The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) has held to the same precepts virtually since its inception in 1935, encouraging participation by licensed Amateur Radio operators with a sincere interest in Emergency and Public Service Communications. With the advent of additional training requirements imposed upon agencies and organizations assisting them, and the development of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Incident Command System (ICS) , ARRL was challenged to align the standards of ARES with current needs of our served partner agencies.

ARRL consulted with experienced resources from a broad cross-section of radio amateurs in the U.S. to examine the needs of our served agencies. A vision and mission statement were developed for ARES — one that is versatile, tells why ARES exists, and provides an overview of what ARES does and how it does it.

These updates to the ARES program are being developed to allow the implementation of a policy of Good Practices or Generally Accepted Practices and Continuous Improvement. With these concepts in place, we envision a more flexible ARES program that can adapt to meet new and emerging communication needs as identified by partners and program participants.