Two years and eight months since OUR last spotter training class, and eight FLAGLER County spotter classes later, a spotter training class has FINALLY appeared on the NWS-JAX board for Alachua County...
When:
Alachua December 9, 2010
6:00-9:00 pm
Location:
Alachua County Public Health Auditorium
224 SE 24th St
Gainesville, FL
To register, contact:
David Donnelly
(352) 264-6500
Email: DAD@alachua.co.us
Instructor will be Al Sandrik.
A PERSONAL COMPLAINT: Spotters are required to have refresher training every two years. Because of the immature actions of quite a number of Alachua County ham radio operators who have caused a number of pretty serious problems, our own local area spotter program has pretty much disappeared and been dissolved down to a web page only, while Alachua County has been *severely* prejudiced and NWS employees have actually been *afraid* to come down here to give any classes at all for 2-3/4 years. Angie does classes for every *other* county in the NWS-JAX CWA but seems utterly *frightened* to show her face here, anymore. So many bad things have happened. Government officials took actions based on gossip, and now they're responsible for those actions. They made some serious mistakes of judgment and management and they don't know how to APOLOGIZE much less FIX the things that they were duped into doing by the hams. ANY acknowledgement opens them up to a lawsuit. At the same time, FLAGLER County has had it's *pick and choose* of up to THREE CLASSES A YEAR - at least EIGHT since we had OUR last class. ...Maybe more - I'm still researching it. That's an inexplicable favoritism, and it's just not right.
Regardless of what those hams have done, taking it out on innocent people who had NOTHING to do with it all is NOT right. The spotter program, and the training classes, MUST continue, regardless. If NWS is worried for their safety, then they can always get security to accompany the instructors. But spotters *must* be refreshed every two years, regardless. That is an NWS mandate.
Meanwhile, I propose that if the hams are a problem, THEN STOP COOPERATING WITH THE HAMS UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THEY LEARN. The rest of the ham community will be forced to follow through and get ON them. It WORKS. You just need *solidarity* to make it happen. There is a serious problem with the local ham community and it needs to be addressed head on. If need be, I would suggest putting a two-year cessation on all cooperation with ALL Alachua County ham programs, and *force* them to sit down and talk amongst themselves about self-policing and doing the right thing and taking charge when bad apples cause harm to others. Without that, ***there are no consequences*** and nobody has any reason to *stop* what they're doing. PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN...and it shocks people, makes them think. GARS, GARC...these clubs need to be made aware of what their members are doing, and to seriously stop and think about such things, and stop *avoiding* the very serious things that are right in front of their faces. These guys don't like to acknowledge the bad. They're like some abuse victims...they continually turn a blind eye and let the abuse continue to happen, thinking if they just ignore it "it'll go away on it's own". You have to take charge, or you'll just keep getting hit. At this point, their members have caused so much harm that they could face lawsuit and total dissolution.
Myself, so much harm has been brought to me personally, and to other people, and so many crimes have been committed, that I'm *actually* thinking of bringing a real lawsuit against some people in NWS-JAX *and* against Alachua County government. This is SO BAD what has been done! (sigh)
Meanwhile, reinstate the non-ham *civilian* spotter core - which worked perfectly and HAD no problems because it stayed SEPARATE from the ham community (while still allowing COOPERATION between hams and EM). This is WHY Alachua County SKYWARN was civilian-run and avoided hams and EM...we didn't want the damned politics and egos. WE didn't NEED dues, donations, or grants. We did our job and JUST the job that we were supposed to do: LOOK UP, and REPORT! That's IT! There is NO OTHER DUTY for a spotter! Security background checks, incident command training, EMRISS training, CERT membership, ham membership, emergency management security clearance, classes held inside buildings REQUIRING any of the above...these things are not supposed to be required for a spotter. That's ARES, RACES, etc. Those are totally separate things. SKYWARN can work WITH those groups. But it is supposed to be separate and of it's own. When you try to join it with these other things, problems happen, and there is politics, and unnecessary over-management for something that is supposed to be very simply run.
If THIS class gets postponed, then I *strongly* encourage people to make complaints to NWS-HQ in DC and call attention to it all. This is ridiculous. It really needs to be brought to public attention if these guys can't start getting on the ball and taking charge.
More information about the REASONS for the Alachua County prejudice can be found here:
http://stormspottertodd.blogspot.com/2009/12/whered-todd-goon-dealing-with.html .
Todd
