On behalf of the organizing committee, it is my great pleasure to cordially invite your National Society and members of Emergency Communications Groups to participate in MyGAREC 2012, the 8^th GAREC conference, which will be held on 12to 14^th November, 2012 in Port Dickson, Malaysia.

This international conference, an informal forum by radio amateurs from societies worldwide, especially from those societies who are very active in the rapid provision of support communications to all the emergency and disaster-relief services in their countries in times of any emergencies or disaster, is hosted by MARTS (Malaysian Amateur Radio Transmitters’ Society) with the following aims:

1. To promote more awareness between government ministries, departments, agencies and regulatory authorities especially in those countries in Region III where the resources that can be provided by amateur radio volunteers have up till now remained almost-unused
2. To foster more information exchanges leading towards better utilization and coordination of amateur radio resources for emergencies and disaster relief communications, gaining a closer rapport between all of the above parties and eventually developing a high level of trust and reliance on the radio amateurs for the provision of such communications services.
3. To help the relevant departments or ministries in Malaysia look more positively towards eventually becoming a signatory in the Tampere Convention and its ratification in due course.

This conference is therefore an ideal forum for for all amateur radio societies whether they already have an organized emergency communications response team with ideas to share , in search of more solutions, or are in the process of setting one up and need more information and advice or simply want to learn more about the functions and roles of such teams in the amateur radio service. Some delegates from countries which have experienced recent disasters will be giving their presentations on what their society did and also share all the lessons learned from their services.

Please feel free to fill in the registration form which can be downloaded from the conference website and return it to us as per instructions on our forms. It will be our pleasure to see you at the conference and share all our experiences and ideas. http://​www​.mygarec2012​.com/​g​a​r​ec/ ( websites archived ).

The Global Amateur Radio Emergency Conference (GAREC), now coined as ‘MyGAREC 2012’, will be held at the Thistle Port Dickson Resort, Negeri Sembilan, from November 12 to 14. It attracts participants from around the world.

The first GAREC was in 2005 and is the premier annual event attended by those with an interest in amateur radio providing emergency communications during training exercises or in response to disasters.

MyGAREC 2012 has been timed to immediately follow the IARU Region 3 Conference in Vietnam (November 5 to 9) which has as its theme disaster relief communications. General information including information on the venue, registration fees and the tentative agenda and the registration forms will be posted on the website www​.mygarec2012​.com (Archived Site)by the end of this month. This website will be updated frequently to keep all updated with the latest news and program changes.

Among the draft topics to be discussed are the HF Emergency Operating Procedure, the Future of GAREC, presentations from the three regions of the IARU and also some presentations from societies with recent disaster relief communications operations. 

(MyGarec 2012 Team)