Click image for fullsized district map.
- Northwest District
- Northeast District
- Metro Atlanta District
- West Central District
- Central District
- East Central District
- Southwest District
- Southeast District
There are four levels of ARES organization--national, section, district and local. National emergency coordination at ARRL Headquarters is under the supervision of the ARRL Field and Educational Services Manager, who is responsible for advising all ARES officials regarding their problems, maintaining contact with federal government and other national officials concerned with amateur emergency communications potential, and in general with carrying out the League's policies regarding emergency communications.
At the section level, the Section Emergency Coordinator is appointed by the Section Manager (who is elected by the ARRL members in his or her section) and works under his/her supervision. In Georgia, the SM delegates to the SEC the administration of the section emergency plan and the authority to appoint District and local ECs.
Geographic District Emergency Coordinators
The State of Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River and has 159 counties. Simply keeping track of all the activities in all of the counties is more than a full-time chore, not to mention the idea of trying to coordinate them in an actual emergency. To this end, the Emergency Coordinator county jurisdictions in Georgia have been grouped into geographic districts each with a District EC who coordinates the activities of the local ECs in the district.
The assignment of counties to districts has evolved over the history of the Georgia Section ARES, and can be changed at the discretion of the Section Emergency Coordinator in cooperation with the District EC's affected by the changes. The current district structure (as of August, 2002) is shown in Figure 3.
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Figure 3. Georgia ARES Geographic Districts
Specific Needs District Emergency Coordinators
At various times, it may be necessary and appropriate to appoint District Emergency Coordinators to meet certain specific, section-wide needs. Standing positions exist to represent the GA Section ARES to the following served agencies:
Additional District EC positions may be created (or removed) by the Section Emergency Coordinator to address specific needs outside the responsibilities of any one district or served agency. Examples may include areas such as Digital Communications, ARES Mutual Assistance Teams, etc.
Emergency Coordinators
It is at the local level where most of the real emergency organizing gets accomplished, because this is the level at which most emergencies occur and the level at which ARES leaders make direct contact with the ARES member-volunteers and with officials of the agencies to be served. The local Emergency Coordinator is therefore the key contact in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. The EC is appointed by the SEC, usually on the recommendation of the DEC. In Georgia, EC's have responsibility for one or more counties in their local area. The EC is in charge of all ARES activities in his or her area, not just one interest group, one agency, one club or one band.
Assistant ECs
Special-interest groups are headed up by Assistant Emergency Coordinators, designated by the EC to supervise activities of groups operating in certain bands, especially those groups which play an important role at the local level, but they may be designated in any manner the EC deems appropriate.
