Harris County ARES

To become a member of Harris County ARES and receive a Harris County ARES badge you must;

Possess a valid amateur radio license
Possess sincere desire to serve communications duty in the public service
We also need you to do three things;

First, Submit on line FSD-98 with the South Texas Section of the ARRL. Click on "Register New Member"
Second, Download and print out a FSD98 and submit that to your Emergency Coordinator (EC). Harris County is broken into four geographical units, NE NW SW SE. You can determine your EC by what part of the county your are in.
Third, You will also need to create an account in our database. This database asks for your basic contact information, how Harris County ARES should contact you, tracks your training and your availability. Please use your FCC callsign for your user ID as that is how we can verify your eligibility. Once you create an account you can log in VIA the Member Log In using the link in the Navigation menu to keep your information up to date.

Also required: New members must take the most current version of the following FREE courses. if you have taken an expired course you DO NOT have to take the replacement courses unless you choose to do so.

FEMA IS-100 Course - Introduction to Incident Command System
FEMA IS-200 Course - Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
FEMA IS-700 Course - National Incident Management System (NIMS)
FEMA IS-800 Course - National Response Framework
A $5 donation annually to help cover the cost of administration of STX District 14 is appreciated

Continuing Education

Recommended training and additional certifications but not required for ARES membership are

FEMA Courses (free). Many of these are required for the ARRL EC-016 course.

IS-1 Emergency Manager An Orientation to the Position.
IS-26 Guide to Points of Distribution.
IS-120 An Introduction to Exercises.
IS-130 Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning.
IS-139 Exercise Design.
IS-240 Leadership & Influence
IS-241 Decision Making and Problem Solving
IS-242 Effective Communication
IS-244 Developing and Managing Volunteers.
IS-250 Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF-15) External Affairs.
IS-288 The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management.
NIMS ICS-300, Intermediate Incident Command System
Highly recommended, but not required. It is a classroom course
NIMS ICS-400, Advanced Incident Command System
Recommended but not required. This is also a classroom course.
IS-317 Introduction to Community Emergency Response Teams
IS-802 Emergency Support Functions Communications

ARRL Courses (fee required)

ARRL EC-001 / Introduction to emergency communication This introductory course provides the basic information you'll need to participate in ham radio public service and emcomm. This is the equivalent former ARECC Level 1 course.
ARRL EC-016 / Public Service and Emergency Communications Management -This advanced course has extensive prerequisites and prepares hams to serve in leadership roles for public service.

Texas RACES

TX State RACES membership. Contact Hal Merritt, KD5HW

National Weather Service

NWS Skywarn class

Texas Homeland Security

Texas Homeland Security has a number of training opportunities

Community Emergency Response Teams

CERT class completion

American Red Cross

Red Cross Volunteer Orientation Course and other RC Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response Training

Practice Practice Practice

Part of the learning process and becoming comfortable with being an emergency communicator is to practice practice practice. Check in to numerous nets. Pretend that you are the net contol station (NCS) and write down all the check ins. Take notes on whatever traffic or training that was passed over the air. When the net is over send the net control station an email with your list of check-ins and notes and ask them to verify that you got it correct. In addition to participating in local V/UHF nets, if you have HF capability, check in to the Texas Traffic net on a regular basis. Even better would be to actually handle traffic on the net.

Another way to improve your skills is to participate in public service events. You will often hear people say that you can not be a good communicator until you are a good listener. A lot of what you will learn doing public service is not what you do but listening to all the traffic handled by the net and how it was handled. Go over in your mind how you might do things slightly differently for yourself. After the event is over talk to the NCS and other communication leaders for the event and discuss things you may have had questions about but over the air during the net was not the appropriate time. Everyone who is in charge of an event or the NCS has started out not knowing much either. Learn from them.

Specific information on the ARRL - Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course EC-016 Management

These requirements need to be documented and verified by the ARRL Continuing Education Program office:
Completion of ARRL's Level 1 / Basic course, and recommendation from ARRL Section Manager
FEMA courses that are prerequisites for this course:
- FEMA IS-100 Course - Introduction to Incident Command System
- FEMA IS-200 Course - Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
- FEMA IS-700 Course - National Incident Management System (NIMS)
- ICS-300, a classroom course, is also highly recommended, but not required.
FEMA courses that need to be completed prior to the final assessment for this course:
- IS-1 Emergency Manager An Orientation to the Position.
- IS-120 An Introduction to Exercises.
- IS-130 Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning.
- IS-139 Exercise Design.
- IS-240 Leadership & Influence
- IS-241 Decision Making and Problem Solving
- IS-244 Developing and Managing Volunteers.
- IS-250 Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF-15) External Affairs.
- IS-288 The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management.
- IS-800 National Response Framework

Membership levels.

