John Kasupski wrote:

I think it's worth noting here, the old adage about birds of a
feather
flocking together. It's been my experience that people join the local
ham radio clubs for a variety of reasons, just as they get involved
with amateur radio to begin with for a wide variety of reasons. When
you bottom-line it, though, a local club remains a sure-fire way for
a
newcomer to meet others who share at least some of their interests in
amateur radio. For many it's a way of introducing themselves to the
other hams in their area, sort of like, "I've got my license and I'm
here now, so when you hear me on the local repeaters you don't have
to
worry that I might be a bootlegger."

Exactly...And that's where a "national" organization can
help...Recruiting materials, media bites, testing/training materials.

It should be up to the "locals" to deceide where the focus of the
organization is going.

When they get to the local clubs and hook up with other newcomers
(and
the observation that the vast majority of newcomers to the ARS enter
via the Technician route is dead on...that's why it's called the
"entry-level license class"), they find the other Techs basically
doing the only things they're permitted to do, absent any meaningful
HF privileges unless they pass a code test - they're doing Skywarn;
tactical comms for parades, bike races, marathons; Field Day, etc.

"...absent any meaningful HF privileges..."

Sounds like a set-up for the "If you don't have HF you're not a
Ham" argument, John. Not only are well over 90% of all Amateur
allocations above 50Mhz, so are most ACTIVITIES above 50MHz.

I went on up to Extra thinking all the activities were on HF only
to find I keep pulling back to 50Mhz and up for a lot of my hamming
activities.

I think the "failure" comes only from thinking that there's
"nothing to do" above 50Mhz. That's just wrong.

Another old adage: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Thus, it's no
surprise that many new Techs join in these activities. This is the
same route I myself took when I entered into the ARS back in '99 and
I'm still active in these pursuits now, except it's in a leadership
role rather than as one who is learning the ropes, so to speak.

And it's in fellowship that we learn more effectively. My only
"problem" with clubs is that they often try to be too many things to
too many people with too few resources.

"That is a good idea. Tactical communications would serve as a good
training ground."

For what it's worth, I concur. In fact, I think tactical
communications is a skill that is too often ignored as many public
service and emergency communications groups opt for developing
proficiency in formal traffic handling - which is a valuable skill in
the right circumstances, but unless a group is located somewhere that
circumstances warrant the frequent use of formal traffic handling
(like being somewhere that often gets smacked by earthquakes,
tornadoes, hurricanes, and other major disasters that result in
relatively long relief efforts and a lot of health & Welfare
traffic)...well, many groups will only rarely need formal traffic
handling skills. Tactical communications skills, on the other hand,
are something I think any such group is going to always need,
especially if they are doing parades, races, etc.

I agree on the use of those skills, John...and those are some
roots we shouldn't get too far away from.

We've done exactly that here in Tennessee CAP, and now we are
"re-energizing" those basic communicator skills along with the techie
web-rat things. We're creating a "Communications College" to start
from Ground Zero and re-establish basic communicator skills.

On this passage, Steve, K4YZ, commented as follows:

First of all, there's already flexibility written into the ARES
program to allow for it's implementation based upon local needs or
concerns. The needs of emergency planners in Plymouth, MN or
Winchester, TN are going to be different than those of New York City
or
Miami, FL.

As I see it, Steve, the problem with this is that in many (most?)
areas, the local ARES group wears two hats, serving also as the local
RACES group, and because FEMA guidelines for RACES call for its
implementation at the County level, there's often a lack of
ARES/RACES
groups having established relationships with local governments (city,
town, village, etc.). That is something that, as a result, often
falls
to the local clubs - but ARRL sees it as an ARES function and local
clubs looking for support for their efforts in this area end up
getting referred to the local ARES leadership...which is often
hesitant to help because they see the clubs' efforts as undermining
their own.

My experiences here in TN are that all those hats are being worn
by ARES now. certainly not in all areas, but RACES as a seperate entity
is dwindling. Since the Feds have actually pulled the rug out from
under a lot of the RACES regulations the lines have blurred and one hat
seems to fit better!

Steve continued:

I don't see how a nationally directed program could possibly do
anything more than appear to be micromanaging.

Again, admitting that their is a niche for local groups to be
involved
at a local level and offering some support to them independent of the
ARES (or ARES/RACES) mechanism would not be micromanaging. Often
there
are entirely different missions involved, and even when the missions
overlap, again it does not hurt ARES all that much for the local
clubs
to have a relationship with a city government's disaster preparedness
officials in a county where the ARES group has a relationship with
the
county's disaster prearedness office.

In other words, this would eliminate the "turf war" mentality that
often crops up when the local clubs, or other groups independent of
ARES, start to actually succeed at what they're doing.

I think a lot of this is being answered by having the EC's or
DEC's oversee the ARES groups and coordinate the ARES representation
with the various EOC's.

The folks in the EOC's aren't concerned with where the operators
come from or what club sponsors them...Just as long as that cah do what
they say they can do.

BTW...Part of Tennessee's Homeland Security implementation was to
issue a funded mandate that all hospitals within the state have
operating Amateur Radio facilites. We have a short tower with the
V/UHF antennas installed already.

Steve went on...

Secondly, the ARRL Special Services Club's program already offers
assistance for helping to manage some aspects of club activities,
offers of sponsorship, etc.

What they (the ARRL) COULD do, without creating a whole new
"branch" and field directorship with it, would be to start spending
some more money to get more recruiting materials, including TV/Radio
"commercials" into the field. They could "regionalize" the
materials
with pictures of local clubs, landmarks, etc in them to help
"identify"
them to the target audience.

To this I say, "Bingo!"

Thanks.

73

Steve, K4YZ