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About rusnivek

Emergency Services

Day-2 of the FEMA OEMA G0290: Basic #PIO at Cleveland EOC

Day-2 of the FEMA Basic PIO Course in Cleveland, Ohio!!! Starting out the day with one of the best JIC Managers in the biz, ladies and gents, one of the orig FEMA Master PIOs put your hands together for ERICA CREECH!!!!!

Sharing her experiences with the class on PIOs and coordination was critical in countless EOC and JIC activations.

In a heartbeat, I’d work for Erica any day in the JIC.

Don’t worry, we jumped back on the train (FEMA’s powerpoint slides) to talk and debate about press releases.

Since Steve is from media, he loves his inverted pyramid. But are press releases valuable? Needed? Seems we had quite the spirited discussion on the necessity and timely appeal of press releases.

After lunch, we were fortunate enough to grab, IMHO, the best of the best media talent in Cleveland.

Fox8: Jennifer Steer (@jensteer)

WOIO-19: Chris Tanaka (@Chris_Tanaka)

WEWS-5: Homa Bash Ball (@HomaBashWEWS)

WKYC-3: Barry Wolf (@photowolfTV)

Cleveland PlainDealer: Ginger Christ (@GChristCLE)

These pros not only talk a good game, but their social media skills are top shelf! I submit to you Barry’s fashion selfie from the front of the room.

Solid!

These folks were able to dedicate their time to answer any I mean ANY questions that our new PIOs had.

Proud to see new relationships and transparency with all parties involved.

Why? We hear of soooo many bad interactions and exchanges with the media. This kind of engagement showcases that if we work together and we share our knowledge of ongoing issues, we can help each other out.

I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am to see this kind of action happening in class.

Like nurturing new PIOs and helping them network…OMG THIS IS WHAT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IS ALL ABOUT!!!!!!!!

Yeah yeah, I’ll get off the soapbox now.

But seriously, this media panel has been one of my absolute favorites to have because….well, because of this…

Brah, Tanaka’s got some seriously good selfie skillz. Many mahalos to all of my media panel that showcased the best of TV news media.

After the media panel left, we reviewed all of our on camera interviews.

Sharing our challenges but learning from others in a productive and positive way increases participant on camera skills.

To close out the day, we also had our second and most lauded PIO stop by. Ladies and gents, the orig filmmaker himself, raise the roof cause it’s Cleveland Fire very own PIO Mike Noooooooooooorman!!!!!!!

Glad to spend a few minutes with fire’s new PIO who jumped head first into the role for CFD. FYI-Mike was a participant in a class that Steve and I taught in Summit County Ohio so we are proud to see him flourishing in his role at CFD.

Outstanding and super fun day with everyone. Back at it tomorrow with another special guest and to talk about JIC/JIS!

@rusnivek

FEMA OEMA G0290: Basic #PIO at the City of Cleveland EOC!

Outstanding start to this week’s FEMA G0290: Basic PIO course sponsored by Ohio EMA and the City of Cleveland Emergency Management!

Special thanks to CEM Alex Pellom for the invitation to hang for a few days in the Emergency Operations Center!

Guess who I get to teach with this week? Fresh off the disaster wheel, Assistant Fire Chief Steve Bosso!!!

Don’t mind his grumps face, you’d be a bit tired if you were EMACed to work Hurricane Florence too. I’m excited to hear about his experience working with South Carolina’s Emergency Management Division PIO Derrec Becker.

And yes, if you were wondering, we are holding class IN the actual City of Cleveland Emergency Operations Center!

Interviews? Heck yeah – you know we did!

Incredibly valuable time on camera.

Spent some time doing group work and communications strategy with many partners from across the State of Ohio and the State of Pennsylvania.

Showcasing partnerships and strengthening collaborative messaging during the preparedness…

…will help during response phase planning and support for ongoing operations.

Additionally the blending of resources embodying the all-hazards mentality, is critical when dealing with larger disasters/emergencies. Here’s Police, Fire, EMS, Health, Public Works, and Executive Policy working together for a coordinated message.

