Operations Committee Meeting
February 20-21, 2013
Helena, Montana
Introductions
Chairman Greg Archie reviewed the agenda and introductions were done.
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Agenda:
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Team Selection, Team Business, Team Meetings, Team Plans, Team…
IC candidate approvals
“Evolving Incident Management” update
SAD Update – PSC,LSC paper
Training/NRTC Update – S420/520 prioritization
All Hazard IMTs
Updates from the Hotshots / Jumpers
Technology on the fire line
Zone Updates
Other NR Committee reports
Other Items – large water tenders, Kevin
Team Selection, Team Business, Team Plans:
Judy started the discussion on team selection. ICAP was utilized to do team selections. Each team was reviewed and then the pool
was reviewed and dispersed among teams. Team budgets will remain the same.
Team Meetings:
Judy started the discussion on the agenda. Has the rooms allocated and the agenda is pretty well set. Judy has already checked for a
motel facility in the future to provide some costs. The Armory will be hosting again this year, but wasn’t happy with the behavior of
the IMT members. There were problems with parking on the lawn and smoking right outside the door near the flagpole. Team
meetings are April 16th,17th,& 18th at the Missoula National Guard Armory.
IC Candidates approval:
Benes – Mike Gagen
Heintz – Irv Leach and Mike Goicoechea
Hutton – Mike Goicoechea
McBratney – none
Pearson & Kusicko – Roger Stats and Mike Almas
Turman – Irv Leach
Poncin – McBratney & Roy Hall
Fry – Matt Martens, Rick Connell, and Paul Fieldhouse
Vice Chairman for the Ops Committee:
Greg Archie discussed the Vice Chairman position. Bob Fry has been replaced by Mike Gagen so he has stepped down from the Vice
Chair. Paul Pallas was recommended by Chairman Archie and approved.
SAD Update – PSC,LSC paper:
Wally Bennett opened up the discussion with a Qualifications Recommendation letter. The Ops committee and ICs fully support the
letter and it will go to the Board for review at the April meeting. Greg will distribute the letter for review. Steve Frye will update the
letter with the discussion on succession planning and provide an update for Greg to distribute.
“Evolving Incident Management” update:
Greg discussed the succession planning process and turned it to Bob Gilman to review the national paper and the organizational model
being discussed nationally. Bob suggested reviewing the letter we sent during phase 1 of the Successional Planning and revise and
update the letter to be sent again to the EIM work units and leads.
Training/NRTC Update – S420/520 prioritization:
Kitty Ortman from NRTC provided an update and will provide notes for this update.
Operations Committee meeting minutes – NRCG
February 20th & 21st, 2013
Hotshot update:
Fred Thompson updated the committee. No big changes since fall other than the hiring process. Discussed the Bitterroot model paper
that was discussed in the fall. Fred will forward that to Greg for distribution.
Smokejumper update:
Court Wallace updated us and showed a video. They have about 75 jumpers in Missoula and 35 supporting other jump bases.
Provided some information on IMT qualifications and discussed the jumpers working on ways to adjust to a variety of missions.
Feedback is helpful for the jumpers to improve their customer service approach for people using the service. Court will provide a link
to the video. It is posted on the NRCC website.
Technology on the fire line:
Greg Poncin discussed the problems with security issues and the application that was utilized last summer by his team. The
technology is being refined despite the security issues. Greg is hopeful the issues will be addressed before the season starts. It may be
shared at the team meetings if the problems get addressed.
NR Zone Reviews:
NDZ – Downs – Budget is certainly an issue for Interior agencies. The Dispatch Center in Bismarck will likely be shut down this
year. Typical season is expected at this point. The oil field growth might also affect the number of fires. EMZ – Pallas – reviewing
training and Type 2 IA crew charter. Same budget issues exist. Snow pack isn’t great and may be another early spring. SCZ – no
report. CZ – Archie – Board core meeting regularly. Still need to complete the zone charter. SWZ – Thompson – Reviewed Western
MT team future plan for getting WMT team members. Mike Kopitke and Jim Steele are both retiring. NIZ – Almas – Board
discussed the interagency effort to build relationships and build stronger teams. Some hiring going on in North Idaho and is a positive
development. NWZ – Cassidy – Budget cuts are also an issue in the zone. DNRC and the Flathead are reviewing their protection
offset. Snowpack is ok in the mountains but short in the valleys. The Libby Haz-Mat OU-3 site has even larger issues as the EPA has
expanded the area impacted based on the EPA analysis.
