The ARRL has renewed a long-standing Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which keeps amateur radio as part of the "response ecosystem" in FEMA's National Incident Management System (NIMS) Information and Communications Technology Functional Guidance document. According to the
ARRL: Letter, the new MOA "emphasizes the importance of skilled amateur radio operators in times of crisis and the role of ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) leadership within the emergency communications space."
The
ARRL Letter also reports that the League has been invited to become a member association of SAFECOM, "a group of national thought leaders and officials within the emergency communications and response space that works to set (interoperability) standards at every level." SAFECOM is under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA. ARRL Emergency Management Director Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, will be the League's representative on SAFECOM <
www.cisa.gov/safecom>.
