BEECN Program Organization

BEECN Guidelines

Introduction

BEECN Program Organization

BEECN Volunteers

BEECN Caches

Operations at BEECN Sites

Operations at Fire Stations

This section outlines the structure, management, and responsibilities of the BEECN (Basic Earthquake Emergency Communication Node) program.

Definitions and Acronyms

Being that we are both a government and emergency management organization, we use a whole lotta jargon (WLJ). The table below will help volunteers navigate it.

Term/Acronym	Meaning
Amateur radio	Also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages. The BEECN system relies on use of amateur radio to pass messages from the neighborhood level to the EOC.
ARO	"Amateur Radio Operator". These are volunteers who are amateur radio licensed and trained to operate the Orange Kits at fire stations.
BEECN Cache Storage Location	The confidential location where a BEECN cache is secured. Only PBEM staff and volunteers assigned to a specific cache should know where a cache is secured and how to access it; this information is never shared with the public.
BEECN Coordinator	Abbreviated as "BC". A BEECN Volunteer who serves as the "blue skies" leader of a BEECN Cohort. Their backup is the BEECN Coordinator Assistant ("BCA").
BEECN Resource	A component piece of the BEECN system crucial to its function. This might include a BEECN volunteer, a cache, a fire station, or a site.
BEECN Site	The physical location where the general public is encouraged to convene after an earthquake if they need the services of the BEECN system. These locations are published on public maps. This is not necessarily the same as the BEECN Cache Storage Location.
BEECN Volunteer	A volunteer trained and qualified to operate a handheld BEECN radio, and assigned to a specific BEECN resource and apprised of how to set it up and operate it.
Blue Skies	In the context of emergency management, "blue skies" refers to a period of calm, when there are no active emergencies and the focus is primarily on preparation, prevention, and risk reduction, essentially signifying a "clear" situation with no immediate threats, like a clear blue sky.
Cache	A collection of BEECN equipment secured in a confidential location.
Cohort	A team of BEECN Volunteers assigned to maintain and operate a specific BEECN resource.
Demobilization	Emergency management demobilization operations are the process of releasing incident responders and resources once the incident response objectives have been met.
EOC	"Emergency Operations Center". The physical location from where City of Portland government operates in response to an emergency. See: PBEM Emergency Operations Center.
Fire Station Volunteer	A non-ARO BEECN Volunteer who reports to a fire station in order to assist the station's ARO and relay radio traffic.
HAM	🥩 A volunteer trained and licensed to operate amateur radio equipment. All AROs are HAMs, but not all HAMs are AROs.
ICS	"Incident Command System". The framework used in disaster response to organize the response effort. BEECN Volunteers are encouraged, but not required, to train in basic ICS.
Operational Period	An operational period in emergency management is a set time frame for carrying out a specific set of actions. In BEECN, a single operational period is divided into two eight-hour periods: Shift A, which runs from 0600 to 1400, and Shift B, which runs from 1400 - 2200 each day. A single incident may run for many operational periods.
Orange Kit	A VHF HAM radio kit present at every PF&R fire station and available for use by AROs.
PBEM	"Portland Bureau of Emergency Management". This is the City of Portland government agency that manages the BEEN program.
PF&R	"Portland Fire & Rescue".
Radio Room	The area inside the EOC dedicated to managing radio traffic between neighborhoods and City of Portland government in the aftermath of a disaster.
Relay	The BEECN Resource that intervenes between a BEECN and the EOC. In nearly all cases, the relay will be a fire station. Each BEECN has a Primary Relay and a Backup Relay.
Secure	Verb or adjective; the act or status of returning a BEECN resource (such as a cache) to its location and locking it up.
Shift One	The very first shift of a BEECN activation. Shift One could fall to Shift A or Shift B.
UHF	"Ultra high frequency". The handheld BEECN radios operate on commercial-band UHF frequencies. Also the title of one of the best comedies ever made.
VHF	"Very high frequency". The Orange Kits at fire stations operate on VHF frequencies.

