St. Croix County has provided equipment in both the primary emergency operations center and the mobile communications  van for RACES.  Capabilities with the County’s equipment include capabilities in the local county as well as intra and inter-state “HF” communications that would allow for contact to be made with Madison or Washington DC.  In addition to the county provided equipment, the member volunteers would provide their own equipment either from their homes, their vehicles or portable to setup at the designated location in the time of need.  

RACES volunteers work as “employed volunteers” of the county under the direction of the emergency management director.  During an “activation” they are under the county’s worker compensation program and are non-paid employees during the disaster response.  Since these volunteers are required to complete IS-100 and IS-700 (leadership also IS-200, and optional ICS300/400), they are able to insert into the command structure as another logistical component very easily.   In both organizations there are District (following WEM’s districts) and State leadership that provide the professional leadership direction for the local organization.

RACES stands for "Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service," a protocol created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC Part 97, Section 407). Many government agencies across the country train their Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) volunteers using the RACES protocol. The volunteers serve their respective jurisdictions pursuant to guidelines and mandates established by local emergency management officials.  Protocols embraced by RACES volunteers across the nation include the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which provides a consistent nationwide template to enable federal, state and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work together to protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents.

In many jurisdictions, ARES and RACES are separate organizations. In Wisconsin, they are a combined organization with the same leadership at the State level.  The primary difference between the organizations is that RACES is a civil defense organization under FEMA and the local county, and ARES is a private organization supporting non-governmental programs such as the Red Cross, Hospitals, National Weather Service’s Skywarn program, Salvation Army and other non-profit entities.  Memos Of Understanding are established with Hudson Hospital, Westfield’s New Richmond Hospital, River Falls Hospital and the St. Croix Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross under the ARES organization.