EMC250 How many to involve?
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  

EMC250 How many to involve?    Release 8/14/00

D: HOW MANY TO INVOLVE?

Prior bulletins said that the authority to activate ACS or RACES
has certain requirements and is published in the ACS or RACES
plan. How activation may occur was discussed. Also noted, was
the effect of state Disaster Service Worker regulations and
how authority devolves from an Accredited disaster council.

We learned that the disaster council delegates the authority 
to someone in local government, such as the Sheriff, thence to
a Deputy Sheriff, for example.

Once the decision is made to involve the unit, the next item
is HOW MANY of the unit to involve. This decision may be made
by the agency coordinator or ACS or RACES Officer depending
on the local situation; but it may hinge on how well the paid
staff coordinator understands the program. 

Historically it was thought activation was for the entire unit.
However, that varies with the jurisdiction or the situation.
Activation, call out or use can range from one person to 3 or
13 or 130. 

Ideally, some element of the EMCOMM unit should be brought into
the agency whenever the agency is involved with ANY emergency or
POTENTIAL emergency situation. That is a good practice and
accomplishes important essentials: 
   (1) it tells the unit it is important to the agency 
   (2) it opens lines of communications before it is too late
   (3) it strengthens relationships between agency and unit in
       ways that you can't discover until it is done repeatedly.

Also, under the right program coordinator, the program may even
include on-going participant involvement on a day-to-day basis.
As an example, at State OES in CA we use a form of on-going
involvement for the state ACS (Auxiliary Communications Service).
Every week unit participants come into the Communications Center
for net participation, training and other preparations for
eventual emergency uses. This is a policy instituted by the paid
staff coordinator. At his direction, selected unit participants
are tasked to the Comm Center on a regular basis. The purpose, in
non-emergency times and events, is to check equipment, work on
communications systems, staff training nets, attend designated
training, or to assist in projects related to preparedness for
emergencies. To some degree it may be said that the State OES
ACS unit is constantly in some element of involvement due to
recognition that the process is preparing the unit to better
serve when emergency communications support is needed.

Not all units can do this but it illustrates involvement and
how important it is to not wait for the "big one", or for that
matter, for any disaster to occur.

 Cary Mangum, W6WWW        E-mail: cary.mangum@macnexus.org
                           ---
Bulletins are on the ACS Web page: http://acs.oes.ca.gov  -and a
Landline BBS: 916-262-0856 (graphical & standard interface)
EOM