BEECN and PBEM

1. The BEECN program is sited in, supervised and managed by the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) with participation from Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R).
2. PBEM has sole authority to determine BEECN volunteer membership and who is responsible for maintaining and deploying a BEECN.
3. When activated, BEECN volunteers defer to the authority of any present emergency response personnel (such as police, fire, or EMS personnel), members of the military, emergency managers associated with a City of Portland bureau (e.g. the Portland Water Bureau), or staff from PBEM.
4. The PBEM Bureau Director may delegate responsibilities for the BEECN program to a designee.
5. All routine communications regarding BEECN program business between volunteers, city employees, and PBEM will be directed to staff at PBEM assigned to manage BEECN.

City Employees and BEECNs

The City of Portland may assign a City of Portland employee to a BEECN for drills and/or deployment. A city employee is still considered a city employee while undertaking responsibilities to the BEECN program, and the city employee is at no time considered a “BEECN volunteer”.

Elements of a BEECN

A BEECN consists of three essential elements: the site, the equipment cache, and the assigned volunteers.

1. The BEECN site is the geographical location where Portlanders are encouraged to go 24 to 48 hours following an earthquake. For example: school grounds, a park, or a parking lot. These are the sites that appear on published BEECN maps.
2. The BEECN equipment cache associated with the site is located within a five block radius of the BEECN site. It contains all the equipment that volunteers need to deploy the BEECN.
3. BEECN volunteers are the personnel associated either with a BEECN or a fire station, and are trained to deploy the BEECN program 24 to 48 hours following an earthquake. It takes a minimum of two volunteers to operate a BEECN, and at least two volunteers to carry out BEECN responsibilities at a fire station.

In addition to these three essential elements, the BEECN system relies on Orange "Go-Kits" located at every Portland Fire & Rescue fire station.

Responsibilities of PBEM to the BEECN Program

PBEM has many responsibilities to the BEECN program and they are woven throughout these BEECN Guidelines. The following subsection does not include all of PBEM’s responsibilities to the BEECN program, but indicates those most salient. PBEM will:

1. Provide training to designated BEECN volunteers that will instruct them on safe and effective practices and procedures to deploy the BEECN following an earthquake.
2. Provide BEECN exercise and drill opportunities to keep volunteers confident and competent in the skills needed to deploy in the event of a disaster.
3. Provide a point of contact at PBEM who responds to the needs and inquiries of BEECN volunteers in a reasonably timely, professional, and relevant manner.
4. Ensure that volunteers are appropriately indemnified for their service to the community.
5. Ensure that caches and cache supplies and equipment are replenished and replaced as needed and as resources permit; and, ensure that caches receive maintenance as required.
6. Be responsible for and maintain Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with property owners who host BEECN caches.

This BEECN is deployed in an ideal site: not a lot of trees, flat, broad uh...tract of land. Yes very nice.

Location of BEECN Sites

1. At minimum, there will be a total of 48 BEECN sites located throughout the City of Portland.
2. BEECNs will be evenly distributed throughout the city and are generally sited with the goal of placing approximately two BEECNs within each of the Portland Plan’s neighborhood hub boundaries (see Appendix B).
3. PBEM has complete discretion over the location of each BEECN site. However, PBEM will consider the input of property owners, community partners, city employees, and volunteers when deciding BEECN site locations.
4. Though moving a BEECN site should be avoided, PBEM will consider moving a site if a more appropriate one is found in the immediate neighborhood of the BEECN.
5. The ideal BEECN site is:
   • An open area large enough to hold a crowd of at least 100 people;
   • A safe distance from unreinforced masonry structures (such as older brick structures);
   • Is not on a steep gradient or near landslide hazards, and not easily subject to flooding;
   • Is not in the vicinity of tall trees, overhead power lines, or other utility hazards;
   • Is familiar to the community and following a disaster might be intuited by neighbors as a community gathering point, and is geographically central to the immediate community.