NEWS from ARES-Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA – ARES-Oklahoma senior leaders from five of the six
zones (regions) gathered to meet and plan with the Mark Conklin, N7XYO Oklahoma
Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) and Kevin O’Dell, N0IRW ARRL Oklahoma
Section Manager (SM). The meeting was held Saturday, July 16, 2011, in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma.


This was an all-day planning meeting covering a wide range of topics including revisions
to the ARES-OK State Emergency Communication Plan. One key concept change
regarding the state plan is, instead of a separate county, district, zone, and section level
plans, the state (section) plan will cover most of the policies and practices of ARES-OK
and a resource appendix for the county, district and zones will be attached to the state
plan. The resource appendix will include contact information for local leaders, local
nets and frequencies, local served agency contacts, and other local resources. Resource
appendixes will be updated and maintained on line via the www.ARESOK.org website,
and can easily be printed off and added to a member’s copy of the plan.


“This was a great opportunity for ARES-OK leadership to discuss and share thoughts and
ideas”, said Mark Conklin, N7XYO Oklahoma SEC. “This was the first time some of our
leaders were able to meet each other face to face, plus some discussions just seem to flow
better in person as apposed to e-mail, phone or radio.”


Also discussed: monthly reporting and the importance of every EC, DEC, and ZEC
reporting to the SEC. The IT manager for ARES-OK Roland Stolfa KC5UNL has worked
very hard to make it easy for leaders to report on-line using www.ARESOK.org. ECs
are required to submit there monthly reports on or before the first day of every month.
Each month the DEC report is due on the third, the ZEC on the fifth and the SEC then
compiles and submits his report to the SM and ARRL HQ by the tenth of each month.
The valuable information gathered from monthly reports is data used to demonstrate to
regulators the service and value Amateur Radio provides to the public. Report results
are also useful information for such projects as grants and discussions with legislative
leaders.


Kevin O’Dell, K0IRW ARRL Oklahoma SM noted, “It was great to see our ARES
leadership working together as a team and planning to grow the ARES program within
Oklahoma.”


Other topics of note were the need to develop a plan for digital message handling within
Oklahoma that is compatible with the efforts in other sections of the West Gulf Division,
a review of the ARES-OK Structure (Chain of Command), ARES image, the new ARES
deployment vest, creating ARES Mutual Assistance Team (ARESMAT), cultivating
partnerships with served agencies - refreshing Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs),
volunteer development and training.


ARES-Oklahoma plans to conduct a senior leadership meeting at least twice a year, and
each of the six zones are planning for a meeting together once a quarter.

ARES-OK Senior Leadership at Oklahoma City for planning meeting.

Back row left to right: Duane Henderson KC5NID ASM Zone1, Kevin O’Dell K0IRW SM, Mark Conklin N7XYO SEC, Charles Goodson KC5UEG ASEC, Floyd Grant NV5N ZEC4, Kenny Orr KC5ZDQ ZEC3.

Front row left to right: Larry Goodwin K5LHG Zone1, Stephen Grayson KE5BPL ZEC2, Roland Stolfa KC5UNL ASEC-IT Manager, Ben Joplin WB5VST ZEC5.