so i finally got pulled into an actual activation last weekend, been doing the training nets for about 8 months and honestly thought it would be a long time before anything real happened. county EOC needed extra comms support for a pretty bad flooding situation about 30 miles north of us and our EC called everyone in. ended up running a station at a shelter for almost 14 hours straight.

the thing that surprised me most was how different it felt from the training nets. like on the weekly ARES net i always feel pretty comfortable but sitting in that shelter with actual served agency people walking around and asking me questions was a whole different headspace. i kept second guessing myself on stuff i know cold, like proper ICS terminology and just basic message handling.

anyway it worked out fine i think, the shelter coordinator said we did good work. but now i have a couple questions for folks who have done more of these. first, how do you handle it when a served agency person asks you to do something that you know is kinda outside what we're supposed to be doing? happened once where someone wanted me to basically act as a runner and leave my station unattended. second question, do most groups do any kind of after action debrief because we didnt really do one and im curious if thats normal or if our group just skipped it.

congrats on your first real one, that flooding situation sounds rough. the shelter environment is definitely a shock the first time, you described it perfectly -- all that stuff you know on paper suddenly feels wobbly when someone in a vest is staring at you.

on your first question, that's actually something that comes up in ICS training and the short answer is you politely explain that leaving your station unattended could create a gap in comms and offer an alternative if you can. most served agency folks dont really understand what we do or why station continuity matters, so its usually not pushback just genuine not knowing. if your EC or net control is reachable you can also just say let me check with my supervisor which is totally legitimate within ICS anyway. you're not a general purpose volunteer, you have a specific function.

as for after action reviews, they absolutely should be doing one and honestly your EC should be the one pushing for it. ARRL recommends them and FEMA IS stuff covers it too. if yours got skipped just bring it up at the next meeting, frame it as wanting to improve for next time and nobody can really argue with that.

yeah the runner thing would bug me too honestly. i had something similar happen at a health fair we were supporting, not quite an emergency but same idea, and i just kind of smiled and said i really need to stay with the radio but let me call someone who can help. worked fine.

i dont have much experience with formal debriefs but from what ive seen a lot of local ARES groups are pretty informal and stuff just kind of... doesnt happen unless someone makes it happen. if you want one just ask, worst case your EC says nah and you move on but my guess is other people would appreciate it too.