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Your local team
We have already looked at how the Alliance is organized at the national level, but we are built to work from the local community up. At the foundation are amateur radio operators and the clubs that bring them together. Whether you serve as a member, an Ambassador or a Council Representative, every role begins with supporting amateur radio where it happens: in our local communities.
A reasonable span of control
Our geographic structure is intentional. Territories are divided into regions, with a limited number of states in each region. States are divided into Club Councils, with a limited number of counties in each Council. This helps us maintain a reasonable span of control, a principle built into the National Incident Management System. The goal is not to create more layers of management, but to keep areas manageable, so our Representatives can build relationships, stay engaged, understand local needs, and provide meaningful support to the communities they serve.
Start in your own member portal
If you are a member, one of the first things to do is sign in to your member portal and check your information. Make sure your name, your call sign, your contact information, and especially your county are correct.
Your county is what connects you
Your county is the piece that connects you to everything else. Counties are grouped into Club Councils, and each Council has a Representative answerable for it. So the county on your record decides which Council you belong to, which Council Representative looks after your area, and which State Representative you sit under. It is also how we count members by area, so we can see where amateur radio is growing and where a Council needs help. Get your county right, and the right people can find you, invite you, and support you.
Find your representatives, and be findable
Take a few minutes to look up your State Representative and which club council covers your area. Introduce yourself to the other representatives, and turn on your public profile in our member directory. You do not have to wait until you need something to reach out. Building relationships and strengthening community are a large part of what we are about. Engagement is one of our key focus areas, and it begins with getting to know the people, the clubs and the Representatives around you.
Who you can reach, and how
Our geographical Representatives also have tools inside the portal that help them stay connected. Council Representatives can write to other Council Representatives, and to their Field Services Representative and State Representative. A State Representative can write to one Council, or to every Council in the state. These tools make communication easier and more organized, without creating another layer of management, and without important conversations getting lost in a crowded email inbox.
Conversations stay in the portal
It looks like this. Every conversation sits in the portal, with the people it concerns already in it.
A council working through its clubs
Here is what one looks like in practice: a council representative planning club visits, a state representative asking what to find out while he is there, and a field services representative with resource packets to hand over. Ordinary work, written down where the next person can see it.
Keeping track of who we have reached
The portal also helps State and Council Representatives keep track of their contact with clubs through the year. That gives us a better understanding of which clubs we are regularly reaching, where relationships are developing, and where we need to make a greater effort to connect.
Your council on the Club Map
Our Club Map is another important part of that local connection. A Council Representative can see every club we list inside their own Council, all on one map.
Reviewing the clubs in your council
And from the portal, the same clubs are a working list: when each was last contacted, and which ones are due a review.
Approving and updating a listing
Open one, and you can review the club's information and approve or update it: the meeting night, the place, the contact, the repeaters. Every club listed on the map is flagged for review at least once every three years, so information does not simply sit there and become outdated.
A vacant seat is not a forgotten area
The system is also built so that a vacant volunteer position does not mean an area is forgotten. If a club sits in a Council with no Council Representative, its review flags are visible to the Field Services Representative and the State Representative as well. Someone can still reach out, verify the information, and hold that connection until a Council Representative is in place.
Subscribe to the calendar
You should also subscribe to our calendar, so meetings, events and other important dates appear on your own. Staying connected should not mean checking the website to see what is happening.
“Should I join?”
Sooner or later somebody will ask you whether they should become a member. You do not need to memorize every option, but be familiar with what we offer: Individual, Family, Youth, sixty five plus, Associate, GMRS Affiliate, Organization and Corporate memberships. Our inclusive membership model means there is a place here for individual operators, families, young people, clubs, organizations, businesses, and anyone else who wants to support amateur radio. Individual membership is thirty two dollars a year, and when you are not sure which membership suits somebody, simply send them to u s nara dot org slash join.
You do not have to know everything
Most importantly, you do not have to know everything. Volunteering here does not mean having every answer. It means knowing how to connect somebody with the right person, resource or program. If a club brings you a concern, an operator asks a question you cannot answer, or you see an unmet need in your community, pass it along. That information moves from the local Council, to Field Services, or the State Representative, and, when necessary, up the ladder to Regional Representatives or Territory Representatives and the national board.
Some things to know
- Our geography is deliberate: territories hold a limited number of regions, regions a limited number of states, states a limited number of club councils, and councils a limited number of counties. That is span of control, borrowed from the National Incident Management System — the point is manageable areas, not more management.
- Sign in and check your member details, especially your county. Your county decides which club council you belong to, which council representative looks after your area and which state representative you sit under, and it is how we count members by area.
- Look up your state representative and the council covering your area, introduce yourself, and turn on your public profile in the member directory. You do not have to wait until you need something to reach out.
- Representatives can write to each other inside the portal: a council representative to other council representatives and to their field services and state representatives; a state representative to one council or to every council in the state. The conversation stays on the record instead of in somebody's inbox.
- A representative's dashboard covers their own ground: the clubs in it, when each was last contacted, which listings are due a review, and a contact log that belongs to the seat, so the next person to hold it inherits everything you wrote down.
- Every club on the map is flagged for review at least once every three years. If a council has no representative, those flags are visible to the field services and state representatives instead, so a vacant seat never means a forgotten area.
- Subscribe to the NARA calendar so meetings and events land on your own.
- Know roughly what we offer when somebody asks about joining — Individual, Family, Youth, 65+, Associate, GMRS Affiliate, Organization and Corporate — and when in doubt send them to usnara.org/join.
- You do not have to know everything. Pass it along: club or operator, to the council representative, to field services or the state representative, and when necessary up to the regional and territory representatives and the national board.
Your county decides which club council you belong to, which council representative looks after your area, and which state representative you sit under.
A vacant council seat never means a forgotten area — the flags go to field services and the state representative instead.
The council directory on the site will tell you which council covers any county. Councils are grouped by state and county rather than by region, so a council never straddles a state line.