Weekend learning doesn’t stop. While most full-time staff have off on Saturday/Sunday – many volunteers across the country are saddling up to take ICS classes.

A pertinent 2014 statistic: Over 788K Volunteer Firefighters make up 69% of the United States of America Firefighting effort (2014, Haynes, USFA).

Shout out to all the volunteers who are giving up their hours to better their local jurisdictions this weekend.

@rusnivek

You keep sleeping. I’ll keep working.

Being the cooker, the baker, the candlestick maker isn’t easy.

Zooming around and making magic happen!

@rusnivek

Another packed day of class to support the Department of Homeland Security border initiative.

We are talking tools and techniques that can help public safety better adddress disaster response. But while simple searches are good, we can see there are benefits on aggregating information from a host of other places. As an example, Alisha talked a bunch on listening to specific audiences on Reddit…

…we talked about crisis mapping and apps that can better prepare you for “stuff”. Data visualization are pretty things will always be helpful.

This class we push collaboration esp when it comes down to strategic / coordinated all-hazards messaging…and hashtags.

We also promote the use of new technologies to overcome the mis-information that is readily found online. Empowering officials and Public Information Officers to break news themselves is critical because in a crisis, time is of the essence. 

Showcased the ability of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) as well as the flexibility of the Joint Information Center (JIC) for everyone to coordinate actions, share similar plans, and ultimately have the coordinated messages across the board so that we can be a unified front in the face of a disaster. 

Without a doubt, this Tools and Techniques course is still my favorite course to teach.

Proud to serve my fellow Emergency Management constituents here on the northern border initiative. Also proud to include our partners from Canada Public Safety as we share our border protection plans for everyone’s safety. 

It worked for the previous DHS border protection initiative and I am confident in the skills and techniques shared with all participants will only be of benefit to those with safety in mind.

Looking forward to a successful upcoming FSE between the US and Canada.

@rusnivek

Working the social media magic yesterday to support the upcoming US and Canada initiative for border protection!

Full class as we discussed how so many public safety agencies can use social media for emergency communications during a disaster. Also our partners from Canada provided a different view as we promote cross-border safety efforts including gathering and sharing intelligence with all responders for increased Situational Awareness/Common Operating Picture (SA/COP).

As we got into the Twitter and Instagram sections, a special visitor had a few words to share on the importance of animals on social media.

Great day at the Whatcomm Unified Emergency Communications Center. 

Fun stuff especially with so many functions represented in class.

@rusnivek