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.
What a morning as we kick off the FEMA ICS-402: ICS for Executives/Senior Officials!
Even got a rare class visit from Director Snow on the start today.
Suit up as we continue to explain the need for ICS and share the values a coordinated response. And yes, if you are going to ask, I once created an IAP thiiiiiiis big… 
Proud to have leadership from various organizations including our own DuPage County Board Members Dawn DeSart and Sheila Rutledge.
Great class and looking forward to more with our partners.
Day-1 of our ICS-300 class at Elmhurst Hospital!
However, I am not sure about us teaching the childbirth part of the class.
I guess if you wanted to account for all resources, we would need a new T-card and check in process for the new kiddos. HA!
Great welcome message from the Elmhurst Fire Deputy Fire Chief and the Elmhurst EM Coordinator.
Great discussion from all agencies here including Fire, EMS, Police, Public Works, Hospital, EMS, Health Department, National Guard, and countless other agencies here.
Great partnerships from everyone as we discuss ongoing response and recovery efforts from various activities and incidents. Working together will increase our preparedness level and help our coordination esp when we spin up the county EOC.
Glad to see everyone here for class. And yes, don’t forget that #OnWednesdaysWeWearPink
Yeah yeah, suit up baby!
Reporting live from Elmhurst Hospital talking about NIMS and ICS~!
Second day of ICS-300 at the DuPage County OHSEM as we continue to share tools and tips to enhance response and coordination. Here’s Dave talking about some of the weather tools we use to trigger activation/response.
And yes, don’t worry, we talk a metric TON about Incident Action Plans (IAPs) as well as some event action plans.
I often share IAPs from real world disasters and events. This way, it showcases the actual use of the ICS forms as well as ways to improve them for future occurrences. Wat? Hold the phone. Don’t lie now, your IAP isn’t always perfect. You are human. Stuff happens.
I do shred some IAPs that need work, and then I show the IAPs that look pretty dang good. No shame in my game because if we don’t share what we learn, we will never prepare our future disaster peeps for success.
But more importantly, that’s right, I said it – we should share our failures with others so that we can better our profession. Rising tide raises all ships right?
Don’t be that amateur and hold all your mistakes close. Be a pro and share your errors so that others may learn. Inspire a new generation with stronger leaders.
In the end, despite the test, you can still have an ICS course where your participants are smiling.
Just gotta find the right ICS course…and instructors willing to inspire.
See you on the next big one peeps!
Another great start to our ICS-300 course! Welcome to my house – DuPage County OHSEM!
Packed class with sooooo many public safety partners here.
This class has a bunch of activities so our participants can apply what they are learning immediately to the fictitious town of Central City.
Note: Central city is a fictitious town that we use in almost all of our classes. It’s not a real place. However, if it was, I would definitely not want to live there. Or eat the Coho salmon from there. Just sayin…
Great engagement from everyone here.
Proud to be hosting this course at our house.
Looking forward to class tomorrow!
Happy AlohaFriday and a great start to the FEMA OEMA G0291: Joint Information Center / Joint Information System course here at the Cleveland EOC!
So naturally, we talked a bunch of JIC stuff including our third guest VIP – day shift Cleveland JIC Manager of the 2016 RNC and the led JIC Manager of the Christmas plane crash in 2016, Beth Zietlow DeJesus!!!
Not only sharing stories about coordination amongst local, county, and Federal agencies on the recovery process, Beth was able to share a few stories about the media on controlling the message and handling mis-information.
Great experiences to share with out new PIOs!
Outstanding class this week. Proud of the work and collaboration in class shared by everyone. Great to see these new PIOs as they increase their organization’s visibility.
Now go forth, and use your new PIO skillz for good!
Also, yeah.
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!
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!
Guess what day it is……September 1st – the start of National Preparedness Month!
Follow along for a bunch of preparedness things you can do to for you, your family, and your friends.
Additionally, I’ll share a bunch of other posts from the home agency too!
#NatlPrep
Glad to join the team at DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management leading the charge for training and exercises.
Many thanks to Director Snow and the entire team of pros at OHSEM.
Proud to be serving communities in NE Illinois and across this great country.
@rusnviek
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