At some point, one has to sit down and decide where the best place to invest limited resources is. Sometimes, the decision is not an easy or popular one, especially when you are talking about money and people's limited time. I find myself at such a point now.
I am, among other things, the Emergency Coordinator for the Prince William County (VA) Amateur Radio Emergency Service. As such, I am responsible for making sure that some 60 odd amateur radio operators are available to support the emergency communication needs for Prince William County, as well as the Red Cross of Prince William County, the various hospitals in the county and other organizations that might need emergency communications.
I am sure you have heard the phrase "what if you had a party and no one showed up?" Now imagine that the party is a hurricane named Isabel and no one showed up to help. Now to be fair to the members, some did show up and some were detained by circumstances beyond their control, but the vast majority did not even have the courtesy to say, sorry, I cannot help at this time. This is not a situation you ever want to have happen. Fortunately, in Prince William County, we only had limited, localized flooding and emergency communications were never really needed, but the point is that if they had been needed, the resources were not there to call on.
So I am at a cross roads. To take the lessons from the hurricane and a couple of other events this year and put them to good use, resources have to be expended - primarily money to buy goods and manpower to see that the purchases are put into place. If I were asked to do that today, I would say that I don't have the will of the team to do it. So, I have done what any manager does - I have asked the team for their opinion. Now I have a pretty good idea which way the question will go - after all, a wise old owl once told me not to ask the question if I didn't know what the answer was, so I cannot honestly say I expect to be surprised. Which, when all is said and done, is the saddest part of this tale.
11:40:01 AM 
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