Pacific Northwest Coordination Group Steering Committee (PNWCG)

Steering Committee / Working Team Annual Meeting

17-18 February 2010 @ Courtyard North Harbour, Portland, OR.
Final Meeting Notes

Attendees: Paul Bell, ODF; Ken Snell, R6 USFS; Carl Gossard, BLM-SORO; Brian Gales(representing Pam Ensley), USFWS; Gerry Day, WADNR (representing Joe Shramek) (Feb 17 only); Jim Walker, OR Fire Marshal (Feb. 17 only), Tod Johnson, NPS;Dan O’Brien, NWCC, Thomas Skinner, FPA Advisory Council; Leanne Mruzik, Fuels WT, Brenda Johnson, IBPWT; Kathy Shelton, IBPWT; Jim Furlong, IC Advisory Council; Lauren Maloney, Fire Prevention & Communications WT (Feb 18 only); Dennis Carlson WADNR Aviation Program; Randy Johnson, WA Fire Service;Rico George, TWT; Cyndi Sidles, Fuels WT (Feb 17 only); Pat Kelly-Executive Director/Facilitator; Jan Mathis, BLM-SORO, notetaker.

Feb 17 Session.

Meeting called to order at 1300 hours.

Introductions, Logistics & AgendaRico George / Pat Kelly

(Handout #1 – PNWCG SC/WT Workshop agenda, 1 p)

Welcome and thanks for attending. There are three main objectives for our meeting:

  • Understand current status of the working teams. The working teams have changedsignificantly from last year.
  • Reinforce & clarify PNWCG operating procedures: How PNWCG does business, charter revisions, task orders, etc.
  • Establish program direction – look at our Strategic Plan and Program of Work.

State of PNWCGKen Snell

(Handout #2 – PNWCG SC WT liaisons/Chairs, Jan 29, 2010, VII, 1 p)

This is our third PNWCG SC/WT combined meeting. Thanks to Rico George for stepping in and handling the logistics. Thanks to all of you for participatingin your working teams and in the important work that you do.

Two key people will be retiring this year: Kathy Shelton & Rico George. On behalf of PNWCG, thanks to Rico George for his work with the TWT(and other teams over the years) and Kathy Shelton for her work with the IBPWT.

This year, we have eight Working Teams and three Advisory Councils, here’s the status:

  • Ops WT, Aviation WT, GIS WT & TWT are unchanged.
  • Fuels Mgmt WT is a new team – a combination of National Fire Plan, Grants & Fire Use.
  • Fire Prevention WT is a new team – a combination ofCommunication & Investigations and Fire Prevention)
  • Safety and Health WT is a brand new team.
  • Fire Environment, Incident Commander and Fire Program Analysis are Advisory Councils.

Personnel Update:

  • Mark Kahleyreplaced by Joe Shramek, WADNR
  • Mike Burnett replaced by John Ingrao, who has resigned. Currently, there isno representative from the OR Fire Chiefs
  • Randy Simpsonreplaced by Jim Walker, OR Fire Marshal
  • Sue Husari replaced by Tod Johnson, NPS
  • Mike Matlick replaced by Paul Perz,WA Fire Marshal

Thanks to Paul Bell for the good job that he did as last year’s PNWCG SC Chair.

Ken Snellis the current Chair. Carl Gossard is the ViceChair.

Summary of PNWCG Steering Committee accomplishments (last 18 months)

We have made good progress in accomplishing our goals and steering committee members feel good about where we’re at right now, some of our accomplishments:

Restructuring the Working Teams. Goal was to have functioning teams and a good working relationship with them.

Acted upon all 6 action items from the IC advisory councils 2008 seasonal after action review.

Reviewed and approved GIS maps (interagency), indicating the locations of grants, fuel treatments and large wildfires.

Met with OR interagency geo-boards to start managing the Oregon interagency teams under one geo-board. Process is well underway for a coordinated approach.

ICAPS, web-based application was implementedto apply for the Oregon interagency teams andboth national teams.

Developed a draft onAviation medivac protocols. Working on protocols with medical advisorDr. Jui.

The TWT is working on a complex Task Order examining implementation of the oversight of training providers.

Met with the Portland NIMO team coordinate their work in the PNW.

Working on numerous PNW contracts – engine & tender.

