The aim of this is article is twofold: first to introduce an automated processing system based on SOD (Standing Order far Data , http://www.seis.sc.edu/SOD/) (Owens et al. , 2004), and second to give some initial results and pitfalls from our experience with using this system for automated receiver function calculations. EARS, the EarthScope Automated Receiver Survey, aims to calculate bulk crustal properties for all stations within the continental United States that are available from the IRIS DMC using receiver functions and to distribute these results to interested research and education communities as a “product” of the USArray component of EarthScope. Because of the high level of automation that this requires, a natural extension of this effort is to calculate similar results for all stations in the IRIS DMC. To do this we have employed SOD , a FISSURES/DHI-based software package (Ahern, 2001a, b) that we have developed to do automated data retrieval and processing. We introduce EARS as an example of what we term “receiver reference models” They are standard analysis techniques applied to stations. These are analogous to the Harvard Centroid Moment Tensor solutions (which could be termed source reference models). An RRM need not be a definitive result but rather provides a standard, well known, globally consistent reference. This may be sufficient for many users, just as CMT's are sufficient for many, but may also be a starting point for more in-depth, focused studies. The key features of an RRM are that it be generated from a well known and widely accepted technique, produce results for most or all stations, and provide updated results as new sources of data become available. In addition, it must produce results that are of interest in a form usable by the community. Because automated processing proceeds, by definition, without a large …