Statement - March 2, 2010
By Jim Blaine, wd4jzo
Well, it is time for another installment of random thoughts but I will not bore you with all of them. We have a lot of work to do in our group. We will need to assign more liaisons to specific locals to contact and form a relationship with local Emergency Management Agencies and in the case of the Peterborough area the Monadnock Community Hospital as well. We have the names etc. so that is not a problem. We just need your help as we can’t be in all places at all times. We will take the district and divide it into mini-districts of 3 or 4 towns. Where we have an established report with an agency we will tend to keep the individual that is already talking to those folks as the liaison. We’ll come up with a list of towns that we need people for. Some of the towns are lacking in ARES operators and we also need to work on our membership recruitment. Each member should be working on this. Remember that we need a few good men and women. We need good operators that will take pride in the organization and not join just to be able to say that they belong to ARES. We need members to be active both on nets and during emergencies but also to attend meetings and receive training. I just sent out recruitment letters and I have a whole lot more to send. They will be targeted to some of those towns where we have few or no members.
Having your amateur radio license doesn't make you an effective emergency communicator any more than a driver's license makes a teenager a good motorist. Becoming an effective emergency communicator is a matter of training and experience. Training provides background knowledge of what to do; experience teaches you how to do them effectively. Training and experience are not exclusive subjects. Possessing one is a fine start to obtaining the other to ensure your effectiveness.
We have to come up with an idea of what we are going to do for Field Day. We want to have a display in a public place. We want to be able to operate the station on both HF and VHF if possible although we do not need to “compete” like the clubs do. We will show the public what ARES is and does. This can be a one day event maybe at the mall or a park. Have any ideas?
We are going to try to set up another meeting location so that we can alternate between Nashua and Milford. Any thoughts as to locations?
I have tasked Scott KC2JCB with setting up a Skywarn class and a storm survey class either with NWS instructor from Taunton or himself. We want this as soon as we can get it before all of their dates are taken. Hopefully we will have some word on this soon so that we can get a suitable location.
Also we hope to have the 2nd part of the Disaster Assessment course re-scheduled for the near future. I’ll check with Ashley when I see her this week.
Are there any other classes you would like us to pursue? As you know the RC chapter has ongoing classes for CPR/AED training. You can go to their website at www.nashua.redcross.org/ and check the calendar for classes and dates.
Don’t forget NH Train for free classes and you will want to check out FSTEMS Training . Both of these sites offer FREE classes. Some classes will have pre-requisites such as IS-100 or 200.
We have to find out the dates for some events so that we can schedule accordingly. We do not want to do more than one event on any given day if we can help it. We may have to say no to some group. We will try to avoid that but, it is possible. So far we know that the Pack 10 Miler is June 6th at 10am going from Wilton-Lyndeborough Reg.High School to the summit of the Pack. We’ll start coordinating this in mid-April. It is on our calendar. Speaking of which. . . .
If you know of a class, event or some such and have the info verified let me know and I’ll put it on the calendar.
I think this is enough for this “letter”. I will take a break and send it to the webmaster and when I have something else on my mind I’ll write another one. Take care of yourselves and stay safe. I hope to hear you all on the net and/or see you at the meeting. Feel free to email or call me (at a reasonable time)and if you want a face to face we can arrange that too.
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Jim, WD4JZO
updated March 6, 2010