Who’s the boss?

One of the points made at a Red Cross forum at Dayton a number of years ago was why they like amateur
radio volunteers who have had the Level I EMCOM course. The Red Cross speaker felt that the amateurs who completed the course come in with a good attitude.

One of the course lessons emphasizes that “attitude” is even more important than communication skills.  A professional and helpful attitude does wonders in achieving acceptance of amateur radio volunteers by a served agency. Remember that you are working for the served agency either as a contract employee through ARES or directly as a volunteer employee.

The served agencies are bureaucracies and have their own policies and procedures that must be followed.  Our job is not to question or comment on how dumb we think their procedures are or to tell them how they should be doing their job. We need to meet their needs; including performing any task that we are asked to do as long as we are qualified to do, not just playing radio and passing messages.

Remember who the boss is!.

We are there to serve, not to run the show. A poor attitude creates problems in getting amateur radio accepted as a valuable participant in disaster response. We need to be considered part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Have you had your attitude adjustment?

zeke, AB8OU