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News last updated: Mon, August 18, 2008 at 10:39 PM ET
JULY NORTH CAROLINA SECTION NEWS
SECTION SET IS OCTOBER 4
The 2008 North Carolina Section Simulated Emergency Test (SET) will be held Saturday, October 4 from 8am to 12 noon. The test scenario will involve a major hurricane hitting our coast, causing widespread flooding along the coast and into the piedmont area. The mountains will also experience landslides due to heavy rainfall. Many portions of our state will suffer from power outages and communications disruptions. Less affected areas of the piedmont will have to deal with an influx of evacuees from other areas. The Tarheel Emergency Net will be active on 3.927MHz from 8am, opening immediately after the North Carolina Morning Net. We'll move to 7.232MHz if needed because of propagation. The Tennessee and South Carolina Sections are holding their SET on the same date and we will send liaisons to their section nets. I encourage everyone to hold their local SET the same day as the section event so that we can more accurately simulated a regional disaster. But local SET's can be held anytime from September to January, just make sure your results are reported to headquarters by January 30, 2009.
In last year's SET, North Carolina scored fifth in the nation for ARES activity and third for SET net activity. We achieved these strong results with only nine ARES groups and five nets reporting! This means we can improve our score significantly and raise our national ranking if only a few more nets and ARES groups participate! The 2007 results were printed on 63-64 in the July issue of QST. Don't forget that the annual SET is a great public relations opportunity. Your local public information officer or our section PIC, Bill Morine, N2COP (n2cop@ec.rr.com), can help with these efforts.
LIABILITY CONCERNS OF ARES MEMBERS
Many of you have expressed concerns about any personal liablity you might have associated with your participation in ARES. Many ARRL affiliated clubs take advantage of ARRL's liability insurance program and this helps if the ARES event or activity is club sponsored. But not all ARES groups in our state work so closely with a radio club and I've been asked what other protections are available. Although I'm not a lawyer and can't give anyone any legal advice, I did want to share a response to this concern that was written by ARRL General Counsel, Chris Imlay, W3KD to our division director, Dennis Bodson, W4WPF. Thanks to Dennis for sharing this:
"ARES members can be reasonably assured that their volunteer activities in ARES on behalf of served agencies, if those activities are conducted in accordance with the ARRL's protocols for ARES operation, are protected to a large extent from liability exposure without any liability insurance at all. This is by virtue of the Federal Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 (VPA), 42 U.S.C. Section 14503, Public Law 105-19, Section 4. This statute, which ARRL successfully lobbied for more than ten years ago, provides that volunteers acting within the scope of their volunteer responsibilities for a nonprofit organization or governmental entity are not liable for harm caused by an act or omission. The volunteer has to have been acting within the scope of the volunteer's responsibilities in the nonprofit organization (which ARRL is, and which the ARES program is a part) at the time of the act or omission. They have to have been properly licensed, certified or authorized to perform the acts within the scope of the volunteer's activities (in the context of providing emergency or disaster relief communications, this means no more than FCC licensing in the Amateur Service, but ARES participants would be well advised to also complete the Emergency Communications Certification program that the ARRL offers). The VPA does not protect the volunteer from liability caused by the volunteer's gross negligence or willful or reckless acts that cause injury, but it does protect against ordinary negligence. Virtually all liability insurance has the same exclusions. Finally, the VPA does not protect against liability caused by the operation of a boat, car or aircraft, for which an operator's license is required. This exclusion is because if there is an operator's license, the vehicle has to be insured anyway, so there is no need to include this class of protection. If an ARES group does not want to rely solely on the VPA, they can organize and qualify as an ARRL affiliated club, and purchase the ARRL's affiliated club liability insurance. That plan, called the ARRL Club Liability Insurance Plan, covers lawsuits resulting from bodily injury and property damage at ARRL affiliated club-sponsored activities. That insurance is priced on the basis of the number of members as well as other factors such as activities and risk. The insurance is available, but only if [an ARES group] organizes into a club and has the requisite number of ARRL members within its roster (and the club would have to keep an official roster of members, current at all times, to prove their continued eligibility to remain an ARRL affiliated club) and do all things necessary to become an ARRL affiliated club. The affiliated club liability program is well-suited for ARES groups that are formally organized (that does not mean incorporated necessarily), and those members of ARES who for whatever reason choose not to become ARRL members would still enjoy the insurance coverage, provided that the ARES group remains at all times an ARRL-affiliated club. If the club loses affiliated club status, of course, the liability eligibility lapses as well.".....from Chris Imlay, W3KD, ARRL General Counsel.
It's also worthwhile to note that Gov. Easly recently signed SB 1766: "An act to provide liability protection for private associations, private corporations, and private nonprofit entities and organizations when responding to in-state incidents...". It's my undertanding that this bill should provide some protection for us when we're working as volunteers under state emergency management, but I encourage you to read the bill yourself.
UPCOMING EVENTS
JULY TRAFFIC
K4IWW 295, W2EAG 206, N3BW 164, W4DNA 135, KI4YV 106, KJ4WY 78, W4TTO 69, KD4WAX 62, WA4OBR 58, W3HL 53, W4FAL 41, KE4AHC 35, WA2YBM 20, W4EHF 8, KD4ZPS 7, KD4SM 5.
JULY PSHR
NC4VA 328, W4DNA 135, W4FAL 130, K4IWW 120, W2EAG 110, W4TTO 100, KI4YV 90, WA2YBM 70.
JULY ARES MEMBERS: 1,832 (up 4 from last month)
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