Membership Requirements
"All federal, state, local, tribal, private sector and non-governmental personnel with a direct role in emergency management and response must be NIMS and ICS trained. This includes all emergency services related
disciplines such as EMS, hospitals, public health, fire service, law enforcement, public works/utilities, skilled support personnel, and other emergency management response, support and volunteer personnel." [source]
What does that mean? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the State of Florida, require all response personnel, including volunteers, to have NIMS and ICS training. This includes Amateur Radio operators who are members of ARES, RACES, and ACS organizations.
Sarasota ACS requires it's members to take this training, to become certified in the various ICS and NIMS training classes and be fully compliant with these guidelines.
Mimimum Training Requirements
For members who will only be deployed locally in Sarasota County:
ARRL EC-001 Level 1 Amateur Radio Emergency Communications
NIMS IS 100 Introduction to Incident Command System, I-100
NIMS IS 700 National Incident Management System (NIMS) An Introduction
New ACS applicants will have 6 months to complete the required classes listed above.
For members who would like to deploy outside the County
The above plus:
ARRL EC-002 Level 2 Amateur Radio Emergency Communications
NIMS IS-200 ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Assessments
Advanced Training
Members wishing to take advanced training courses, may be interested in EC-003, additional FEMA classes, Red Cross, or CERT training.The basic Red Cross and NIMS/ICS classes can be taken on-line for free. Sarasota County also offers NIMS/ICS classes to members at no cost.
Watch the News page for announcements of upcoming classes.
