Friday, April 22, 2016

04/20/2016 Region 3 - Santa Fe/Carson NF Risk Management Session

Risk Management is critical at all levels of our organization.  Learning how each of the levels of the organization shoulder the risk and communicate to the other levels is one of the objectives of the newest versions of the Risk Management sessions that the National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) is providing to sites throughout the organization.

Students having discussions over the
strategic risk assessment exercise.
April 19-20 the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests held a combined Risk Management session in Espanola, NM. Participants included 160-200 personnel;
which included Forest Supervisors, Deputy Forest Supervisors, District Rangers, Forest Fire Management Officers, Engine Crews, Hotshot Crews, and many other levels of the organization.

Students analyzing the map while
assessing the deliberate risk.
The session objectives included an introduction to the Strategic Risk Assessment (SRA) (Agency Administrator level of risk), Deliberate Risk Assessment (Incident Management Team level of risk), and Time Critical Risk Assessment (fire crew/real time risk on the ground); and the various tools associated with each of level of the risk assessment.  Each of the Districts and Hotshot Crews were broken up into separate groups and were required to work through the scenarios and perform a report out for the entire audience.

Santa Fe NF Forest Supervisor,
Maria Garcia
Carson NF Forest Supervisor,
James Duran
The two Forest Supervisors each laid out their leaders intent for the session which included opening up the communication lines between all levels of the Forest/District organization, and providing a basic knowledge to grow from for the rest of this pre-season, and into the remainder of this season.




R3 Deputy Regional Forester,
Jim Upchurch
Region 3 Deputy Regional Forester, Jim Upchurch attended the session and had a candid discussion in regards to the Life First initiative which is going to be presented to all Forest Service employees in the near future.
NIMO Cadre (left to right): John
Prendergast, Terri Knauth, Jaci
Stimach, Brian Watts






Brian Watts, Terri Knauth, John Prendergast, and Jaci Stimach provided the training throughout the two days to this large group of eager students; some of which were being introduced to the Risk Management process for the first time.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

4/20/16 NIMO Takes Leadership Lessons From The Civil War

The National Incident Management Organization participated along with all the National Incident Commanders and Area Commanders on a Staff Ride of the Civil War Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

A Conference Group at Chatham Heights with a
replica Pontoon Bridge used by the Army of the
Potomac to cross the Rappahannock River.
The day ended with an Integration Dinner where each participant shared one lesson they learned that then will carry forward into Fire Leadership this season. NIMO will be able to use these lessons learned as they continue to develop and mentor upcoming leaders in Wildland Fire

The Staff Ride was facilitated and lead by @THEOMNA. Participants were divided into conference groups and visited points on the battlefields where key leadership decisions could be discussed and learned from

4/20/16 - NIMO Conducts Type 3 Training on the Klamath NF

Klamath NF Agency Adminstrator giving
Leaders Intent to the Type 3 IMT 
Members of NIMO are on the Klamath NF conducting Type 3 Training and concluding with a Simulation. Type 3 training builds capacity at the local unit which allows for more effective Managment of Wildfires. 

Type 3 experienced and qualified Command and General Staff are key to the future of the Type 1 and 2 Incident Management Teams. One of NIMO's priority missions is to build Incident Management capacity within the Wildland Community.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

4/19/16 NIMO Participating and Supporting National AC/IC Meeting

All 4 NIMO Type 1 Incident Commanders are attending and participating in the 2016 National Incident Commander/Area Commander Council Meeting in Fredericksburg, VA this week.

A NIMO Logistics Section Chief and a Plans Section Chief are providing support to the meeting.

A multitude of National Topics are being covered including a NMAC update, IHC update, AHIMT presentation, National Director/National Line Officer Panel, UAS update, AFUE program presentation.

The Meeting will take a learning day on Wednesday and @THEOMNA will provide a Staff Ride for the Civil War Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

Monday, April 18, 2016

4/18/16 Wildfires Near Me Gets Closer To Launch Date!

May 6th Launch Is Coming Soon!

The Wildfires Near Me web app, that NIMO PIO Kris Eriksen and Ben Butler with the NIFC Research and Development team have been working on for 2 years, is almost ready to launch!  We wanted to remind you to go to the page (www.wildfiresnearme.wfmrda.comand log in, and then fill in your profile information.  Equally important, see the link below to sign up for the May 6 webinar to display all the capability of the final application.

The app remains in Alpha for now until the official launch date.  That means it's still being tweeked with changes regularly - but you can play with it and use the feedback link at the top to tell us what you like and don't like. It will continue to evolve until May 6th when it will move into Beta and remain stable for the season.  

We're on Social Media
There is also a Facebook Page now and a twitter account @wildfiresnearme.  Go add those to your social media sites so you can be sure of getting updates as they happen.  Ben also did a short video about how to get email and text notifications which might be helpful -   Wildfires Near Me Email & Text Notifications

We want to hear from you!
How is Wildfires Near Me working for you? Do you like what you see so far? Do you think this will be a useful tool for you and for the public? Reach out to us and let us know what you think. You can use the feedback button from within the app or find us on Twitter @WildfiresNearMe. We'll also take suggestions from our Facebook page.

Official Beta Launch Party Planned!
We would love for you to join us on May 6th for the official beta release of Wildfires Near Me! We will be announcing all of the features and functionality we have included in the app and giving a full tour. Please share this information far and wide and don't feel like you need to keep our app a secret. We are building this to be a public information app and welcome anyone out there to come and check it out!

Register for the Launch Party HERE

Thank you for taking the time to use and get to know our app! We are very excited about the changes we are working on and will be getting them out to you very soon. Stay in touch and we'll see you at the launch party!

~ The Wildfires Near Me Team & NIMO

Thursday, April 7, 2016

4/7/16 Workforce Development April 2016 Report

So in case you didn't know, NIMO does have 4 teams: Portland, Boise, Atlanta and Phoenix but those teams are used primarily for managing fires. The rest of the year, NIMOs work in workgroups: Risk Management, Cohesive Strategy, Learning and Innovation and Workforce Development. There is also a special projects workgroup that is used for, well, special projects that pop up! The work groups are comprised of people who have an interest or a particular skill in one of the Workgroup areas. 
The work groups report out during the year on what they are doing. Here is the April 2016 report for the Workforce Development Workgroup.

Monday, April 4, 2016

4/4/16 NIMO OSC and PSC Job Openings! Apply now!

NIMO doesn't have openings very often but we have Operations and Plans open now.  Please pass along this information to anyone you think might be interested and qualified. 

OPERATIONS SECTION CHIEF

This position will close April 11thand candidates must attach IQCS records or a red card to show they are Type 1 qualified. 



PLANS SECTION CHIEF
This job is open to both Federal employees and Partners. Anyone who applies must attach a copy of their IQCS records or Red Card to be considered eligible.

Demo

Merit