II. ORGANIZATION AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1. General. There are four levels of the ARES organization: national, section, district and local.
a. National emergency coordination at ARRL Headquarters is under the supervision of the ARRL Field 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 generally carrying out League policies regarding emergency communications.
b. In Oregon, the entire state is a Section. The section is administered at the Oregon Emergency Management Division of State Police (OEM) by the ARES Section Emergency Communications Coordinator/OEM RACES Radio Officer.
c. The Section is further divided into Districts. LCARES is a part of District 4, which includes the Counties of Benton, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion and Polk.
d. LCARES is organized to be operated with it's Emergency Coordinator (EC) in charge and assisted by Assistant Emergency Coordinators (AEC) responsible for organizational functions and for locations with high concentrations of members.
2. LCARES Organizational Positions.
a. Emergency Coordinator (EC). The LCARES EC is also the Linn County RACES Radio Officer. The LCARES EC reports to the District 4 EC and coordinates all of the planning, logistics, and operations of ARES activity in Linn County.
b. Assistant Emergency Coordinators (AC) AECs are appointed to coordinate specific functions that need to be accomplished within the LCARES organization. They include the staff functions of Operations, Training, Logistics and Administration.
c. Planning Committee. The Assistant Emergency Coordinators with the EC as chairman, and the County Emergency Management Coordinator as Liaison/Advisor constitute the local ARES planning committee and they meet together from time to time to discuss problems and plan projects to keep the ARES group active and well-trained.
1. Linn County Emergency Management Coordinator.
a. Functions as the liaison between the Linn County Emergency Management Agency and the Linn County ARES Emergency Coordinator/RACES Radio Officer.
b. Administrate, process and maintain LCARES applications, background checks and ARES/RACES identification Cards.
c. Provide advise and assistance to the LCARES Emergency Coordinator (EC) in preparing the LCARES Operations Manual.
d. Provide supplementary training opportunities to members of LCARES.
2. Linn County ARES/RACES
a. Organizational Responsibilities
i. Develop and maintain an ARES/RACES manual which details ARES/RACES operating procedures in Linn County.
ii. LCARES should be prepared to respond to pre-selected locations to provide supplementary communications support to county and city emergency operations. .
iii. During emergency operations, LCARES operators in City EOCs, fire stations and in the neighborhoods will pass requests for assistance and resources received from the general public and the cities to the County EOC. This may include LCARES linking Citizen's Band communications received from neighborhoods to the County EOC
iv. Train and prepare to provide supplementary communications for Search and Rescue Operations in Linn County.
v. Maintain and improve members skills by participating in training and drills.
vi. Develop and maintain an ARES Mutual Assistance Team that could provide assistance to jurisdictions outside of Linn County, when requested.
b. Staff and Member Responsibilities.
i. Emergency Coordinator
a] Function as the Linn County RACES Radio Officer.
b] Coordinate tasking from the Emergency Management Coordinator and advise the EMC on ARES/RACES issues.
c] From the Alert Roster maintained by the Administrative and Logistics Assistant Emergency Coordinator, prepare and maintain the telephone tree and alert plan.
d] Provide direction and guidance to the Assistant Emergency Coordinators.
e] Manage the day-to-day business of LCARES.
f] Preside over the LCARES Planning Committee.
g] Determine if there is need for additional functional or city assistant coordinators and take appropriate action.
h] Maintain responsibilities of all emergency coordination functions that have not been delegated to appointed assistant coordinators.ii. Operations and Training Assistant Emergency Coordinator
a] Facilitate development and implementation of a training program.
b] Facilitate development and implementation of a communications drill and simulated emergency test program
c] Coordinate staffing and tasking requirements during an emergency event in which LCARES has been activated.iii. Administration and Logistics.
a] Prepare and maintain correspondence relating to LCARES activities.
b] Prepare and maintain a resource list of equipment and
skills of ARES/RACES members in Linn County, which
would be available for response to emergencies in
Linn County.
c] Prepare and distribute a newsletter that includes: a schedule of upcoming training, activities and events; articles covering activities and other items of interest.
d] Prepare and maintain a current alert roster of trained ARES operators in Linn County.iv. City Assistant Coordinators
a] Receive direction and guidance from the Emergency Coordinator.
b] Serve as the city-wide ARES Team Leader.
c] Be the primary point of contact with ARES volunteers in the city.
d] Be the primary point of contact for public agencies in
the city for LCARES.
e] Set up an active recruiting program within the city to bring in new ARES volunteers.v. LCARES Planning Committee. With the EC as chairman and the EMC Liaison/Advisor from the Linn County Emergency Management Agency, the Assistant Coordinators constitute the LCARES Planning Committee. They meet together from time to time to discuss problems and plan projects to keep the ARES group active and well-trained.