Amateur radio emergency communications organizations come in different types, national or local, or run by volunteer hams or run by police or fire departments. A potential volunteer needs to decide if they want to work with other hams or be ordered about by police officers, firefighters and other bureaucrats.
For hams who dislike volunteering in bureaucratic organizations, there are a few amateur radio clubs who independently make a difference by providing communications in times of disaster. One such club in the Los Angeles city is the San Fernando Valley Amateur Radio Club (SFVARC), W6SD, http://www.w6sd.com/. W6SD is one of the oldest surviving clubs in the country, founded in 1955. After the 6.7 Northridge Earthquake in 1994, Northridge Hospital sought out W6SD. W6SD entered into a memorandum of understanding with the hospital to provide it with communications in times of disaster. In and by itself, W6SD is larger than any one of the amateur radio emergency communications organizations in LA. More importantly it as a club it has greater experience and expertise than all the amateur radio emergency communications organizations in LA combined. There are other clubs outside of LA who are able to be effective in emergency communications independent of bureaucratic organizations. A club like W6SD has a strong traditional ham radio culture that is based on fellowship. It is strong bonds of colleagueship that enable clubs like W6SD to continue to survive and thrive while other clubs with weaker cultures have declined or even disbanded. W6SD grows while the amateur radio emergency communications organizations in LA are stagnant, or have a retention problem.
Most police officers and firefighters do not understand civilian volunteers and especially the fellowship norms of traditional ham radio culture. Police and firefighters provide a valuable service and are appropriately quasi-militaristic amongst themselves. However they inappropriately assume without questioning, which is characteristic of bureaucracy, that the way they manage their subordinates is how they should manage civilian volunteer hams. They are often singularly focused on the task; that ignore developing trust and friendships is irrelevant to the mission. They often demotivate experienced hams who understand fellowship amongst themselves is the basis for collective action as a club to serve the public. These psuedo-militaristic organizations have high turnover. Few experienced hams, who were not in the military, are willing to place themselves under the "command and control" of police and fire agencies who know little about how to motivate civilian volunteers, especially highly experienced senior hams, as well as professionals. If experienced hams are members, they usually are peripheral members who are only members who want to ensure they have access to a network in times of emergency. These kinds of members keep their distance from the inexperienced hams police and fire agencies attract. These kinds of organizations often attract hams who wanted to be cops or fire fighters but for whatever reason did not. They also attract hams who were in the military and enjoy its regimentation and seek to impose it upon their fellow hams. Worse of all, these organizations bring out the worse in hams who may be otherwise engaged in fellowship but have had their political side brought out and instead play power games against their fellow hams in their quest for bureaucratic power.
Unfortunate for hams who are in ham radio to communicate with others on a human level, the federal government has mandated that state and local agencies it funds use the National Integrated Management System (NIMS). NIMS is based on the Integrated Command System (ICS) which is based on classical management theory which reached it high point in the time of Henry Ford, early 20th century. This system may be appropriate for firefighters and police officers, but it often is at odds with the fellowship norms of ham radio. As amateur radio emergency communications organizations run by hams work with governmental agencies, they too are required to adopt an inappropriate model of management.
