The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

62 MARCH 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL a call for an outdoor, physically distanced community meeting. I attended, notebook in hand. What I heard was a community grappling with how to better communicate during emergencies. I immediately realized that my experience overseas, as a consular officer, working with NGOs and in the Peace Corps could help here. I’m sharing this story because it exemplifies how Foreign Ser- vice consular skills can be useful at home in U.S. communities. Putting Consular Skills to Work at Home Fires are going to be a part of life for this mountain commu- nity, which is mostly supported by a volunteer fire department and a fire department coming from the main town, more than 20 minutes away up narrow, windy mountain roads. I suggested we set up a system like the citizen liaison volunteer networks that consular sections coordinate overseas. The community was thankful for a suggestion that was low-cost and could be set up easily using my expertise. We got right to work. During the meeting, I had sent around a sign-up sheet to establish a working group. We began holding biweekly virtual meetings on weekends to discuss how to set up the program. I used the project management tools offered by 1CA, the office where I manage communications for my day job. Community members were so impressed with these tools and being able to directly reap the benefits of their tax dollars. With the help of a local internet service provider, the Greensprings Internet Co-Op, we began testing out radios as a means to contact each other in the event of an emergency. This community faces unique communication challenges: Some people live completely off-grid with no phones; others have no cell phone reception due to their location. Many are older and simply don’t keep their cell phones near them or look for alerts. Radios were a simple solution, as they often are when we’re overseas. We found funding from a local community organiza- tion to cover the costs of setting up the radio network and to provide radios to interested individuals who couldn’t afford to purchase their own. The system is now up and running for its first fire season, a true trial by fire! The new radio network can help residents cope with the dan- gers of fire season for many years after I’ve left the mountain, pro- tecting homes and businesses, and providing an income source The aftermath of the Almeda fire as seen from Coleman Creek, Oregon, in September 2020. I’m regularly asked to explain what the State Department does and, of course, fielding questions about consular services. OREGONDEPARTMENTOFTRANSPORTATION