Tag Archives: NIMS

Monday fun as I sit through the Illinois ICS Instructor rollout

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All the fun one could want in an ICS Instructor update.

Good Monday Morning all!

Good to see Doug and Matt again. Let’s talk ICS!

Aside from a few major Illinois variances from national practice, not many changes in course content from national ICS Instructor update from FEMA EMI.

Though, TBH, I had to eat my words from May 2019 to my Region 5 peers as I didn’t think I was required to take a statewide. 3 hour drive, 8 hour class, and 3 hour return drive was more than enough time to eat humble pie.

Lots to do as we continue to enhance the skills of our public safety partners.

First rollout of the new 2019 ICS class is this Thursday!

@rusnivek

2019 May is cray!

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Justin Timberlake better be busy too because this month because it’s about to get redic.

First week in May, our team was invited to teach ICS-300: Intermediate ICS to leadership staff at the Illinois Air National Guard.

Second week, will be the ICS-400 class and the solid bunch of social media classes (Basic Social Media, Social Media Engagement Strategies, Social Media Tools and Techniques).

Third week, we will be popping the FEMA G0290/0291 Basic PIO and JIC/JIS course with one of my favorite FEMA DSASers…Sister Michael!

Fourth week, I will be presenting at the 2019 National Preparedness Symposium at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Alabama.

And the last week is the full set of FEMA Basic PIO and JIC/JIS Course at Aurora Police.

If you are calculating that out, that’s 128 hours of straight classroom time.

Fortunately, I enhanced the playlist this past weekend.

Headphones in, affirm the mission and objectives, head down…No time for rest.

@rusnivek

Day-2 of the new FEMA Region V COOP Course

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Starting off day–2 of the new FEMA COOP class.

Solid discussion lead by Northwestern Medicine’s Continuity Manager Sam with our all-hazards pros on alternate locations including cold, warm, and hot EOCs.

Not only locations, but also triggers on when to move emergency operations centers. These kinds of discussions also spark debate on levels of activation as well as essential personnel. We openly discuss triggers and standards that help make it easy for COOP Managers and leadership to roll out their continuity plan.

As we identify specific incidents and actions needed, we can also assess viability of personnel and staff….ESSENTIAL staff to these secure national COOP locations like

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Additionally, we focus in on the importance of not only writing a plan, but also exercising a plan. Good dialog w/ Joe on the city of Aurora’s exercise plans.

While not as sexy as response or even preparedness, these kinds of continuity exercises test recovery. Can’t begin to tell you how important that is to your constituents esp when things are going to 💩. Catastrophic planning is only as good as your last exercise – trust me, when faced with crisis, people will not always do the most common sense thing.

Why is our agency leaning in on the COOP stuff? Well, if all goes according to my plan, we should have at five (5) Master Continuity Practitioners on our staff. Awwwww yeah!

As we close up, Sam leads the post test wrap up to evaluate that level II retention that FEMA EMI loves.

In the end, when you see the participants smiling and hearing their responses in how they are going to directly implement these new rollouts and changes to the plans….is so gratifying.

I am proud of the work we do in Emergency Management. As an instructor I expect a lot out of you. And your students most definitely do too.

As an instructor, your influence to your participants can generate enthusiasm beyond expectation. Dedication is critical to the success of your mission. I am thankful for all the smiles in our FEMA Region 5 COOP class on this #AlohaFriday.

@rusnivek

Brand new FEMA Region V COOP class Day-1

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Kicking off the new FEMA Region 5 Continuity of Operations class here at the DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Proud to have Northwestern Medicine’s Continuity Manager Sam Boyle and DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Operations Supervisor Joe Joseph with us to share some of the changes with FCD-1, FCD-2, CC-1, HSPD5, PPD-8, NSPD-51, HSPD-20, and of course the NIMS update.

Mid-day discussion with Joe on the Continuity planning process with the new FEMA course materials for COOP focused around essential functions.

Look at those smiles!

All made to enhance the skills of our public safety partners.

Shout out to all the leadership and participants who took the time away from their desks to enhance their program’s ability to function beyond catastrophic incidents.

Also, for those that were paying attention on the day? Is it really the perfect date?

Hmmmm…

Boom.

COOP? Operations? Social Media? Public Information? Pop culture? Everything is a calculated because even in a FEMA class, we don’t miss a beat!

Welcome to my program. This is how we do things at our house.

@rusnivek

New ICS 300 and ICS 400 debut tomorrow

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Pretty excited to hear about the changes to ICS 300 and ICS 400 tomorrow. I know FEMA EMI has been working hard on these fundamental changes with the ICS structure and command and control.

The last update was really October 2013 so we are totes due for a refresh.

Yeah 2013-2019. Six years isn’t the typical cycle.

This refresh is going to be special as they embody the changes that DHS/FEMA Director of National Integration Doc Lumpkins has set forth in his NIMS refresh.

Proud to carry his work on throughout so many communities across this great country.

@rusnivek

ICS-400 at OHSEM

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Big start to another ICS-400 course here at DuPage County OHSEM! Kicking things off is Director Snow!  

As you can imagine, we have a diverse group with lots to share.

Not only talking about response, but we also discussed recovery as the most challenging part of disasters.

No doubt, It is really our job as Emergency Managers to better prepare our communities to be more resilient after a disaster.

Look closely, you can see people smiling in an ICS class. It’s not folklore, it’s real. Get yourself a good instructor and see what happens.  

Bringing everyone together in a collaborative environment can only provide great benefits for all.

Small or big, rich or poor, our class has great participants from all over the state.

Glad to have participants from countless cities from across Illinois attending.

Looking forward to Day-2 tomorrow!

@rusnivek

 

Day-2 of ICS-300 at Elmhurst Hospital

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Day-2 of the ICS-300 course here at Elmhurst Hospital where we get to talk about a bunch of things like the Planning P, SMART Objectives, resource management, and of course demobilization!

Hearing groups report out on their findings and how they would interact with other agencies are critical to us in Emergency Management as we now know where there could be possible hiccups in coordination of responders.

Overall, a great packed class with tons of participation from everyone.

Soooooo out of curiousity, how many of you are coming back in February to attend the ICS-400 class with me?

Awwwwwwww yeah baby!

See you at the next big one.

@rusnivek