[arrl-odv:24561] NTS / FEMA Situation
ARRL BOARD CONFIDENTIAL Greetings - (Note: Several attachments are referenced within this email; please read my entire note below before diving into any of the attachments) During my verbal PSC report at the Board meeting a few weeks ago I provided a high level overview of a situation that arose with National Traffic System (NTS) that ARRL staff and PSC discovered literally a few days before the Board convened. The situation was that NTS leadership conducted a meeting with FEMA officials on July 7 to discuss a national level exercise; furnished a related proposal dated July 2 that (among other things) proposed new, conceptual roles and responsibilities of Section Field Organization appointees; and sent a follow up letter after the meeting dated July 10. [Proposal and follow-up letter attached] We have most recently found out (through a letter sent to PSC by NTS yesterday, which I'll get to in a bit.) that the initial contact between FEMA and NTS leadership took place two months ago, on May 28. Harmless in principal it may seem, the rub here - both from the viewpoint of mere courtesy as well as an ARRL bylaw - is that there was seemingly no attempt to coordinate with appropriate ARRL staff or leadership, much less provide even a mere heads up about the initial contact, meeting, or proposal which all involved a crucial national partner. ARRL Bylaw 31 reads in relevant part: "The President . shall, subject to instructions from the Board of Directors, and with the assistance of the Chief Executive Officer, represent the League in its relationships with the public and the various governments, governmental agencies and officials with which the League may be concerned, and shall be the official spokesman of the Board of Directors in regard to all matters of League policy." The authority to represent the ARRL to governmental agencies is reserved to the President, who may delegate that authority. In the case of FEMA, Mike Corey was designated as ARRL's point of contact to not only implement what's been spelled out in the ARRL-FEMA Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), but also to "direct and coordinate partnership activities" (per the MOA) between ARRL and FEMA. Mike Corey didn't know a thing about this meeting, proposal, or path forward/vision expressed in NTS's follow-up letter until his counterpart at FEMA called him on July 11 (4 days after the meeting took place) to inquire about NTS's interaction and proposal. Flatfooted, Mike was unable to provide explanation to FEMA's inquiry. Mike shared his concern with PSC the next business day. On July 14 I requested that NTS Chairmen provide details about the meeting and material presented for both PSC's as well as staff's awareness. Joe Ames W3JY (NTS Eastern Area Chairman, and Eastern PA Section Manager) informed me that Vice-Director Bob Famiglio volunteered to represent NTS on this matter at the PSC meeting on July 16 because of his familiarity of the material. [See ps-com:2171 message attached] Copies of the aforementioned proposal and follow up letter were received and distributed at this meeting (this marked the first time Mike Corey had seen any of it). On behalf of PSC I sent a follow-up email to the three NTS Area Chairmen on July 24 summarizing PSC's concern and requesting that further interaction with FEMA be communicated and coordinated with Mike Corey's office. [See ps-com:2198 message attached] Joe Ames replied on behalf of NTS with a letter signed by all three Chairmen yesterday, July 29 [See letter attached]. Just as PSC began to review the letter provided to us yesterday, it was discovered that NTS leadership and/or NTS staff have apparently chosen to make this internal PSC matter and NTS's July 29 letter to PSC quite public. I do not know if this was authorized by NTS leadership or not, but I do note that "APPROVED FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION" appears in the file name of the PDF document containing NTS's July 29 letter to PSC. I should point out that nobody south my permission to distribute my July 24 email correspondence beyond its intended recipients, much less make it "approved for general distribution". Attached is an email I received this morning from my Section's STM containing a copy of the NTS's July 29 response to PSC as well as a call for further distribution and Director contact. I'm working with PSC, Kay, and Dave to determine best path forward, but you should be aware of this in case you receive correspondence from members. Unfortunately what began as a rightful concern about ARRL being caught off-guard about interactions between top leadership of an ARRL program (NTS) and a key national partner (FEMA) has been elevated, inappropriately and unprofessionally, into a potentially far more embarrassing and complex situation. We'd be foolish to think that this will not somehow become visible to FEMA now that it is public, so I caution everyone on the nature and extent of any response you might feel compelled to provide to inquiring members. 73, Brian N5ZGT ARRL BOARD CONFIDENTIAL
