recruitment of new hams and League members is an integral part of the job of every League appointee. Appointees should take advantage of every opportunity to recruit a new ham or member to foster the growth of Field Organization programs, and our abilities to serve the public.

Requirements: Full ARRL membership; FCC Technician class amateur radio license or higher.

ARES Oklahoma Additions

In addition to the roles and responsibilities listed above, ARES Oklahoma has outlined the following additional roles associated to all officers.

  • You are responsible for training someone who can fill in for you if you are unable to participate. As an example, if you are a REC, DEC, or EC one of your assistants should be designated as your potential replacement.
  • You must go to aresok.org/join to apply for Oklahoma ARES membership. This adds your name to the list that local incident commanders use in trying to find ARES members for emergencies. Additionally, if you are joining as an AEC or above, this is the website that has all of the tools you’ll need to participate within the section reporting structure. This associates your call sign with ARES at the local section level.
  • If you are applying to be an officer within ARES Oklahoma, you must fill out our personal information release form and mail it to the current SEC. This gives ARES Oklahoma the legal coverage deemed necessary for liability issues regarding the website.
  • All ARES Oklahoma officers must join the “aresoklahoma” Yahoo! Group atgroups.yahoo.com/group/aresoklahoma (then click on the big blue “Join This Group!” button at the top right). This is how we broadcast all section events, information, etc. that is of a timely or critical nature. All ARES Oklahoma volunteers are encouraged to join this group also.
  • If you are an EC, a DEC, or a REC, you must also download a copy of the ARES Oklahoma Section Plan and, using it as a template, edit the section(s) starting on page 14 that apply to your position within the organization. These should be emailed to the ASEC Chief of Staff (currently, Mr. Charles Goodson) for review. Once approved, it should be passed along up the chain of command (ie. EC’s edit their information into the EC section on page 15 and mail it to their DEC; their DEC would collect all of the EC’s sections mailed to them, and insert it into their own approved copy of this plan and after adding their own information and mail that to the ASEC Chief of Staff. Once approved, they would then mail it to their REC; and so on). This gives uniformity to all of the operations of ARES in Oklahoma, as the bulk of data for the rules, etc., will be maintained as STANDARD across the section. The finished document, with all EC, DEC, and REC additions, will be the definitive statement of ARES in Oklahoma. Looking through it, any incident commander working on any disaster within the state will have all the information needed to find the ARES members in the section.
  • Once per quarter, all ARES Oklahoma members should validate all of their contact information on both the ARES Oklahoma website as well as the national ARRL website.