St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the October 18, 2004 meeting

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Minutes of the October 18, 2004 Meeting

John Weis, N0UFB, Official Emergency Station, presided over the monthly St. Louis County ARES^® meeting held on October 18, 2004.

The primary topic of the meeting was the future plans of St. Louis County ARES^® and what the group should be doing.

John said that he had turned in his year-end assessment to the District Emergency Coordinator and that he felt that St. Louis County ARES^® was doing well. He believed that his biggest challenge now was St. Louis City ARES^®.

The upcoming Halloween Hamfest was discussed. Gary Hoffman, KB0H, said that he would be holding a Certified Examiner session for a few people who wanted to take the ARECC exams.

John brought up the idea of having a "meeting script" once the ARES^® meetings started drawing larger numbers of people.

John suggested that when the St. Louis County ARES^® weekly net started bringing in more participants, we might announce that anyone not wishing to be called back for comments should indicate such when they first check in.

John said that in addition to the Operations Manual, he would like to see a Resource Manual developed. This would contain area frequencies, suppliers of various equipment, and so forth.

There was general agreement that the Operations should contain only information specific to this group, not general ARES^® procedures.

John felt that the Operations Manual would take a long time to develop and would be updated frequently. He recommended that members keep their copies in three-ring binders to that they can easily add and remove pages.

John felt that when the group gets a little larger, Steve Wooten, KC0QMU, the Emergency Coordinator, should appoint an Assistant Emergency Coordinator in charge of Administration.

Gary mentioned the Resource Evaluation Test debriefing session. He said that during the debriefing the idea of holding exercises on a quarterly basis was proposed. He said that he'd like to see different individuals develop and run each event. He mentioned a possible exercise brought up by Eric Bueneman, N0UIH. Gary also suggested "shack tours" and a possible message-handling event.

John suggested a call-out.

John felt that the group should move from "promotion" to "attraction", meaning that we should attempt to bring in new members by attracting them with exercises and events.

John suggested holding an ARECC course.

There was discussion about the Kansas City Simulated Emergency Test. It is supposed to simulate an earthquake and is scheduled for November 6, 2004. Apparently area ARES^® teams are supposed to work through their local Red Cross chapters.

Gary asked whether the 2 meter simplex frequencies he had selected for group operations could be adopted. John said he thought there was a simplex frequency coordinating body and that Gary should check with them.

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