Hi Again - A few of you have noted that Gmail doesn't let you see the non-PDF attachments I sent with my original email below. What I tried to attach were emails directly from Outlook. Unfortunately I can't PDF them, so I have instead saved them as HTML and attached them here. Note that the attached file entitled "Fwd NTS and FEMA.htm" is the email New Mexico's Section Traffic Manager forwarded me this morning. It had attached to it the July 29 NTS response letter to PSC that was made public. That response letter was included as a separate PDF in my original email below. 73, Brian N5ZGT From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Brian Mileshosky Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 1:26 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:24561] NTS / FEMA Situation Importance: High ARRL BOARD CONFIDENTIAL Greetings - (Note: Several attachments are referenced within this email; please read my entire note below before diving into any of the attachments) During my verbal PSC report at the Board meeting a few weeks ago I provided a high level overview of a situation that arose with National Traffic System (NTS) that ARRL staff and PSC discovered literally a few days before the Board convened. The situation was that NTS leadership conducted a meeting with FEMA officials on July 7 to discuss a national level exercise; furnished a related proposal dated July 2 that (among other things) proposed new, conceptual roles and responsibilities of Section Field Organization appointees; and sent a follow up letter after the meeting dated July 10. [Proposal and follow-up letter attached] We have most recently found out (through a letter sent to PSC by NTS yesterday, which I'll get to in a bit.) that the initial contact between FEMA and NTS leadership took place two months ago, on May 28. Harmless in principal it may seem, the rub here - both from the viewpoint of mere courtesy as well as an ARRL bylaw - is that there was seemingly no attempt to coordinate with appropriate ARRL staff or leadership, much less provide even a mere heads up about the initial contact, meeting, or proposal which all involved a crucial national partner. ARRL Bylaw 31 reads in relevant part: "The President . shall, subject to instructions from the Board of Directors, and with the assistance of the Chief Executive Officer, represent the League in its relationships with the public and the various governments, governmental agencies and officials with which the League may be concerned, and shall be the official spokesman of the Board of Directors in regard to all matters of League policy." The authority to represent the ARRL to governmental agencies is reserved to the President, who may delegate that authority. In the case of FEMA, Mike Corey was designated as ARRL's point of contact to not only implement what's been spelled out in the ARRL-FEMA Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), but also to "direct and coordinate partnership activities" (per the MOA) between ARRL and FEMA. Mike Corey didn't know a thing about this meeting, proposal, or path forward/vision expressed in NTS's follow-up letter until his counterpart at FEMA called him on July 11 (4 days after the meeting took place) to inquire about NTS's interaction and proposal. Flatfooted, Mike was unable to provide explanation to FEMA's inquiry. Mike shared his concern with PSC the next business day. On July 14 I requested that NTS Chairmen provide details about the meeting and material presented for both PSC's as well as staff's awareness. Joe Ames W3JY (NTS Eastern Area Chairman, and Eastern PA Section Manager) informed me that Vice-Director Bob Famiglio volunteered to represent NTS on this matter at the PSC meeting on July 16 because of his familiarity of the material. [See ps-com:2171 message attached] Copies of the aforementioned proposal and follow up letter were received and distributed at this meeting (this marked the first time Mike Corey had seen any of it). On behalf of PSC I sent a follow-up email to the three NTS Area Chairmen on July 24 summarizing PSC's concern and requesting that further interaction with FEMA be communicated and coordinated with Mike Corey's office. [See ps-com:2198 message attached] Joe Ames replied on behalf of NTS with a letter signed by all three Chairmen yesterday, July 29 [See letter attached]. Just as PSC began to review the letter provided to us yesterday, it was discovered that NTS leadership and/or NTS staff have apparently chosen to make this internal PSC matter and NTS's July 29 letter to PSC quite public. I do not know if this was authorized by NTS leadership or not, but I do note that "APPROVED FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION" appears in the file name of the PDF document containing NTS's July 29 letter to PSC. I should point out that nobody south my permission to distribute my July 24 email correspondence beyond its intended recipients, much less make it "approved for general distribution". Attached is an email I received this morning from my Section's STM containing a copy of the NTS's July 29 response to PSC as well as a call for further distribution and Director contact. I'm working with PSC, Kay, and Dave to determine best path forward, but you should be aware of this in case you receive correspondence from members. Unfortunately what began as a rightful concern about ARRL being caught off-guard about interactions between top leadership of an ARRL program (NTS) and a key national partner (FEMA) has been elevated, inappropriately and unprofessionally, into a potentially far more embarrassing and complex situation. We'd be foolish to think that this will not somehow become visible to FEMA now that it is public, so I caution everyone on the nature and extent of any response you might feel compelled to provide to inquiring members. 73, Brian N5ZGT ARRL BOARD CONFIDENTIAL
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Brian Mileshosky