DARES Foundation Established May 12, 2004c/o de Savornin Lohmanplantsoen 45,

2253 VN Voorschoten,The Netherlands

DARES®Recent developments, current focus, challenges

GAREC 2009, Tokyo, Japan

Joop Verdoes, PA1JAV (ex V8AJV, VK2IAT)Secretary DARES Foundation

Setting the SceneHistory

• 2003: Approval of Emcomm by HAMs in Region 1.

• 2004: DARES Foundation was legally established.

• 2004-current: Development of the organisation, lobbying & PR, mobilising HAMs.

• 2007: DARES formally recognised by The Dutch Ministry of Internal Affairs and Kingdomrelations.

• 2008: DARES® becomes a registered trademark.

Setting the SceneOrganisation

• The Foundation is the one and only legal entity.

• The Foundation consists of a Board, which has a maximum of 7 members.

• The participants are organised in 25 regions, which align with the Dutch Safety Regions of the government.

• Each DARES® Region (DR) has a Region Coordinator (RC), appointed by the Board.

• There is no legal relationship between the Foundation and the 400+ participants.

THE Key milestonewas the formal recognition in 2007 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Kingdomrelations.

It was accompanied with a directive for all Dutch Safety Regions to make provisions for DARES® in their plans and scenarios (but no mention of the scope!).

This re-energised the Board as well many of the participants.

It legitimised in a social sense the existence of DARES® and opened doors for discussions and presentations etc.

Achievements (1)Internal

• Monthly test & practice alarms by the DR's internally.

• Nation-wide uniform operations & procedures.

• Formal plenary meetings with the RC's and their deputies.

• Nation-wide frequency-plan agreed and set.

• Voice defined as the main mode.

• E-mail over Winlink2000 now rapidly becoming a small but established mode.

• Standard 13.8V DC connector defined.

Achievements (2)External

• All 25 Dutch Safety regions formally approached.

• Meaningful meetings with 60% of the Dutch Safety Regions.

• Idem-ditto with some of the coordinating bodies and the power distribution company.

• DARES® included in the nation-wide paging over & by the national Police, Fire and Ambulance paging network.

• Weekly test & practice paging through this paging network.

Katrina kicks the Dutch into reality

• We know (normally) how to keep the water out; to build, maintain & monitor our sea defences. (My house is at -1m, Amsterdam Airport is at -8m)

• We have had some floodings all the time, but these were always contained by the compartmentalisation of our polders.

• BUT we have ignored disasters of a larger scale (Katrina, “1953”), which are likely to happen more often.

• A national Task-Force Management Floodings (TMO) was formed lead by two Ministries.

DARES participates in Governmental Initiatives-TMO

The Task-Force Management Floodings (TMO) recognised the value of DARES® and we were invited to participate in:

• The command exercise / study to draft guidelines/manuals (in which were included), and in a regional comms exercise

• A Mega rescue demonstration, with hundreds of participants from all services: “Lotus victims”, boats, helicopters, Army engineers & comms, ambulances, TV crews, etc, etc.The audience consisted a few hundred politicians, civil authorities, Army Brass etcDARES® was allocated a prominent place & dedicated slot in the demo and on the DVD that was made of this event.

Achievements (3)External / The day after (the TMO event)

• We were spoken to!

• A formal convenant with one Dutch Safety Region was signed

• 6-7 Safety Regions are now drafting proposals for their Board to sign such a convenant.

DARES participates in Governmental InitiativesRobustness of crisis communication

A separate study-group, with DARES® participation, analysed how robust the national crisis communication facilities are in the event of: a major flooding or a flue pandemic (this was BEFORE the swine flu outbreak)

DARES® capabilities were very favourably received.

The report (currently still confidential) is now being finalised for presentation to and acceptance by the Dutch Parliament.

If/When accepted this will give a major boost and provide mega challenges.

DARES participates in Governmental InitiativesEU-FLOODEX 09 (1)

EU-FLOODEX 09 is a EU-subsidised international flooding management exercise (aug-sep 09), which follows the identified phases of such catastrophy:1. The MET-office predicts a super-storm (D-4),

2. Officials of the involved services meet (D-3)2.1 To predict the threat; areas impacted and level,2.2 To asses requirements for evacuations, rescue & repair2.3 To asses resource requirement and to mobilise these

3. Actual Field Exercise. (D-1 evacuation, D+1 repair&rescue)

DARES participates in Governmental InitiativesEU-FLOODEX 09 (2)

The simulated super-storm threads all countries around the North Sea, with floodings in all coastal areas. The province of Noord-Holland is hit hardest with thousands of people flooded.

The resource requirements outstrip a- the provincial capabilities and b- the national capabilities. ==>> The international EU agreements for mutual assistance are activated: teams & material from the UK, Germany, Poland and Estland are called to the rescue (and pumping).

About 500 persons with their equipment will be flown and driven in and exercise for a week. Including DARES® teams

The day(s) after (EU-FLOODEX)

• One Dutch Safety Region has indicated wanting to sign a convenant on the last day of EU-FLOODEX FE

• One Dutch Safety Region has indicated wanting to sign BEFORE the FE.

• The report on Robustness of Crisis Communication will soon pass parliament

• The Ministry has indicated that, once the report has indeed passed, we will be given sufficient funds to make things happen.

Challenges

A wide range of challenges will be facing us

• Getting all current and new participants, regions and RC's certified. Pruning of some dead-wood.

• Increase the frequency and scope of the regular exercises.

• Rolling-out Winlink2000 (with encryption) to more teams and ensuring national coverage.

• Targeting and delivering the DARES® mission message at the right audiences.

• To ensure we don't commit to/get more funds than we can actually deliver upon.

Thank you

Questions?

Answers??