so i finally got activated for a real event last weekend, it was a county-level flood response and our ARES group got called in to support the EOC when their primary comms went down. ive been doing the monthly nets and training exercises for about 8 months now but honestly nothing really prepares you for the real thing.

the EC had us set up a packet station on the second floor of the county building and we were passing traffic between the EOC and a couple of the Red Cross shelters that had no cell service. went pretty smooth overall but i had some moments where i wasnt totally sure of proper procedure, like when i got a priority message that needed to go to a shelter that was already signed off for the night. do you just hold it til morning or try to raise them again? i ended up trying again and got through but wasnt sure if that was right.

also curious how other ARES groups handle ICS integration. our EC is real good about it but i noticed some of the county emergency management folks still kind of treat us like volunteers who just showed up with walkie talkies rather than trained operators working within the incident command structure. is that a common thing or is our county just behind on that?

congrats on your first real activation, those are nerve wracking even when they go well. the priority message question is a good one and honestly it depends on what your served agency wants. in our group we always clarify with the EC before anything shuts down for the night whether we hold traffic or attempt contact. if it's genuinely priority and could affect safety, you try again. sounds like you made the right call.

the ICS thing is extremely common and its kind of an ongoing battle in a lot of counties. the hams that get treated as full team members are usually the ones whose ECs have spent years building relationships with emergency management, showing up to their meetings, taking IS-100 and IS-700 and the whole FEMA training track. some counties get it, some still think were just backup CB radio guys. best thing you can do is keep showing up, be professional, and let your work speak for itself over time. it does get better usually.

yeah the ICS integration thing took our county like three or four years to really click. our EC basically embedded himself with emergency management for a long time, showed up to tabletop exercises even when ARES wasnt officially invited, stuff like that. now we're actually written into the county CEMP which makes a huge difference when an activation happens because we're expected to be there, not just tolerated.

also side note — packet for shelter-to-EOC traffic is solid but have you guys looked at Winlink at all? we switched over and it simplified a lot of the message handling, especially for written records which the served agencies really appreciate. just something to maybe bring up with your EC if you havent already.