Decided that we would not transport crews in T1 helicopters until mitigations are in-place.

Clarified Mob guide language for the use of inmate crews.

Chartered a group to develop 5 basic strategies to manage resources.

  • Allocation, reallocation, pre-positioning, lend/lease, surge task force.

The essence of this meeting is“Where to go from here?”

Thoughts on what to focus on:

  • Safety culture
  • Validate our Strategic Plan
  • Continue to develop our Federal / State relationship.
  • Examine of how we manage and deploy our IMTs.
  • Allocate and reallocate scarce resources
  • Review, support and improve our predictive services. This pays off in big dividends.

Want to have a candid and respectful dialog on how to move forwardand accomplish our goals.

By the end of the meeting, hopefully you’ll have a good understanding of who we are, how we operate and whatour objectives are for 2010.

PNWCG SC members appreciate how WTsperformed in the last year. They are highly productive in a complex environment, quality people make up our working teams.

Fuels Management Working Team (FMWT)Leanne Mruzik / Cyndi Sidles

(Handout #3 – Fuels Mgmt WTbriefing paper& charter, 4 pp)

(Handout #4 – Fuels Mgmt WT membership list, 1 p)

In addition to the Fuels WT, we have a grants sub-committee. There are anywhere from seven to eleven members depending on the sub-committee’s membership.

  • Charter has been revised to change the language to reflect whichteam membersare sitting on the fuels management working team or the grants subcommittee.
  • Charter has been finalized. The charter will be signed at the March SC meeting, then posted to the website.

Status of website: Under construction

Barriers: Personal time commitments

Training Working Team (TWT)Rico George

(Handout #5 – TWT briefing paper, 2 pp)

We had two Task Orders this year. One is a four-part TO dealing with MOUs and Operating Plans for training providers. This has taken a big chunk of our time.

  • Status of Website: PNWCG website is not working for them. Their documents need to get posted in a timely manner. They would like to go back to posting their documents to the Redmond site. Perhaps a link addedto thePNWCG site back to that site would work better. We will propose this to the SC at a future meeting.

Barriers:

  • Adequately keeping up with the large number of courses being hosted throughout the GACC utilizing PTP’s and FCA’s and properly monitoring those courses and communicating with those entities.
  • How to monitor courses funded by Homeland Security that are taught by local counties and fire departments.
  • Need to come up with a plan to address future challenges.

Aviation Working Team (AWT)Dennis Carlson

(Handout #6 – AWT briefing paper, 1 p)

DennisCarlsonis the Chair, Kurt Kleiner is the new Vice Chair.

The team is composed to about six to seven people. They are a fairly active working team and work well together.

Significant tasks: They are currently working on short-haul hoist capability issue.

Overview of WT priorities & key tasks. The commonality is making sure agencies are operating under with same sets of rules.

Status of website: Functional

Barriers: None

Operations Working Team (OWT)Randy Johnson

(Handout #7 – OWT briefing paper, 1 p)

(Handout #8 – OWT powerpoint document, 3 pp)

Randy Johnson is the Chair, Larry Nickey is the Vice Chair.

Meet monthly, work well together.

Charter is up-to-date as of 2007

Status of website: static. Don’t do much with the website. We’ll work to see if we can improve on that.

Barriers: None

Incident Business Practices Working Team (IBPWT)KathyShelton / Brenda Johnson

Kathy Shelton is the Chair, Brenda Johnson is the Vice Chair.

Gale Schultz & Judy Cline will be retiring this year, in addition to Kathy Shelton.

Linda Turner (NPS)

Toni Chambers (ODF)

No representative for FWS

  • Hosts the Spring Business Meeting each year. Usually 120 to 140 people each year in addition to the other meetings that they attend and make presentations at, ie. Dispatcher’s workshops, etc.
  • Merged withthe Contracting Working Teamthis year. The oversight of contracts and agreements is a huge task. We have monthly conference calls. Two advisors have been added to the team: a contracting officer (Ben McGrane) & a dispatcher (Dave Quinn). This works well.
  • No current taskings. Mostly what we do is our day-to-day business.
  • Newly formed crew agreement committee is getting ready to have our first meeting to select the Chair, agree to operational protocols, and work responsibilities. They will be contacting the appropriate working team to identify specifications and standardsto be incorporated into contracts.
  • A key task is to get our feet on the ground with the new contract responsibilities.
  • We will continue to work on the federal operating guidelines, and to teach ISuite.

