I - HAMS

For the Ham aspect of ARES, you have 3 jobs:

1) RECRUIT. Recruit Hams to help with emergency communications during disasters, and with communications during public service events;

The Buckmaster callsign lookup page, http://199.111.6.2/cgi-bin/do_hamcall/, shows that there are 297 hams licensed in Your County, Missouri. I'd expect about 20-30% of those hams are active. That means that about 60 to 90 hams are on the air in your county. How many of those belong to one of the clubs? Usually, club members make up the more active hams. Out of that 60-90, your ARES team could have about 20%, or 12 to 18 Hams.

You can generate a list of names and addresses of currently licensed hams in your county by visiting this page. Keep in mind this is current (within one week of the FCC master database) but may still contain names of hams who are now SK's or may live in another county if they live near a county line. For example one address may be for Centralia (which is in Boone County), but the actual county of residence is Audrain County. There will be cases like this since the FCC does not maintain a county of residence in their database, the city names are cross referenced to the USGS database to obtain a county and therefore can be wrong at times.

Have you created a good presentation to take to a meeting of each of the clubs and show their members what ARES is about? How is your relationship with the clubs in Your County? Have you sent out any ARES mailings to the hams in your county? The ARES trifolds are available for the asking from HQ.

2) TRAIN. Provide training for them to be effective communicators during these disasters and public service events

What kind of training do you provide at your ARES team meetings? Do you arrange for your ARES team to provide communications in public service events like the MS150 and parades to help keep their tactical communications skills honed and to help make the public aware of ARES? Are your team members of familiar with the Plan of Action in a disaster? Does your team have a good relationship with stations reporting in to the NTS? Can they compose a message in standard NTS format? Are you using the information from your EC books or from the ARRL Operating Manual's chapter on Emergency Communications?  How about the new Continuing Education on Emergency Communications (http://www.arrl.org/cce)?

3) APPRECIATE. Recognize your team members every chance you get; recognition is a volunteer's pay!  Use the certificates that HQ provides. Tell them in front of others how much you appreciate them. Get their names mentioned in the newspaper.

II - SERVED AGENCIES

Of course, the other primary aspect of ARES is the relationship with the Served Agencies. Do you have contacts with all of the Served Agencies? How do each of them expect ARES to help them? Have you and your AEC made presentations to their staff on how ARES can provide communications in a disaster?  Have you created Memoranda of Understanding with each Served Agency so that both you and your team will know what to expect?

III - REPORTING and PUBLICITY

Are you sending in your EC reports on a timely basis?  Are you sending in Public Service reports?  Do the local media know how your ARES team has helped your communities? Have you sent in any ARES-activity articles to Steve Ewald, wv1x, at QST?  Who is your ARRL Public Information Officer?

IV - FUND RAISING

While fund raising is not a requirement, it certainly can give your team more equipment and more fun! Applying for grants and showing local businesses why they should support you can generate hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for APRS tracker boxes, equipment to provide at the EOC or 911 Center, repeaters, antennas for hospitals, communications trailers, refreshments for meetings, training materials, travel expenses, registration fees for courses or conferences, SAME WX radios for schools or other public places. There are many positive things you can do to with a little effort and money.