0 - Inactive
Signed up, never heard from again.
At Level 1 for no less than 12 but no more than 24 months before being classified as inactive.
Those names that remain inactive for a period of 24 months will be purged from the database.
Members with bounced emails and no other valid contact information listed in the database will be purged immediately.
1 - Associate Member
Signed up and verifies their database entries annually. This is the entry level membership in the database.
2 - Member
Verifies their database entry annually and has passed all four online FEMA Emergency Management Institute classes required to get a badge.
3 - Supporting Member
Verifies their database entry annually, has met the badge requirements. Has passed the FEMA EMI class "Guide to Points of Distribution", IS-26. Participates in one of the following each year;
- a.Drill.
- b.SET.
- c.Public service event.
- d.General membership meeting. One of the quarterly meetings.
- e.Serves as both Net control and backup net control for the weekly net.
- f.Respond to a call for volunteers to any incident.
4 - Advanced Member (Team Leader)
Verifies their database entry annually, has met the badge requirements. Has passed the IS-26 FEMA EMI class and one or more of the recommended FEMA EMI classes. Completes no less than two of the following each year;
- a.Drill.
- b.SET.
- c.Public service event.
- d.General membership meeting. Two or more of the quarterly meetings.
- e.Joins the Net control rotation for the weekly net.
- f.Be active in or deployed to any incident as a result of a call for volunteers. (Requires only one occurrence to fulfill the requirement.)
5 - AEC (Supervisor)
The AEC is an individual who has stepped up to an active role in their unit. Depending on their assigned task they might do any or all of the following;
- Help to manage, train and educate Unit members.
- Plan drills, operations, exercises
- Work with our served agencies to fulfill their needs.
- Educate non-hams, recruit new members,
- and promote ARES and Ham radio.
- Be a Mentor!
Presently there is no 6, 7 or 8
9 - EC (Manager & General Adminstration)
Emergency Coordinators, all of the above.
10 - Systems Administration.
Makes sense of and keeps track of the database.

Membership levels will not continually bounce back and forth due to a person's ability to participate. Once reached, maintenance at Member through Advanced Member level will only require annual verification of their database entry and participation in one function a year.
Deleting an individual (purging) from the Database.
Before any individual is purged from the District 14 Database the individuals Unit EC will check with their AEC's and the EC's of the other Units. This will be done to be sure that the individual to be purged has indeed been inactive or out of touch. Maybe someone has knowledge of the person in question being active or participating in functions with another unit or without their being a proper record of those activities. To verify/update your database entries.

1.Log in to the ARES database, http://www.harriscountyares.org/aresdb/
2.In the menu on the left select "Update Registration".
3.Look over your information there; please check the information under every tab.
4.Make any changes necessary. Be sure to hit the "Save Changes" button found under the "General", "Location" or "Other" tabs.
5.If everything is current you must hit the "Save Changes" button anyway. No matter how many times you visit the database, unless you hit the "Save Changes" button the date will not reset. This is the only way we can know you have looked at and verified your information.

To record your volunteer hours

For the NW Unit.

1.Members will be responsible for recording their hours worked on Public Service Events in the ARES database unless told otherwise. For example your EC or other NW member at the PS event informs you they will enter everyone's hours for that event. Verify they have entered your hours!
2.Log in to the database at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nwhc_ares/database.
3.Select the appropriate year/month. Select "Add Record".
4.You will then enter the "Date" of the event, your "Name", your "Call", the "Event", the "Agency Served" and your "Hours".
5.Then click on the "Add Record" button at the bottom of that page to save your entry.
6.If you happen to be one of those who just refuse to get involved with Yahoo groups email the EC with the same information required above. Verify they have entered your hours!

For Other Units

1.Members will be responsible for recording their hours worked on Public Service Events unless told otherwise. For example, another Unit member at the PS event informs you they will enter everyone's hours for that event. Verify they have entered your hours!
2.Notify your Unit EC or AEC responsible for tracking Volunteer hours.
3.Provide them with the "Date" of the event, your "Name", your "Call", the "Event", the "Agency Served" and your "Hours". Verify they have entered your hours!

Ultimately it will be the responsibility of the individual member to make sure their endeavors are properly recorded!

By comparison check out the requirements for the Irving Texas ARES/RACES

Membership Requirements
Have a valid Amateur Radio license.
Commit to a 7 days a week/24 hours a day availability, second only to family emergencies and work requirements. THIS IS A 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK COMMITMENT
Training

1.Attend a skywarn school initially, then at least every two years.
2.Complete the FEMA NIMS IS-100 and IS-700 home study courses within three (3) months of acceptance as a RACES member.
3.Currently it is strongly recommended that you also take course IS-0100.

Participation

1.To originate and pass two messages on the NTS (ARRL National Traffic System) (One to Billy Geer KA5OZC , and one to anybody else).
2.Check into twelve Dallas County RACES Training Nets, of which six of those nets must be Irving RACES/ARES Training Nets.
3.Participate in at least twenty-five percent of unscheduled Irving RACES/ARES Nets
4.Participate in at least one net controlled public service event of at least 1.5 hours duration each year.

Equipment
- 1.Carry an alpha-numeric RACES group pager. This requires a contract with Verizon. The cost is approximately $4.55 monthly. Paperwork will be supplied when accepted.
- 2.Have at least a 2-meter radio with a recommended output of 20 watts.

Admittedly these were some of the most demanding requirements I found. They were found by simply doing a Google search for "ARES Membership requirements". They were on the first page.