ARRL Field Organization
The REC is the assistant to the Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) for emergency preparedness. The REC is appointed by the SEC to take care of all matters pertaining to emergency communications and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) on a region-wide basis. The REC post is one of top importance in the section and the individual appointed to it should devote all possible energy and effort to this one challenging organizational program for Amateur Radio. There is only one REC appointed in each region of an ARRL Field Organization.
REC qualifications and functions:
- Encourage all groups of community amateurs to establish a local emergency organization.
- Advise the SEC on all section emergency policy and planning, including the development of a region emergency communications plan.
- Cooperate and coordinate with the Section Traffic Manager so that emergency nets and traffic nets in the section present a united public service front, particularly in the proper routing of Welfare traffic in emergency situations. Cooperation and coordination should also be maintained with other section leadership officials as appropriate, particularly with the State Government Liaison and Public Information Coordinator.
- Recommend candidates for Emergency Coordinator and District Emergency Coordinator appointments (and cancellations) to the SEC. At the SEC’s discretion, the REC may be directly in charge of making (and canceling) such appointments.
- Promote ARES membership drives, meetings, activities, tests, procedures, etc., at the section level.
- Collect and consolidate Emergency Coordinator (and/or District Emergency Coordinator) monthly reports and submit monthly progress summaries to the SEC and ARRL Headquarters. This includes the timely reporting of emergency and public safety communications rendered in the section for inclusion in QST.
- Maintain contact with other communication services and serve as liaison at the section level with all agencies served in the public interest, particularly in connection with state and local government, civil preparedness, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Red Cross, Salvation Army, the National Weather Service, and so on. Such contact is maintained in cooperation with the State Government Liaison.
- Region Emergency Coordinators are encouraged to earn certification from the ARRL “Intro to EmComm, EC-001” Course (See ARRL for details)
- All ARES Oklahoma officers are also expected to complete ICS-700.A, ICS-100.B, ICS-200.B, and ICS-800.B FEMA training. All existing ARES members must complete this training before 12/1/2007. All new applicants have one year from the time of application to become part of ARES Oklahoma to complete this training.
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 and apply to be a part of the section. 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 at groups.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.