Building a Storm Spotting group from scratch

[Mikel Shively]

I have started a new role in my career, as a assistant emergency management director. One of the tasks charged to me is the creation of a storm spotter group for my county. The county is fairly large in land area, and we have practically 0 hams in the county, so we do need to set up a spotter group. I have been a chaser for several years, so the powers that be decided that I should be the one to set the group up.

I am wanting to solicit ideas from other groups to see how they are structured. This group will be based from Macon County Dept of Emergency Management, and not from any fire department or other departments, however, obviously, we would want citizens from each community to participate. I would love to hear your ideas!


Mike S.

 

[Joe Dorn]

Mike...

I found it hard to believe there were no hams in your area so I did a search on the ARRL site, www.arrl.org and found about seventy using the zip 635 (Partial zip for Macon).

In the search I found two clubs, Macon County Amateur Radio Club and one at the high school. Both listed Dale Bagley as the Trustee of the license so I expect he is a teacher.

allowing for your location I find it unusual that there are no spotters in your county. I expect Dale Bagley can help clear that up.

I jumped over to GRL3 and see a Spotter Network Icon in Macon County that belongs to Josh Boveri and an email address: [email protected]

I would also check with the NWS, probably St. Louis, and see if they have a list of attendees at a SKYWARN training session.

After that you will have to make decisions on how you want to operate; there are active discussions on that in this section right now...

 

[Shawn Gossman]

What is the budget like? Organize a skywarn spotter training session and then advertise getting a county group going at the class. I would also use facebook. I run a skywarn forum for IL spotters and have got quite a few new members from facebook. There are mass numbers of storm spotters on there.

Also consider advertising on the radio if your budget permits it.

 

[Tyler Allison]

I'd say, attend one of the local ham meetings without telling them what your title is and see if they are bunch of yahoo's or if they have their act together. Tell them you want to learn about amateur radio. You _DO NOT_ want to involve a ham club in your EMA stuff if they are a bunch of wannabees. It will make your life difficult in the long run.

If they are a good group, they will be the quickest way to boost your spotter count and if you can throw a couple bucks their way for gear or negotiate a spot on one of the government towers (EM, fire, police, road crew,etc)...they may even run a repeater for you on the cheap (or even free).

Reach out to your fire chief and your police chief and see if they are willing to work with you. Can also possibly tap your 911 folks since they probably get calls too.

It's too late for SKYWARN training this year, but start getting cozy with your local NWS office and start sponsoring a yearly SKYWARN training in your county to pick up the non-hams.

Also, check out the "storm ready" program from the NWS. That's a great way to get your county board/mayor/etc on board with you.

Rob Dale will probably jump in here sooner or later and give you a bunch of feedback.

-Tyler

 

[Mikel Shively]

The 635 partial zip cover a huge chunk of the northeast part of Missouri. Whereas Macon County is small in comparison. I think there may actually be 10 or so active hams as far as I can tell...I dont know how many of those would actually actively spot.

Dale Bagley is the Mayor of the City of Macon. He seems very interested in the program, and I plan on having meetings with the city councils of all the different towns sometime in the near future, but would like to formulate a plan first... It's never good to go to a city council meeting without everything in order first.

And Thanks Tyler!!! This is something that I can use very much. I will take your ideas and show them to my boss and see if we can do something with it! The director of our 911 system is very proactive here, especially for a community of 12,000. I am sure that he will help in any way he can as well.

 

[Tyler Allison]

Here's a link to "Storm Ready". Lots of good stuff there. You even get to put up signs on the road, get pictures taken with the city mayor and NWS staff. Newspapers get involved..blah blah. All the political stuff that gets people to help you

http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/

And a short FAQ/Toolkit PDF
http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/resources/toolkit.pdf

 

[Zach Borst]

I just did all the work for an internship to get my university storm ready. It's quite a bit of work and bureaucracy but it builds a great relationship with the NWS office near you. It got me an NWS internship.

 

[Jason Tunzer]

I just did all the work for an internship to get my university storm ready. It's quite a bit of work and bureaucracy but it builds a great relationship with the NWS office near you. It got me an NWS internship.

Not to hijack the thread as I love that you EMA is starting a spotter group,but I would like to know more details about what it took to get a place "Stormready" and certified. Please feel free to start a new thread.

 

[rdale]

http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/guideline_chart.htm

 

[Tyler Allison]

Wow..that's the shortest post I've seen from you Rob

 

[rdale]

I was going to say "thanks", but the system wouldn't let me

"The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 20 characters."