Message from Bob Cooke VE3BDB RAC Vice President of Field Services

List of Active ARES Volunteers -- Response is required

ARES officials and members come and go.  Provided that the SEC (or SM) keeps me notified, the list of RAC-appointed ARES leaders (i.e. SEC, DEC and EC) appears correctly on the RAC ARES web pages.

However, in order for the Field Services Organization to have a current and true picture of ARES strength across the country, each Section Manager is asked to arrange for a list of all registered RAC ARES members in their respective Sections.

This can be accomplished either by the SM him/her self or by the SM delegating the task to the Section Emergency Coordinators, which is really where it belongs.

Contact will be required to be made with every appointed Emergency Coordinator within your Section, as they appear on the RAC ARES web pages, to ascertain and obtain certain basic information for forwarding to the VPFS.

That information will include (in this order please):

1) Full name (first and last) and call sign of the EC;

2) Location of the ARES unit and/or the area served;

3) Full name and call sign of each registered member in each ARES unit identified in #2, to authenticate the number of members reported;

4) General info as to band capabilities of each ARES member in the unit.  This simply means, indicate if the member has HF, VHF, UHF, HF/VHF, HF/UHF or HF/VHF/UHF.  Also indicate if the member has digital capabilities.  No further detail as to equipment or level of qualifications is necessary.  This is a "bare-bones" list for planning and presentation purposes only.

5) The number and call sign of any repeaters in the EC's area which are dedicated to or available for ARES operations, including exercise and actual disaster.

6) Any remarks deemed by the reporting SEC or SM to be pertinent and useful to the goals of this list.

Information regarding DECs and ECs is also to be included and SMs are asked to submit that same information for themselves and ensure it is submitted for SECs.

The purpose of this list is to provide RAC Field Services with as accurate a picture as possible of the RAC ARES state of readiness, in a single source.  It is NOT for inclusion in the RAC National Amateur Radio Emergency Database (NARED).

The number of ARES members and locations of ARES units (and nothing else) will be used in presentations demonstrating to government officials, especially those at higher levels, the organized resource being provided by the ARES.  In fact, a meeting is being scheduled to take place in Ottawa in two weeks time and much of the requested information is crucial to its success.

No doubt some SECs and/or SMs already have this information readily at hand and will only have to update it.  In fact, every SEC should have this info for his/her on Section and if such does not already exist, it will after this request is filled.  For their own purposes, SECs may wish to have the EC provide further information regarding volunteer members, such as telephone numbers and email addresses, while they're at it.  That will be left up to the SEC and this extra information is not requested or required by the VPFS.  However, please make it clear that the info is for Section purposes and not for the VPFS.  (Please note that one of the ARES appointee responsibilities is to make monthly reports, in which the current member strength is to be included. 

See: http://www.rac.ca/fieldorg/fsd212r.htm and http://www.rac.ca/fieldorg/fsd96r.htm

Because of the upcoming meeting and the importance of it to Amateur Radio in general and the ARES in particular, I ask that every Section Manager please make certain the requested list is sent to me by email at the address below, NO LATER than Friday, November 14, 2008, in order to facilitate completion of a Power Point presentation.  I say again, no later than Friday, November 14, 2008.

R.D. (Bob) Cooke VE3BDB
Vice President Field Services
Radio Amateurs of Canada Inc.

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