Leadership

Branch, Ward, Stake, Bishop's Storehouse

 Before going further have a look at this very good article recently published in the LDS Church News.

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/60548/Communicating-is-a-critical-element-of-preparedness.html

Are you a leader  in the good times?

Bishop's Storehouse, Stake Presidents, Bishops, do you consider yourselves to be leaders? You are,  of course, right from the time you may have been the oldest of siblings in your family and may have been asked by your parents to set a good example. It makes sense doesn't it? Sure it does. Now, besides being a great example by your actions, and we are told that we will be held accountable by our actions, what makes a good leader? One of the important aspects of a good leader is his/her love for those they are to lead and also their communication skills.

These are the good times brethren, are you communicating well? Are you staying on top of what's happening in the lives of your members and your administrative responsibilities in your calling?

  Will you be a leader in the bad times too?

What about the difficult times. Consider what happened in an area in Washington State a few years ago when a ferocious Pacific storm came through. No power, no telephone - not even cellular phone, no road or rail lines. The church sent in several volunteers to help dig out and clean up. It was a long arduous process. If you were in a similar situation how would you stay on top of the responsibilities you have? Would you send out runners? If you were in Salt Lake city with a highly dense member population that may seem practical but that isn't like the rest of North America, some wards and stakes are very spread out.

I get a bit depressed when I hear stories like I heard the other day. A bishop was told that there was an amateur radio course coming up put on by some members of the church. He was told that it would be free, no cost to him at all, "would he be willing to take the course. "  He thought about that for all of about five seconds and said that "no, he was certain if there was a disaster the Lord would provide  him with a way to communicate."  It never seemed to occur to him that this may have possibly been the way that the Lord was making that possible if he were to sieze the opportunity.

See Matthew 25:1–13, The Parable of the Ten Virgins. That scripture is often quoted in reference to being prepared.

And then “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear” (D&C 38:30).

 Real Life Example of How Amateur Radio Can Help

Going back to the Washington storm, another storm came along later and was equally ferocious and destructive. The story goes that the church sent in a bunch more volunteers to help and this time sent in some amateur radio operators who had portable communications stations. They were able to radio out for help from specialists in helpful specific fields plus call in equipment necessary to get the job done. The radio communications helped cut the time down to regain some normality to less than half. Amateur radio operators and their equipment are a very useful tool.

Do You Have the Manpower Resources ?

You may look around and discover that you do not have a single amateur radio operator in your membership. Have any of your membership been communicators in the military? My co-secs is a retired Canadian Forces signals person with lots of experience. He went to the local Industry Canada office and showed them his certificates and was able to pick out a call sign and get his Basic certification without any additional courses or even having to write another exam. He did have to study the appropriate Canadian RIC's (radio Information Circulars) to understand what was required of him legally. It's a bit different from the military version of rules and regulations. but certainly not difficult, just a few short hours of reading. All of that information is available through links on this web site.

O/K so you don't have any retired military signals people. Next would be electrical engineers and electronics technicians. They would all have a good start on any electronic and electrical theory and that is useful as a radio amateur.

Training is Available Through a Variety of Ways

Next would be just to find a person who would be eager/willing to take an amateur radio course. Here, in BC and Alberta, we have had literally hundreds of members and or relatives and their friends take Basic certification courses. I think that at last count we were up to 700 people have been certified. This is unheard of but it happened all thanks to two members who were inspired to instruct some quick Basic amateur radio courses. The course was a Friday evening and Saturday up until around 2 PM when the exams were put on. There was some pre-study required but nothing arduous. I have seen other courses put on in similar fashion. The students really need to continue learning because these sort of courses are just a start. Hands on courses need to be done, more upgrading courses need to take place.

Ongoing Training and Practise Required

I encourage the students to join up their local municipal emergency preparedness programs, get involved in their local EOC's (Emergency Operations Communications Centres). There they get to be with other volunteers, practice getting on the air on weekly nets, practice message handling, get some knowledge and experience with packet radio, and get to see how a large emergency preparedness operation links together. It's a great help. We as LDS should not expect to have a corner on the market by a bunch of us getting trained up, we need to be prepared to work within our community. Our stake centre, as an example, is marked as being a reception centre in case of a disaster such as a large earthquake. It has a small ham station set up in it, mostly for training purposes but would be an assett if the building had to be actually used as a reception centre.

Start Them Young

If you work with scouts you will probably have heard of JOTA (Jamboree On The Air). This is a scouting event put on once a year around the world and is an opportunity for interested scouts to chat with other scouts around the world. That requires the help of amateur radio operators. It’s a good way for future church leaders to get exposed to radio communications in a fun really digestible way. So far we have had many young men under 12 years old get their Basic amateur radio certification. If they can do it then certainly older members can acquire the same.

Almost One Stop Shopping Right Here

This web site has all of the material you need to study for your Basic certification. It even has a couple of links to download self examination programs. After studying the material you can run the test program/s and see where your deficiencies are and know where to put more effort. You need to regularly get well over 80% before bothering with the real exam. From 70 to 79 % you can work on amateur band frequencies above 30 MHz. In other words -  HF bands are not allowed by that mark but will allow you to work VHF and UHF bands and above. If you get 80% or higher you have access to all of the amateur radio bands, something you should aim for.

I will be adding some examples to this in PDF formats. How to do your job regarding setting up communications for your area. You will need appropriate WECS (Ward Emergency Communications Specialists) people for your wards, and SECS (Stake Emergency Communications Specialists). You probably already have BSECS (Bishop's Storehouse Emergency Communications Specialists).

All the Best. If you want to talk about this and maybe get some more ideas then please contact me. Always eager to make new friends, especially radio friends. For many of you this stuff may seem like a new concept to grasp. Do not be discouraged. It does get easier as you study and practise.

Leaders Communications Plan - A basic plan to follow for putting your communications resources together.

I recomend that church leaders and their emergency communications specialist and emergency preparedness specialists have a look at some files on the Mercury SE web site. There are some useful ideas there.

http://sky.prohosting.com/n4vsp/marase2004.htm

Leaders often feel a bit lossed in certain areas of their callings especially when the calling is new. Emergency preparedness is one of those areas because it encompasses so many disciplines. If any of you seasoned leaders have anything useful to contribute to the new leaders that may help them come up-to-speed please share it here. Send me an email. Likewise, if you have any good links to share on the subject send them along and if they are suitable I'll post them.