Good Intentions

You Can't Build a Team on Good Intentions

Most people who become involved in emergency communications have good intentions. They want to help. They want to be prepared. They want to be part of something that makes a difference. But good intentions aren't enough.

Imagine an emergency occurs and a communications team needs six operators. The plan says six people are available, but when the activation begins, only two actually show up. The problem isn't the radios. The problem isn't the software. The problem isn't the communications plan.

The problem is commitment.

Emergency communications is a team activity. Every operator affects the effectiveness of the entire team.

Training Is Important—But Showing Up Is Part of Training

You cannot become a dependable emergency communicator by reading a manual or watching a presentation alone.

You have to participate because...

Training teaches you what to do.

Practice teaches you how it feels to do it under pressure.

You have to get on the air. You have to learn the procedures. You have to make mistakes during exercises. You have to learn how your equipment performs. You have to learn how your teammates operate. And most importantly, you have to develop the habit of showing up.

That's why participation in nets, exercises, drills, and training events is so important. When the real event happens, we don't want to discover who knows how to operate under pressure. We want to already know.

Your Team Needs to Know They Can Count on You

Commitment doesn't necessarily mean that you can participate in everything.

I get it! Life happens. Jobs, families, sickness, vacations, and other responsibilities are real. Nobody should expect an operator to be available 24 hours a day. But commitment does mean that when you say you are going to participate, you show up.

It means communicating to the team leader when you can't. It means staying current with procedures. It means taking training seriously. It means practicing your assigned role.

And it means understanding that your absence may affect the entire team. A dependable operator doesn't have to be the most experienced person in the group. They don't have to own the most expensive radio. They simply need to be someone the team can count on.

Practice Reveals Commitment

One of the reasons the Southeast Emergency Network (SEEN) emphasizes practice is because an emergency isn't going to wait until everyone is comfortable. During an exercise, we discover problems and weak points. We find the cracks in the wall.

Maybe an operator doesn't know how to pass traffic.

Maybe someone hasn't used the digital mode in six months.

Maybe an antenna isn't performing as expected.

Maybe nobody knows who is supposed to receive a particular type of message.

Those problems are not failures. They are lessons that we can only discover if we participate.

Every net, every exercise is an opportunity to become more capable, more confident, and more dependable.

There Is a Difference Between Being a Member and Being Part of the Team

There is an important distinction between having your name on a membership list and actually being part of an operational team.

A team requires participation. If an operator continually misses nets, ignores training, doesn't participate in exercises, and doesn't stay current with procedures, eventually the team cannot depend on that operator during an emergency...and will not call on that operator.

That's not about punishment. It's about reality. In EmComm, reliability is a capability. Any EmComm group needs to know who is available, who is trained, who understands the procedures, and who can perform when the time comes.

Commitment Before the Emergency

The time to decide whether you're committed to emergency communications is before the emergency happens.

When the power is out, communications systems are down, roads are blocked, and people are looking for information, it is too late to start building a team. The team must already exist. The relationships must already exist. The procedures must already be understood. And the operators must already know how to work together. That's what commitment gives us. It turns a group of amateur radio operators into a communications team.

The Challenge! Be the Operator Others Can Count On

You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to have the biggest station. 

But...you do need to be committed to it.

Show up.

Train.

Practice.

Learn.

Participate.

Communicate.

I say this to any operator who might read this. If you are a part of an EmComm group, then when the call comes, be the operator your team already knows they can count on.

The emergency is not the time to build the team. The team is built before the emergency.