Steve had a few injects too…like branding. Steve is a former photojournalist so he’s got the photog eye for these kinds of things with some fancy camera work…

And not to worry, in order to share real world experiences, we had our first subject matter expert – Cleveland Police Public Information Officer Jennifer Ciaccia stop by to talk about her experiences as the PIO for CPD.

So many issues to deal with esp during a National Special Security Event (NSSE) – the 2016 Republican National Convention! And of course a whole bunch of other cases including the 3 girls missing for 10+ years (Castro case), Facebook killer, CJ Saves CLE, St. Patrick’s Day Parade, etc….

Whew – full day! Great dynamic class.

Solid first day. Looking forward to day-2 of the Basic PIO!

@rusnivek

More Radio comms training for my EM staff

New guy, old guy, it does not matter in Emergency Management.

We train everyone of our staff on emergency communications stressing critical concise language.

Down and dirty, this kind of training allows for our staff to drill and train like how we would request resources on a real disaster.

Consistent training will allow our staff to be better prepared for any kind of typical community event to a large scale emergency..

Train like you fight right?

@rusnivek

FEMA G0289: PIO Awareness at DuPage OHSEM

Fun day leading the FEMA PIO Awareness course at the DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Welcome intro from Joe!

Safety briefing by John…

With all of our participants from across the State of Illinois.

Glad to see engagement with all partners from various different disciplines.

Great to see the collaboration…

…and the coordination/organization…

…and esp the sharing of contact info (just in case) it hits the fan. PIOs need support! I love to see that kind of pre-incident networking as we lead into other ESF-15: External Affairs classes.

In fact, look for more PIO classes and exercises from DuPage County OHSEM as we move into 1Q 2019. Avis gives it 5-stars in a rainbow formation!

Thanks Avis.

Reporting live from NE Illinois…

@rusnivek

Day-2 of the NE Illinois PIO Symposium

Day-2 at the NE Illinois PIO Symposium! And getting to meet and hear from the Illinois Lt Gov was great!

Her insight to how critical PIOs are to the organization is great to hear as it is crucial to the success of any agency.

We also got a chance to hear from the Chicago Police Department Director of Public Engagement Glen Brooks.

Real world stuff as these community tactics should resonate with so many of us in the public space.

Closing out the day, I persuaded my good friend St. Louis Deputy Commissioner Sarah Gambling-Luig to present on her award winning national social media campaign – #CityHallSelfie

This great campaign was started just a few years ago, but her ability to dominate…

…let me say that one more time: DOMINATE the effort is amazing.

Her efforts have inspired countless other civil servants to take pride in their work, back the city, county, and state initiatives….

…and ultimately have pride in where you work and what you represent.

Amazing campaign and words of wisdom to close out the conference.

Special thanks to Bob and Stephanie for the invite to speak this year.

Looking forward to helping out in the coming years.

@rusnivek

Day-1 at the NE Illinois PIO Symposium

Day-1 of the NorthEast Illinois PIO Symposium and guess who gets to keynote the start….

That’s right, Cleveland Police Department Sgt Jennifer Ciaccia!

Packed house as we continue to tell the story about collaboration and coordination as field PIOs during critical events in Cleveland, Ohio.

Love sharing the message with other agencies as we continue to train with others in the ESF-15 realm.

Also focusing in on the needed equipment and specialized skills that are critical for in field PIO activities during a National Special Security Event (NSSE).

Always proud and honored to present and share with Jen.

Then later in the afternoon, we heard from John Nebl on Crisis Communications.

Timely talk esp since so many of our PIOs were fresh off National Preparedness Month wondering what to do about outreach efforts for October, November, and December.

Following John, I got a chance to discuss the PIO Networks that were used during disasters and emergencies during last year’s horrific hurricane season.

Sharing lessons learned and improvement plans allows us to train/educate other PIOs so they are better equipped to handle disasters of any shape and size across the US.

Even simple things like knowing your audience is critical when communicating with disaster survivors.

Telling the story about various agencies (including our own) is SO important.

We need to not only share that with the community, but also for our internal players as well. They too have families at home who are PROUD of the work and service they are fulfilling for those in need.

Glad to network with so many new PIO peeps!!!!

Definitely a solid Day-1 here at our NE Illinois PIO Symposium.

@rusnivek