Manatee Couty
ares/races

Manatee County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (MC-ARES)

Manatee County Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Membership Requirements

 

Anyone, holding a current FCC issued Amateur Radio License, regardless of club or other Amateur Radio affiliations, with a sincere interest and desire to help the community with its emergency communication needs, is invited to become a part of the Manatee County Amateur Radio Emergency Service.

Basic Membership

Basic membership requires no NIMS/ICS training and qualifies you to work at Red Cross shelters. Must have Red Cross Volunteer Badge. Basic members may upgrade their membership status by completing the training requirements outlined below.

Advanced Membership

"All federal, state, local, tribal, private sector and non-governmental personnel with a direct role in emergency management and response must be NIMS and ICS trained. This includes all emergency services related disciplines such as EMS, hospitals, public health, fire service, law enforcement, public works/utilities, skilled support personnel, and other emergency management response, support and volunteer personnel." [source]

What does that mean? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the State of Florida, require response personnel, including volunteers, to have NIMS and ICS training. Advanced members are those who are ICS and NIMS certified and are eligible to participate in County managed operations.

Training Requirements

For members who will only be deployed locally in Manatee County:

ARRL EC-001 Level 1 Amateur Radio Emergency Communications
NIMS IS 100 Introduction to Incident Command System, I-100
NIMS IS 700 National Incident Management System (NIMS) An Introduction

For members who would like to deploy outside the County

The above plus:

ARRL EC-002 Level 2 Amateur Radio Emergency Communications
NIMS IS-200 ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Assessments

Additional Training

Members wishing to take advanced training courses, may be interested in EC-003, additional FEMA classes, Red Cross, or CERT training.

The basic Red Cross and NIMS/ICS classes can be taken on-line for free.

Watch the ARES -VE Testing page for announcements of upcoming classes.