[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] ARES

[Gene Jenkins]

I just got to cleaning out my junk mail and found all my posts from the club. I know that I'm not a member, but for many years, I was, and have strong ties to the club. I'm deeply disturbed by the conflict that is going on regarding ARC and ARES when there is none.
ARES is a national organization of the ARRL. Its purpose is to maintain an infrastructure to provide communication support in the case of an emergency. Quoting the ARES flyer:

"The ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) consists of radio amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.)
It is divided into Sections (States or half states,) Districts, and counties.  Because in Virginia cities are not part of counties, the district 7 is divided into 4 counties and several cities such as Alexandria. District7's ARES appointed EC is Darwin Mach, K4HAX.
Joe K, KD2HZG, ARES Alexandria EC should be on the district 7 EC's organization chart as the Alexandria EC. If not, he is just the ARC EC.  He should maintain a list of "radio amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment" This list may be a separate list, but is probably the club roster. When I was a member I worked parades, emergency exercises and the MCM and I don't think I was on a separate list.

The club that I'm a member of in New Bern NC has an EC, but our county EC position is vacant. Our club EC has interfaced with the County Emergency Manager, has set up communications in the EOC and is the defacto county EC, although not officially part of the ARES. Myself, our EC and a few others in the club have completed the required FEMA training and are listed on the state AXCOMM database. Our county manager doesn't care whether we're trained on not, he just appreciates the backup communications in his EOC. This could change if FEMA gets involved then in order to get federal funds the EOC could be restricted to those on the AUXCOMM list.
I assume that Joe's "LIST" contains only members of the ARC. Therefore, in Alexandria, The ARES and the ARC are one and the same. If Joe's list contained members of both ARC and the Mount Vernon club then it would be a separate organization from either club.  If a parade is considered training, then it is the purview of the EC. If it is community service it is the purview of which ever officer is responsible for community service. It's up to the president to decide who to delegate it to and communicate this to both the membership and the City of Alexandria.
Remember city officials don't have a clue what ARES is or isn't. They are going to contact the person that they know, or the person that last chaired the project.
Gene Jenkins, N4JEE