PEMA Appoints ACS Officers
PEMA has appointed the following individuals to ACS positions.
Commonwealth ACS Officer/PEMA Headquarters ACS Officer: Cynthia Garfold, KB3LZN.
Cynthia is from Allegheny county and holds an Extra Class license. She is and instructor and mentor for the ARRL Emergency Communications courses. She serves as the Executive Director of a non-profit organization that deals with the special needs population. In that capacity she has been instrumental in developing relationships with state agencies and now they work closely together when dealing with special needs populations. Cynthia is also an IT professional. Cynthia also brings an extensive background to emergency communications and response.
PEMA Headquarters Assistant ACS Officer - Rodney Gallagher, KB3OTY
Rodney is from Dauphin county and holds a General Class license. He is a military veteran with a background in avionics, communications, fiber optics and computer programming. Rodney has been a member of the South Central Task Force Amateur Radio Working group for the past three years and has served on its Technical, Planning and Documentation committees.
Cynthia and Rodney, together, will form an effective team to support operations at State Emergency Operations Center and PEMA Headquarters, as well as in working to build and promote the Auxiliary Communications Service Program in Pennsylvania.
Western Area Office ACS Officer - Dave Hunter, N3YFO
Dave is from Cambria county and has be the county ACS Officer. Dave is also a Unit Manager with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Dave's experience in building and maintaining the Cambria ACS program will be an asset to the Western Area Office. As the ACS Officer for the Western Area Office, Dave's main responsibility, along with ensuring the station at the Area Office remains operational, is to act as the primary POC for ACS related issues and questions for ACS Officers and county coordinators in the western third of the state. He will report directly to Tim Baughman, the Western Area Office Director.
Please join us in welcoming them on board.
PEMA Director Signs ACS Strategic Plan
On July 19th, Director French signed the Pennsylvania Auxiliary Communications Services (ACS) Strategic Plan.
This plan is a guide for how the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will conduct auxiliary communications response to all-hazards incidents by identifying policy objectives and providing overall, high-level guidance for; integrating and coordinating governmental Auxiliary Communications Services (ACS); Department of Defense (DOD) auxiliary communications; and non-governmental volunteer Emergency Communications (EmComm) personnel, organizational structures, leadership and management processes, and facilities and equipment across all jurisdictions.
This plan was developed by an 18 member workgroup consisting of representatives for PEMA (headquarters and area offices), Governor’s Office of Administration/Office of Public Safety Radio, Office of the State Fire Commissioner, PA Department of Health, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, county emergency management agencies, regional task forces, county Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS), PA Wing Civil Air Patrol, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, and American Radio Relay League/Amateur Radio Emergency Services.
This ACS implementation workgroup will shortly begin working on a statewide ACS operational plan that will provide interoperable and coordination guidelines and procedures for auxiliary communications to establish a statewide solution and to serve as an annex to the State Emergency Operations Plan (SEOP).
Pennsylvania Auxiliary Communications Services Program Directive signed by PEMA Director
On January 22, 2010 Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) Director and Homeland Security Advisor, Robert P. French signed the Pennsylvania Auxiliary Communications Services (ACS) Program Directive formally establishing the program.
While PEMA promoted and utilized Amateur Radio and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) operations in the past, a formal program and plan for the use of communications volunteers did not exist. With the establishment of the Pennsylvania ACS Program PEMA has put into place a formal mechanism for the utilization of communications volunteers at the state level and for assisting and coordinating the efforts of volunteers communications programs at the task force and county levels.
The Pennsylvania ACS Program does NOT eliminate RACES. Rather is built upon RACES, which is the foundation of the ACS program and without which the ACS program itself could not exist. ACS programs and unit, just like RACES programs and unit, must be sponsored by an emergency management agency an provide communications support to that sponsoring agency. As such, ACS is a function of government and must operate and function under all emergency management policies, procedures and requirements.
The role of the ACS program at PEMA is to support state agency operations and to coordinate and assist county and task force programs and to promote the use of trained communications volunteers at all levels. Local (task force and county) programs will not see any significant change in the way they currently operate. However, one of the main goals and functions of the ACS program is to coordinate those operations on a state-wide basis.
There are to significant administrative changes however that do take affect with the signing of this Directive.
1. Since the acronym RO for RACES Officer is also used for Radiological Officers we are eliminating the title of RACES Officer and replacing it with ACS Officer. This a title change only, this does not replace the duties and responsibilities of the person holding this title or require a change in personnel. If and when and ACS unit is conducting RACES operations, the ACS Officer is the person in charge of these operations for that unit.
2. As a generic term, all emergency management agency sponsored volunteer communications programs will be call ACS programs or units. However, just like in the fire service where Citizen's Hose Company is generically call a Fire Department, local programs or units may continue to use local names such as ABC County RACES or whatever they desire.
This changes have been instituted to remove any confusion with position titles and to better comply with NIMS policies. It will take some time for everyone to make these changes in their vocabulary, but all official correspondence must now use these terms and references.
This is an exciting time for amateur radio and auxiliary communications in Pennsylvania. Understandably, as the Pennsylvania ACS Program is implemented questions, concerns and misunderstandings have and will occur. It is not productive to anyone to circulate or harbor rumors or opinions. If you have questions, concerns or may not understand something that is being implemented please contact your local ACS leaders or Chris Snyder, Acting Commonwealth ACS Coordinator at PEMA to ensure you have the accurate information.
Contact information is found on the main Auxiliary Communications Services Program page.
