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The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is a corps of trained volunteers organized to assist in public service and emergency communications; it is sponsored by the American Radio Relay League.
Usually, the ARES is organized by city and county and will be affiliated with the local municipality or county government.
The top of the command structure is the Section Emergency Coordinator, or SEC. This person is a member of the Section Managers Cabinet responsible for emergency communications.
The Section Emergency Coordinator has the District Emergency Coordinators or DECs working for them. Nominally a DEC will be affiliated with a county level or regional assignment.
Each DEC will have one or more Emergency Coordinators working for them. The Emergency Coordinator, or EC is the tactical commander within the organization. The EC is responsible for organizing a local ARES group, and serving as its leader during actual operations.
Each EC normolly appoints AEC or Assistant Emergency Coordinators to work in jursidiction of the EC. EC's commonly delegate specific areas to AECs such as SKYWARN, Public Information, Station Manager, NTS Liason, Accountability, Net Manager, or training director.
ARES Nation wide has Memorandums of Understanding (http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/mou/) with the Amercian Red Cross, National Weather Service, Dept. of Homeland Security -- Citizen Corps, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International, National Communications System, National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers Inc, Salvation Army, Society of Broadcast Engineers, Quarter Century Wireless Association, Inc., and REACT International, Inc.,
Frequently, local chapters combine with RACES, although the functions of ARES and RACES are somewhat different. To operate during a declared emergency, you would normally be part of RACES.
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