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Emergency Management, Emergency Services, & Disaster Spox

City of Chicago OEMC, JIC, PSAP, and other stuff while hanging in the Bat cave

Posted on May 30, 2019 by rusnivek

Good morning from the City of Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications!

Located in the heart of the west loop, this multi functional location serves as a focal point for City EOC, JIC, Snow Command, PW EOC, Ops Center, 911 PSAP, etc….basically, I’m glad it’s a hardened facility.

Today’s Emergency Management topics have to deal with Disaster Assistance and Public Assistance. Hiya Wendellllllllllllllllllllllllll.

Of course, as a good Emergency Manager, we want to take a look at the host city’s EOP.

Lots to discern and digest from our partners.

Now, for those who refuse to share information and hold information tight to their chest….that’s dumb. You realize when the big one hits, your isolationist actions will prove to be detrimental to the success of the response/recovery of any emergency. Again, work closely with your partners BEFORE a disaster.

Looking down into the PSAP center floor, lots of call takers working the good for the community.

PSAPs and EOCs are kept relatively dark to help with eye strain. Telecommunications have a tough job. If you haven’t already done so, I’d recommend that you sit in their chair one day and observe. Quite honestly, I’d take working the squad any day.

Quick look into the City of Chicago’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) too.

And calm yourself PIOs….I found it.

Get your City of Chicago Joint Information Center (JIC) on baby! I sense I will be spending activation time here soon.

And yes, I’m wearing a tie.

As we close out response/recovery discussions for the day, we must spend more time thinking about cross training and enhancing our multi-jurisdictional skills. Working together is critical to any event or incident. We must overcome the stigma and the predisposed notion of kingdoms and fiefdoms. We must work together before a disaster. This will result in better response collaboration and recovery efforts.

Where am I? They threw up the bat signal so….

Reporting live from the Bat Cave:

I’m Batman….I mean @rusnivek

Internal Comms training for my #EmergencyManagement staff

Posted on May 29, 2019 by rusnivek

As we continue our training, we want to be cognizant of all kinds of skills needed to be successful in Emergency Management.

Many of you have been apart of a training or exercise…and have indubitably identified that communications is an action that needs more work. But how can you make that fun? Well, enter one of my Thunderbolt-esque exercises.

Giving the nod to former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, these types of no-notice trainings engage our staff and forces them to think outside the box.

How outside? In this exercise, we cover

Communications
Type/Kind resources
Staging
Incident Command
Terminology
Nomenclature
Scene size-ups
Operations
Sequential
Prioritization
Ordering
Tactics

And to boot, it’s non-traditional training cause there are no powerpoints. Zero. Zilch. No joy. Gonzo. Nada Ghostrider.

As adult educators, we often forget that people learn things differently. Additionally, we as instructors need to explore outside our comfort zone and teach things in a classic lecture AND non-traditional style.

I am incredibly fortunate to have a staff that loves to train and enhance their skills. Train like you fight!

Want to know more? Want to train better? Come and be a part of my Emergency Management Team. You’ll see.

@rusnivek

Crisis Comms meetings at ARC Chicago

Posted on March 2, 2019 by rusnivek

Afternoon meetings with the Communications team with the Red Cross of Chicago!

Case studies? Social media? Response training? Media training? Yeppers, all of that stuff for for the L-team to boots-on-the-ground staff.

Looking forward to some upcoming Crisis Comms training with all their staff.

@rusnivek

More EM staff IntraOp Radio Comms training

Posted on February 7, 2019 by rusnivek

Concreting our IntraOp radio comms training today with our staff.

Enhancing the message and now assuring our partners get the right message in a timely fashion is so important.

Train like you fight right?

“Air Branch from Ops Section Chief: I”m going to need four type two rotor-wing assets to arrive at the helistop at 1800. How do copy?”

You know our staff – we ain’t messing around.

@rusnivek

IntraOp radio training this morning

Posted on February 5, 2019 by rusnivek

Staring the morning out with staff training on IntraOp radio comms training.

