The February meeting of ARES of Champaign County was held Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at the Fire Service Institute.  Here are important notes from that meeting and other news.

ATTENDING
N9XDC, KF8ZN, KC9HND, W9EML, W9DML, K9LMM, K9MLT, N9GKA, KC9IHX, N9DN, KC9KGJ, K9SI, KC9JVR, W9SZ.  Guests:  WT9J, KC9KTD  (16)


DISTRICT EMERGENCY COORDINATOR VISITS CCARES
We were pleased to welcome Terry Jones, WT9J, Central District Emergency Coordinator to our February meeting.  Terry was appointed DEC in January, succeeding Pat Stowell, N9PN.  Terry is from Macon County and also serves as EC for Macon County ARES.


NEW ARES SIMPLEX NET
For the last several weeks here has been an "unofficial" ARES simplex net following our regular net on Tuesday nights.  This net has been an excellent opportunity to test our ability to communicate across the county with the benefit of a repeater.  Effective with the February 13 net, this net will now become a regular part of the Tuesday night net activities.  The simplex net will begin immediately following the conclusion of the 9:00 p.m. net on 444.100. The simplex net will be held on 146.550.  A new script for the simplex net can be found on our web site.  NCS stations should use a separate net check-in list to record check-ins for this net.  We have not assigned net control stations for the simplex net, so anyone may take on this role.  Anyone interested in acting as NCS for the simplex net should make their intentions known during the 440 net.


ANOTHER NET NOTE
One of the purposes of our weekly net is to practice emergency communications skills.  One of those skills is the proper use of ITU phonetics for accurate and efficient communication.  For practice, we are going to periodically have a "phonetics only" net, where all check-ins will be required to give their call sign using ITU phonetics. We hope that occasional practice will make using ITU phonetics second nature and weed out the tendency to use "cutesy" phonetics. An article on ITU phonetics is posted on the NETS page on the WA9RES web site.


2007 DUES
At the December annual meeting the membership voted to continue dues for the coming year.  Dues are $20 and are payable to ARES of Champaign County.  Please send your check to  Heather Schlesser,  187 Paddock Dr. East, Savoy, IL 61874 no later than February 15.


AEC FOR LOGISTICS
Mark Belding, N9GPA has been appointed Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Logistics. As AEC for Logistics Mark will be responsible for coordinating tracking, acquisition, and deployment of equipment resources for ARES operations.


MEMBERSHIP CLASSIFICATION BYLAW
A bylaw change regarding membership classifications has been drafted by the board and will be voted on at the meeting on March 14.  The time for comment on the proposed changes has closed.  The proposed bylaw and information regarding the vote will be sent out in a separate email.


STORM SPOTTER TRAINING
Spotter training in Champaign County is scheduled for Wednesday, March 7, at 6:00 p.m. at the Carle Forum in Urbana.  If you intend on storm spotting in Champaign County you must attend spotter training. If you cannot attend on March 7, there are sessions held throughout central Illinois beginning at the end of February through April.  Check the Lincoln NWS web site for a complete schedule of talks.  There is a link to the schedule on the ARES web site on the Activities page.


ARRL BOARD ACCEPTS NATIONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANNING COMMITTEE REPORT
excerpted from the ARRL Letter, January 26, 2007

The ARRL Board of Directors accepted the Report of the National Emergency Response Planning Committee (NERPC) when it met January 19 and 20 in Windsor, Connecticut. Upon dissolving the committee with its thanks, the Board set in motion a process to identify and implement action items in the report as soon as possible. ARRL First Vice President Kay Craigie, N3KN, chaired the 13-member NERPC, charged with developing comprehensive
recommendations to improve the League's response to regional, national and international disasters. Among other things, panel members evaluated the responses and actions of ARRL and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) during Hurricane Katrina as well as lessons learned.

"If 'lessons learned' are not followed by 'behaviors changed,' then the lessons have not been learned at all," the report concludes. The report describes disaster preparedness as "a moving target, moving faster all the
time." No recommendations, plans or systems should be considered "the permanent answers for all circumstances and hazards," the report asserts.

The unprecedented scope of the Katrina response placed ARRL Headquarters into a leadership coordination role through national-level requests for help from served agencies such as the American Red Cross. While the level of
expertise in emergency communications and emergency management among US radio amateurs is growing, the report noted, so is the expectation that the ARRL provide first-rate leadership and guidance.

Among the report's wide-ranging recommendations and suggestions:

     * enhance ARRL and ARES training in basic message handling.

     * develop a continuing education course covering installation, configuration, and use of Winlink 2000 for e-mail.

     * formally establish a national ARES volunteer database for use during major disasters and establish training criteria.

     * institute a Major Disaster Emergency Coordinator (MDEC) function to coordinate responses to large-scale national or regional disasters or emergencies.

     * become better acquainted with the emergency response needs of distant ARRL sections, such as Pacific, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Alaska.

     * improve working relationships with national-level served agencies.

     * ensure ARRL staff training in the Incident Command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS) and, as necessary, adapt ARRL's emergency response structure to the Unified Command model.

In addition, ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, has appointed an ad hoc committee to study issues relating to background investigations as they apply to ARRL Amateur Radio volunteers and to recommend a background
investigation policy.


UPDATE ON FEMA TRAINING
As of February 8, 22 CCARES members have completed ICS-100, 20 have completed ICS-700, 11 completions of ICS-200, and 7 completions of ICS-800. 

More information and links to the FEMA Emergency Management Institute can be found on the WA9RES web site.

When you complete any of the FEMA courses, you will need to send a copy of your course completion certificate to me so your training file can be updated and we have a record of your completion.


FEBRUARY/MARCH NET CONTROL STATIONS
The weekly ARES net is held each Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., on the 444.100 repeater, CTSS 162.2.  NOTE: The weekly net script was recently updated - please download the latest version from the web site.

February 13     K9MLT
February 20     KC9HND
February 27     KF8ZN
March 6           K9LMM
March 13         N9XDC


NEXT MEETING
The next regular meeting will be on Wednesday, March 14, at 7:00 p.m.   NOTE: This is a change from the normal first Wednesday.  Storm Spotter Training is being held on March 7.