ARES Moving to Online Reporting Forms

The ARRL's Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) will be replacing its traditional paper reporting

forms with an online volunteer management system called "ARES Connect." According to the ARRL Letter, the system will be phased in over the course of 2018, and will cover event signup, reporting and roster management. This follows changes made to ARES forms last year to standardize reporting and make it easier to process information at ARRL headquarters.

ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey, KI1U, says the new system will not change anything about the way in which ARES operates in conjunction with a served agency, but "is simply a system that will make managing volunteers and events easier."
 

The ARRL also reported that ARES membership in 2017 was up by nearly 13% from the previous year and that emergency activations saw a nearly 50% increase over 2016, citing long-term activations in response to major hurricanes in the east and wildfires in the west.