Status of Website: They have a FS hosted website, webmaster posts info within two hours of receiving it. There is a link to their site in the PNWCG website. This is simpler than keeping track of posting documents on two separate sites.

Barrier:

  • Biggest barrier will be building a new team (due to upcoming retirements) and continuing to work effectively during the transition.

Communication, Prevention & Investigation Working TeamLaurenMaloney

(Handout #9 – Communication, Prevention & Investigation WT briefing paper, 1 p)

(Handout #10 –Communication, Prevention & Investigation WT charter, 2 pp)

We had a meeting in January and compiled the various charters into one.

Plan to meet on Friday to work on the charter and other issues.

Esther Hernandez is the Chair, representatives from the five federal agencies are included, two state forestry &two state fire marshals.

We meet on a quarterly basis, with conference calls during the rest of the year.

Some of the tasks that we want to work on:

  • Come up with a name and drafting a charter.
  • Working on a manageable Program of Work. Should have a finalized POW by Friday.
  • Dale Guenther is working on a fire restriction website which is a national website that the public can visit regardless of land ownership. We’re working on getting the information from the various agencies to Dale so he can post to the site.
  • Consider and clearly define their role in putting on theAnnual Prevention Conference. Would like to make the conference more accessible.
  • Working on showing leadership in the annual Smokey the Bear national award process.

Status of website: We have an independent working team site ( currently in need of review. Right now it’s stagnant and more Oregon-centric than Washington. A domaine name expiration problem is looming. No current information is posted on the PNWCG website at this time.

Barriers: Multiple competing priorities for individuals assigned to the team. Lack of full participation, two of the fed agencies don’t have membership on the team yet. (NPS, FWS). We’re working on recruiting members from those agencies.

Safety and Health Working Team (SHWT)Liaison Ken Snell for Chair Shelby Gales

Working on getting the working team put together. Don’t know the meeting pattern yet.

Some of the tasks the team will work on:

  • Annual Safety Workshop
  • Task Order to better understand ground extraction process
  • Take incidents such as the Klamath Hot Shot crew that rolled and work to help move the idea of accountability within the safety culture forward (something that will be taken to the agency administrators).

Status of website: None

Barriers:

  • Challenges that come with a newly formed team that have been chartered, but need to fill out membership and work on program of work.

Fire Program Advisory Council (FPA)Thomas Skinner

(Handout #11 –FPA briefing paper, 1 p)

(Handout #12 – Fire Program Analysis Interagency Guidance for the FY 2010 Analysis, 2 pp)

Fairly new as a working team, however group has been around for about five years.
Generally monthly conference calls.

Don’t have task orders, just the deadline from the Executive level.

Four person team:

Thomas Skinner(FWS - Washington)

Nancy Wilson (BIA- NIFC - Boise)

FS/BLM (vacant) (Sherri Miller is currently acting for this position.)

Matt Johnson (NPS – California)

  • Focused on preparing the analysis for the budget deadline (due in Feb or Mar)
  • Hold two workshops (one in Oct, one in Jan) to guide the process along.

Status of website: Don’t have one.

Barrier:

  • The missing piece is regional officelevel supportto offer guidance and backup at the field level.It would greatly help people in the field.

PNW Incident Commander Advisory Council (PNICC) Jim Furlong

(Handout #13 – PNICC briefing paper and PNW ICs list, 2 p)

This is our third year under PNWCG, although we have been an ad hoc group for 20+ years. It’s been a positive experience to move under PNWCG. We’ve accomplished a lot in the past few years.

Jim Furlong is the Chair, Rex Reed is the Vice Chair.

There is a large membership which includes all Type 1 & Type 2 ICs in the NW (see handout)

We hold two meetings each year, one in the Fall & one in the Spring.

  • From our Fall AAR, we develop a work plan which we work on during the winter.
  • At the Spring meeting, we work on preparedness related issues.

No current taskings, however there are six action items they’re working on from the Fall IC meeting.

The spring meeting will be March 29 – 30, 2010 in Hood River, Oregon. A draft agenda has been sent out to the ICs. Jim Furlong will send it out to Paul Bell (and others).

Status of Web site: not complete. Plan to work with Jan Mathis and Jim Edmonds to get information posted onto web site.

