FYI,
Send to Mentors, Instructors, and SMs.
73,
Harold
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Johnson, Debra,
K1DMJ
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 4:18 PM
To: 'bulksend+dmj@www.arrl.org'
Subject: Update on New Emergency Communications Course in Development
To: Continuing Education Program EmComm Mentors and
Instructors
Greetings!
The new Emergency Communications course is taking shape.
Here are the details.
Overview:
The content of the new emergency communications course is
undergoing final review and the decisions about what shape this new course will
take have been made. I’d like to update you on our progress, what changes are
being made and what may be expected of you.
As we have said previously, the former Level 2 and Level 3
Emergency Communications courses are being updated and combined into one new
course. The new course will focus on emergency communications training
for leaders and managers. The title of the new course is Public
Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs.
We anticipate launching this new course in January
2010. It has been developed in a lesson format and will be posted on our
website and, as such, it will be viewable by any ARRL member.
Members will need only log in to the ARRL website to see the course
material. It will not be a mentored course. Later on, we may provide a
mentored online forum on our website where students can post questions about
course topics and receive answers from a mentor.
Requirements for Course Completion:
The new course requires that the student has previously
completed the Level 1/Basic course, certain FEMA courses and has some
experience with Amateur Radio and emergency communications. Those who desire to
receive a course completion certificate for this new course (which we refer to
in shorthand as “Advanced EmComm”) will first need to document that they have
satisfied a list of prerequisites. After providing the necessary
documentation, applicants will be required to pay an enrollment fee of $35 to
gain access to the course’s final exam. This fee will help to offset the
cost of developing the course and for the online testing service as well as
costs for administrative support.
The course prerequisites to be verified include:
An Amateur Radio license,
Completion of ARRL’s Level 1/Basic
course, and
Completion of FEMA courses that are
background for this course.
FEMA
prerequisites:
ICS-100
(basic ICS)
ICS-200
(supervisory)
ICS (NIMS)-700
ICS-300, a
classroom course, is also highly recommended, but not required
Candidates for the course completion certificate will also
be required to document completion of additional FEMA courses that are
integrated into the Advanced EmComm course curriculum. These include:
IS-800 (National Response
Framework)
FEMA IS-240, Leadership & Influence
FEMA IS-241, Decision Making & Problem Solving
FEMA IS-250, Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF15), External Affairs
FEMA IS-1, Emergency Manager, An Orientation to the Position
IS-288, The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency
Management
IS-244, Developing and Managing Volunteers
FEMA IS-120.a, An Introduction to Exercises
FEMA IS-130, Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning
FEMA IS-139, Exercise Design
Please note: the list of FEMA course as prerequisites, as
well as those referenced internally within the course, may change as FEMA makes
changes to its course offerings or the course is modified to introduce new
content.
Applicants will also need to supply a reference from their
Section Manager, or his or her designee, stating the reason for the applicant’s
participation. Section Managers will take into account the applicant’s
relevant experience or role within emergency communications and whether they
are in good standing within the amateur radio community. Once applicants
have documented that these requirements have been met and they have paid the
course evaluation fee, they will receive access to complete the online
exam.
We are also making provision for unlicensed
individuals who perform an official role as an emergency responder to earn the
course completion certificate if they desire. To apply to take the final
exam and earn the course completion certificate, these individuals will need to
obtain a “waiver” recommendation from the local ARRL Section Manager.
This waiver request should include a description of the position of
responsibility the applicant holds in an emergency response organization. Note
that these individuals will need to be an ARRL member to obtain access to the
course on the ARRL website. Later on, when other media formats are available
there may be additional ways to access the course materials.
Course Presentation:
Because of the nature of the course content and its fluidity
with regard to decisions of the Federal government, as well as its internal
links to reference material from non-ARRL sources, we are reluctant to produce
copies of the course in media which are fixed in time. Nevertheless,
later on, we are considering publishing the Advanced course in other media
formats (print, CD, etc.), and depending on demand, may also build an
infrastructure for field classroom instruction of the course. However,
all course completion exams will be conducted online and course completion
certificates will be issued online. We will notify Section Managers of
the names of those who earn the course completion certificate.
Status of Current Mentors and Instructors:
All current EmComm online Mentors and Field Instructors who
intend to continue instructing the Level 1/Basic course, as well as any who
foresee conducting classroom instruction for the new Advanced course, will need
to take this course and earn the course completion certificate.
All EmComm Mentors and Field Instructors will need to earn
this course completion certificate on or before December 31, 2010 to continue
in the role of Emergency Communications Mentor or Field Instructor. This
is one of a few new qualifying requirements for Mentors and Field Instructors
that will be phased in during 2010 as we endeavor to insure more consistency
and control over EmComm instruction.
Mentors and Field Instructors who have been active during
the past 2 years—since January 2008—will be able to enroll in the course
evaluation component of the new Advanced course free of charge.
We have been reevaluating our EmComm training goals and
processes as we have been configuring this new course. There were many opinions
and constraints to be considered, but we believe we now have an excellent
training program about to be unveiled which will position Amateur Radio well
for the future. We appreciate your patience.
73,
Debra
Debra
Johnson, K1DMJ
Education
Services Manager
ARRL,
the national association for Amateur Radio™
225
Main Street
Newington,
CT 06111-1494
(860)
594-0296
Fax:
(860) 594-0259