Wait, what?

Seems like the word of the day is #flooding.

@rusnivek

Day-2 of ICS-400, so you know we are going to ruin this place…

…and destroy this place…

…and definitely FUBAR this place too!

All in the name of tabletop training for our partners in public safety! (Central City, Liberty County, and the State of Columbia are all fictitious locations. They are NOT real).

If you look closely, you can see our class engaged and smiling too!

Additionally, as instructors, we share lessons learned and success stories in large incidents to better prepare our participants for their own emergency or disaster.

And I know you are going to ask and yes, the ICS claw story went over well.

Rawr.

Glad to have a very active class that is engaged with each other as well as their partner agencies.

Lots of collaboration prior to an emergency. Great to have discussions in peace time. Priorities and goals are important to know – esp BEFORE a disaster or an emergency.

Looking forward to seeing our participants on the next big one!

@rusnivek

Starting out another ICS-400: Advanced ICS for Command and General Staff, Complex Incidents, and MACS.

Who’s excited?!?!?

You know I’m excited to be in the EOC.

Aside from the EOC, I also found the Joint Information Center too. #PIO

Right out of the gate, it is imperative that we incorporate realistic scenarios to better position the participants to critically think outside their own lane and collaborate with other agencies and groups to work together in a disaster.

Solid participants of a very diverse group today.

Looking forward to day-2.

@rusnivek

One little, two little, three little #Navy boats…

I wonder how rigorous is #SealTeam6 training.

And no, I can’t tell if the 160th is here too.

@rusnivek

A quiet Saturday in this media briefing room.

Lots of paperwork to catch up and filing of my TPS reports.

@rusnivek

Starting up the G-291: Joint Information Center / Joint Information System course!

As we roll through, today is May 4th. May the Fourth. So here’s an example of press conference and how the JIC can support PIOs.

Maybe C3PO is a field PIO….

Think about that for a second.

C3PO=Human cyborg relations. Yes, C3PO is a PIO. <knowledge bomb> #OMG

After reviewing the course material, we got right into the hands on portion of the class with coordination.

Glad to see so many of the teams working together to put together their classroom press conferences.

Coordination is critical when getting the message to a specific audience.

The lead PIO needs to be able to control and manage the press conference so that all voices are heard.

Seemingly innocuous, the order and formality of a press conference is important and critical to the messaging. Additional coordination with local, county, and state is critical to showcase partnership with all responding agencies.

Fielding questions from reporters like Veronica (played by Erica) is crucial in enhancing the public’s knowledge.

Also, helping PIOs prepare for questions will make for a smoother presser. Sometimes, challenging questions from the gallery make us better PIOs….esp since the questions are based off real situations.

Super proud of all these new PIO peeps.

Congrats on your completion of the State of Indiana Basic Public Information Officer Course and JIC/JIS Course. New PIOS – May the Fourth be with you. Go forth and tweet good stuff.

@rusnivek

Starting out Day-2 of the Basic Public Information Officer course.

After a few modules, we dove deep into social media and how we can effectively communicate our message to our peeps. (<—-See what I did there?)

By using different forms of communications and focusing our efforts for our particular audience, we can work smarter not harder.

As for press releases? While the interest has gone down, it’s important to know how other platforms can be used to communicate the same messages – faster and quicker.

The example above is how Erica used 140-characters to replace the standard laborious tedious classic one-page press release.

Detailing the fun stuff on Live broadcast technology, we can share with our participants the excitement and preparedness level needed to do in-field broadcasting. On the opposite end, we can also highlight the dangers and challenges that the intelligence community has to face as they digest and review all the ongoing and very much in real-time, the information being put out to the world on social media.

Challenging but scary time for analysts who live in SOCMINT.

In the class, we encourage people to use social media as it will help them better their skillz (yes, that’s a Z) for use with their tasks.

So imperative that we regularly use the tools that we talk about in class. Practice and proficiency in steady-state operation will lead to smooth operation and perfect execution during crisis or disaster.

As always, we are glad to be a part of the state team to share our knowledge with all attendees.

Tomorrow is more on JIC/JIS action – wohoooooooo!

@rusnivek

Starting out another Basic Public Information Officer (PIO) Course with a quick hello from one of the state regional representative.

Additionally, we had a quick welcome from the local Jennings County Emergency Management Director Jerry Shepherd on the importance of the PIO function.

And of course a solid thank you from the State of Indiana’s SAA Elizabeth Westfall.

Did you know that I get to teach with my favorite PIO Instructor? She’s one of my favorite JIC Managers…

Ladies and gents…

Erica Creech!!!!!!

So we decided to jump right into the meat of the class.

Since we had lots of discussion in the FEMA Master PIO class and the FEMA Advanced PIO class as well as FEMA External Affairs leadership – we put heavy focus on the inverted pyramid for press release writing.

Knowing the area and the star PIOs, we opted to include the two more visible PIOs and leverage their years of experience to share with the participants – I invited Mike and Rita!

These two Fire Department PIOs are stars in their own area – while focused to help other PIOs in the business. So by facilitating an open discussion, we can help all attendees get a better view of the roles and responsibilities of a front line PIO.

Wayne Township Fire Department Captain Mike Pruitt has not only supported his department, but also FEMA USAR ISTs in deployments with me in Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria. Indianapolis Fire Department Battalion Chief Rita Reith is a legend and one of the hardest working FD PIOs in the biz. Her attention to detail and fire updates is so critical to the success of IFD growth over many years.

Glad to have these goofballs spend some time with us and share their knowledge with our class.

Solid first day of the Basic PIO class.

Looking forward to day-2!

@rusnivek

Solid start to this morning’s JIC/JIS class in Delaware County.

Hot topics today will be creating joint messaging that is representative of all of our partners in public safety.

And yes, you know we work hard to craft coordinated concise messaging.

It is our job to get the right information…

To the right people….

At the right time…

So they can make the right decisions.

And this PIO magic can actually happen…..wait for it….in the Joint Information Center (JIC).

Love seeing so much collaboration going on!

Special thanks to Sean and Sandy who were instrumental in bringing this State of Ohio EMA course to our local partners in central Ohio.

Excited to see these new peeps use their new knowledge out in the wild.

Eric Burgess (@ejbdcems) “Have a Whole new respect for the #PIO role in ICS.”

You might want to read that again. Awwwwwww yeah baby!

Many mahalos to all participants who attended this week’s Basic Public Information Officers Course as well as the JIC/JIS class in Delaware County EOC.

Looking forward to working with all of you on the big one.

@rusnivek