OPINION: ARES is Dead; Let's Bury It.

[VA3KOT John]

ARES in Bruce County does seem to be coma.  From what I'm reading, Grey Co. may not be much more alive.

Rather than "let's bury it" why don't we say, "we can rebuild it, we have the technology" (with apologies to The Six Million Dollar Man)

Certain things must exist or be created if ARES is to be reborn around here. Some of the more important ones are:

• Effective leadership
  
• A critical mass of hams willing to (a) learn how to communicate in an emergency, and (b) maintain a state of readiness
  
• Working relationships with local emerg. managers & understanding of where amateur radio fits in to their local emergency plans (and where it does not)
  

One thing we do not need is more procedure manuals.  We already have a RAC ARES EC Manual and a RAC ARES Ops Training Manual - about 350 pages worth.  I see RAC is working away revising the Training Manual.  Well, good for them.

We also have some training available.  We can all do the RAC Certified Emergency Coordinator self-study course online.  We can all do the Emergency Management Ontario IMS-100 certification course online for free. 

We have to first possess some capability before we offer it to local emerg. managers.  Right now I believe our capability is essentially zero.   (If you don't believe this, imagine some accident at one of the Bruce plants has resulted in hundreds of local residents near the site being evacuated to reception centers in Port Elgin and Kincardine.  Cellphone networks are totally saturated & bogged down.  The municipal emergency managers have asked amateur radio operators to set up stations at the reception centers & handle evacuees' welfare traffic to and from their relatives.  Could we do it?  Based on what I saw & did during the Provincial Exercise in 2016, I'd say no.)

Critical mass is a big issue IMHO.  Grey & Bruce have sparse ham populations, relative to a city environment.  It may not be possible to maintain two viable ARES organizations.  A single Grey-Bruce ARES is a possibility, but would be a huge geographic area.  I don't even know how to survey all the hams in Grey & Bruce for interest, without digging them out of the ISED database and sending each one a letter.

I'd like to help address this issue, just don't know where to start.

73
Dave, VE3WI

That's a very good analysis Dave. I agree with every point you made. My original post title was intended to be a little provocative to stimulate responses. It is the bureaucracy that should be buried, not the activity.

My understanding is that our licenses are free and we are given slices of spectrum in the expectation that we will develop skills and capabilities that could benefit the community. If we fail to do that we may find competition for spectrum eroding our very cosy hobby.