Barriers: None reported

Fire Environment Advisory Council (FENC)Dan O’Brien

(Handout #14 – FENC recent activities, 1 p)

(Handout #15 – FENC briefing paper, 1 p)

Previously they were a working team.

Dan is the Chair, Brian Goff is the Vice Chair.

  • They hosted a Fire Behavior Workshop and Decision Support Roundtable.
  • The Fire Behavior Workshop was also set up for recruitment purposes. From 27 attendees, 18 signed up with Dan O’Brien to work as apprentices at the center. This is a good way to give them exposure to the technology, in addition to the taking S-495 courses.
  • We will revisit our charter on Mar 25-26.

Website: Current charter and meeting minutes are posted on the website.

Barrier: Time and scheduling.

Meeting adjourned at 1700 hrs.

Feb 18 Session

Meeting called to order at 0800 hrs.

Introductions & WelcomePat Kelly

Set Expectations for the DayKenSnell / Carl Gossard

(Handout #16 – draft PNWCG Strategic Plan, July 2009, 11 pp)

(Handout #17 – draft Program of Work 2009-2010, July 2009 V1, 12 pp)

We’ll review and discuss the Strategic Plan and Program of Work. The SP is the overarching guidance for PNWCG.

  • The Operating Plan identifies strategies and tactics that we can put in place for 2010 & 2011.
  • It’s important to understand what the most critical issues are with Aviation and FireManagement in the PNW and set our priorities accordingly.

Attendees broke out into groups with Ken Snell and Carl Gossard for brainstorming and discussion on the SP & POW.

Reconvened at 1100 hrs for open forum.

Ken Snell’s Group

Validated the Strategic Plan.

Looked at the strategies (didn’t change the 5 directional items in concept)

Ken Snell will take his notes and along with Tod Johnson create a draft document.

Carl Gossard will take his notes and create a draft document.

Ken Snell, Carl Gossard will work with Pat Kelly and reconcile all the notes into one document.

Carl Gossard’s Group

Overview:

Communications plans need to be done:

  • An internal plan, on how the SC works with WT and how WT work with each other.
  • An external communications plan.
  • There could be several communications plans.

It’s in our charter, how theWT interacts with SC and how advisory councils interact.

(Handout #18 – PNWCG SC Mission Statement, Charter and Working Guidelines, 7 pp)

Definitions of a WT vs. Advisory Council:

  • A Working Teamis a committee of people working on a task.
  • An Advisory Council is a group of experts.

Expressed a desire to have the liaisons sit down with the WT and go thru the SP & POW for a better understanding.

How can WT get the attention of the SC other than throughthe liaisons?

Dispatch isn’t addressed in the SP or in the POW. How have we been dealing with dispatch issues in the past?

The main theme for 2010 is to work on the Communications Plan.

Each of the working teams were to bring a list of BBs (Big Barriers). Here’s a list.

(Handout #19 – WT AC most significant barrier, Feb 17, 2010, 1p)

(Handout #20 – PNWCG Q&A, Feb 15, 2010 v2, 1 p)

The SC plans to address these issues at future meetingsand identifytactics and strategies to solve them.

SC will decide on the Working Team who will handle the logistics to put next year’s meeting together.

AAR

What should we do next year?

  • Have time to work together
  • Keep emphasis on interaction
  • Be sure to involve new folks
  • Can’t we meet in WA?
  • Chairs/Liaisons need to bring forward issues/ideas for next year.
  • Don’t lose chance for Work Teams and Advisory Councils to share what they are up to.

-Not all teams listed WT members

-Dispatch andMAC are not in the Strategic Plan

-Get results out

-Look at acronyms

-Clarity of SP/POW directions?

-Adequate time for SP/POW?

+Standard format for reports

+Good Q/A & dialogue

+Handouts helpful

+Good time management

+Easier with small group

+Important for SC/WT/AC to attend

+ Value in working with others

+Having this conversation is excellent

+Expectations for A/C

+Which agencies need to have reps on which teams?

Handouts

Handout #1 – PNWCG SC/WT Workshop agenda, 1 p

Handout #2 – PNWCG SC WT liaisons/Chairs, Jan 29, 2010, VII, 1 p

Handout #3 – Fuels Mgmt WT briefing paper & charter, 4 pp