EMC207  Answer the Phone? 1/3 
To:   Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To:   Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By:   Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the
      California Governor's Office of Emergency Services  

EMC207 Answer the Phone? 1/3   For release 10/25/99

This bulletin might be titled Opportunity 1a, in that it
describes what may be distasteful to some unit participants. Yet,
it was a real-world opportunity, quite disguised, but still an
an opportunity that is sometimes seldom offered in the life of
an Emcomm unit.

A retired Brigadier General and a retired President of a
Financial Firm were members of a government EMCOMM unit. The
General was a unit Assistant Radio Officer and the President was
the Radio Officer for that agency at the time. Both were
accustomed to going into the agency to the communications center
at least one day a week. While there they usually did EMCOMM unit
work of one kind or another, possibly handling a weekly net,
checking other equipment, planning unit activities, writing
educational bulletins somewhat like these, etc.

While at a government agency Communications Center doing routine
EMCOMM unit work, the Radio Officer (RO) received a telephone
request from a key Administrative Manager that said: "All my
staff are out with the flu except myself and one other person. We
need someone to answer the telephone and take the messages
updating us on local emergency conditions. Is there a way your
people can provide help today?"

As you can imagine, the idea of sitting in an office answering a
telephone from people and agencies and writing the phone message
is not what EMCOMM unit personnel may consider normal emergency
operational procedures. It would have been easy to turn down the
request.

What had occasioned the request was a recommendation from a field
coordinator who knew the RO and his views on service. He had a
hunch that the RO might fill the Managers need, having learned of
it earlier, hence his recommendation to the Manager to call the
RO.

The RO, still on the telephone with the agency manager, thought
"no one in the unit is going to be able to take that on today."
Then he realized that the work he was doing in his office at his
desk, could just as easily be done at a desk in another agency
and he could answer the telephone as well. His thoughts were now
"Maybe I could go and provide the assistance. Hmmmn, should I?
What might be the long range benefits from that action?" Acting
on a hunch, he responded, "Okay, I'll get you someone for today."

(continues next week, bulletin 208)
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EOM