Organizational Responsibilities
There are four organizations that participate in the PVAN communications system: Neighborhood Watch, the Palos Verdes Amateur Radio Club (PVARC), the Disaster Communications Service (DCS) and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Neighborhood Watch will be responsible for organizing and staffing of volunteers, developing and maintaining a database of at-risk individuals, and available emergency personnel and equipment. They will also, during an emergency, determine the status of the neighborhood, identify at-risk individuals and seek to provide assistance from the available identified resources and CERT members. They will provide information on the status and needs of the neighborhood for transmission to the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) and dissemination of information that is received from the Emergency Operating Center (EOC).

PVARC will be responsible for the staffing, training and organization of the amateur radio operators. They will identify the minimum hardware requirements and conduct training sessions on the use of the equipment. Amateur radio operators, during an emergency, will be responsible for providing communications to and from the City’s ECC and the local neighborhoods.

DCS will be responsible for the training of the Amateur Radio operators on how to operate within a net. The training will include planning exercises, individual neighborhood tests and City tests where all neighborhoods are included in the field test of the PVAN system. DCS operators, during an emergency, will act as net control of the PVAN system. 

CERT members, in an emergency, will be able to use the PVAN system as a means of communication between the EOC and the neighborhoods. The CERT role in the PVAN system is as a user.