Every once in a while, we gotta hit the basics of comms as well as improve our skills to communicate.

So let’s work the magic with these $$$ radios.

Tune in Tokyo – HA!

@rusnivek

February 2019 with 14 classes?

Posted on February 1, 2019 by rusnivek

How is it already February?!? Gawd!

First week will be a double serving of radio intraop comms training. However, we will be rolling out our first ICS-402: ICS for Executives/Senior Officials course. Looking forward to a diverse group of leaders from across the state.

Second week will be back-to-back ICS-400 courses as well as a PIO Awareness course on AlohaFriday.

Third week is another ICS-400 course with heavy focus on AAR/IP and resource coordination.

Fourth week we are rolling out the basic weather courses starting Monday and then Tuesday right into the FEMA Basic PIO Course with JIC/JIS class on Thursday.

Candidly speaking, February is really the calm before the storm. Wait till March 2019. Yikes.

Are we there yet?

@rusnivek

Brand new Social Media Engagement Strategies course debut at SAC EOC #NDPTC

Posted on April 24, 2017 by rusnivek

Solid start to the week being able to deliver the brand new FEMA NDPTC Social Media Engagement Strategies course.

Numerous pros from across the state of California attending today.

Special thanks to the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services in hosting this fun class in their Emergency Operations Center.

Super special shoutout goes to MayJo!

Talked specifically about addressing audiences and their appropriate platforms. Mediums like static posts are great however we need to explore outside of your comfort zone and try new avenues to communicate. FacebookLive, Periscope, InstagramLive, YouTubeLive, etc…..these new emerging live broadcast tools can allow agencies to be creative in their broadcast of messages.

Solid afternoon facilitation on the formulation of a strategic communications specifically focusing in on social media and audience engagement.

And of course the standard shout out to our friend Cheryl.

Overall, the intent of this class is really to be a catalyst to start a meaningful conversation about engaging your constituents on various social media platforms.

Obviously, you would be taking FEMA NDPTC PER-344 Social Media Tools & Techniques first – which gives you a heavy dose of the currrent tools/platforms that are out there as well as a bunch of tactics and techniques that you could use in your EOC or JIC.

Both courses provide a different take on social media actions esp during disasters / crisis.

Keep on learning peeps. Much more to digest and figure out.

We all must do better to support our local communities, county coordinators, and state officials to work and communicate together before, during, and after the disaster.

We the people right? #Merica

@rusnivek

Presenting today at the 2016 CEAO Annual Conference #PIO

Posted on December 6, 2016 by rusnivek

Presenting today at the 2016 County Engineers Association of Ohio Annual Conference!

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Public Information stuff as well as some Communications Strategies for government officials.

I’ll try not to dance on stage today.

Maybe.

Looks like it’s going to be a fun class!

@rusnivek

Day-3 Ohio EMA ICS 300 course with 911 PSAP & Belmont County EMA EOC

Posted on October 6, 2016 by rusnivek

Third and final day of the Ohio EMA ICS-300 course at Belmont College.

PhotoCredit: @BelmontCollege

Mid morning, we had lots of great discussion for formal demobilization plans as well priority release procedures.

Our class had some serious discussion on cost vs expectations on resources. If you’ve ever been deployed to a disaster, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Rounding out to the last module, almost test time!

After the class was over, I was able to score a visit to Belmont County 911 dispatch center for our class. So I invited the whole class to attend too!

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Special thanks to Mr. Hudak for the tour and detailed explanation on normal operations in their Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) / 911 call center.

Our class then moved over to the Belmont County Emergency Management Agency where our class was given a formal tour of their Emergency Operation Center (EOC).

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They just happen to be monitoring Hurricane Matthew – so that made it even better for all participants to see how this EOC can monitor any situation in real time. Thank you Belmont County EMA!

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Positions ready…Executive Policy Room ready…ARES Comms center ready…fully operational…who could ask for anything more?!!?!? Even the bonus resources they have were great to see how they could support operations and paint a better picture to increase situational awareness / common operating picture (SA/COP).

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