All Hazard IMTs:
Paul Fieldhouse led the discussion on All Hazard IMTs. Passed out an information brochure detailing the All Hazard IMT status in
the state. Discussed the dispatching processes and what the relationship between AHIMTs will be with wildland fire. Also discussed
the future of the training and the transition to FEMA National Training Curriculum. There will be a window for historical recognition
in the near future for current wildland ICS instructors.
Business Management Update:
Tracy Nimlos and Pam Okon gave an update on changes. Conducted AARs with Finance Section Chiefs after last season. Hosting a
Finance webinar on May 9th. Will update new things for the season and any issues identified from last year. Would like the Logistics
Chiefs to also participate. Still doing Finance presentations at Operations training courses. Will have a Buying team AAR next week
on 2/26. The supplements for the Business Management handbook should be out by April 1st. Tactical tenders will be rated and in
Chapter 50 & 20 this year but if they sign up as a tender only one will show up in ROSS. It will be an issue if one is ordered and is
listed in ROSS as a regular tender. Doug Turman is the Operations committee business rep.
Native American Crews Update:
Kevin Weaver updated us for NAC. Second round of the NAC plan is out. Probably have less crews available due to funding issues.
Changes in the pack testing for camp crews will impact crew availability.
Aviation update:
Josh Ingle provided us with an update on what is going on in the Region and Nationally with Aviation. Provided a briefing paper on
the use of the Air/Ground FM Naming convention. Patty Koppenol gave a view of the Board and what NMAC/GMAC said.
NMAC/GMAC will not be doing anything to encourage use at this time. The Aviation community does not want to go to the naming
convention due to the lack of support nationally. Because some Geographic areas changing to the naming convention it may affect
some border areas we work with. If the A/G naming convention is adopted locally, frequencies will still need to be utilized to limit
confusion.
Prevention Update:
The Ops committee needs a prevention rep.
Contracting and Equipment Committee Update:
The large water tender issue was brought up. Ordering will be left up to the local units for utilizing larger water tenders.
Operations Committee meeting minutes – NRCG
February 20th & 21st, 2013
Other topics:
Bob Gilman brought up the use of social media and to make sure the information used is accurate. Both Facebook and Twitter were
discussed with the pros and cons with using them. Greg Poncin will bring back information from the National AC/IC meeting and
share the information at the team meetings and with the Board. It will be a discussion item for the Board.
Next meeting date and location
The meeting will be October 15th & 16th starting at 10am. The location will be in the new training room at the Central Land Office at
DNRC Helena.
FOR INFORMATION ON DOCUMENTS CONTACT CHAIRMAN GREG ARCHIE AT garchie@mt.gov.
A SPREADSHEET CONTAINING THE ATTENDEES ACCOMPANIES THESE MINUTES.
Respectfully submitted, Bob Fry Montanades3@gmail.com
NORTHERN ROCKIES COORDINATING GROUP OPERATIONS COMMITTEE
MEETING DATES: November 27TH & 28TH, 2012 MEETING LOCATION: HELENA, MT
ATTENDEES
REPRESENTING
EMAIL
Greg Archie
Chair, Central Zone Rep
garchie@mt.gov
Dan Cassidy
Northwest Zone Rep
dcassidy@mt.gov
Greg Poncin
NR IC
gponcin@mt.gov
Judy Heintz
NRCC
jlheintz@fs.fed.us
Tom Heintz
EMT team
theintz@fs.fed.us
Kitty Ortman
NRTC
kortman@fs.fed.us
Rick Seidlitz
Meagher Co/WMT DPIC
rseidlitz@meaghercounty.org
Bob Fry
NR WMT IC
Montanades3@gmail.com
Diane Hutton
NR WFMT IC
dhutton@fs.fed.us
John Monzie
DNRC
jmonzie@mt.gov
Wally Bennett
NR IC
wbennett@mt.gov
Kevin Weaver
BIA
Kevin.Weaver@bia.gov
Paul Grimstad
MT DES/NRCG Board
pgrimstad@mt.gov
Stan Benes
EMT IC
Gary__Benes@blm.gov
Rick Kusicko
NID IC
rkusicko@q.com
Wayne Williams
MT DNRC
wwilliams@mt.gov
Irv Leach
BLM
ileach@blm.gov
John Thompson
Benes IMT DIC
J75thomp@blm.gov
Doug Turman
NR IC
Dturman@mt.gov
Pam Okon
DNRC Finance
POkon@mt.gov
Fred Thompson
USFS hotshot rep
fredthompson@fs.fed.us
Mark Heppler
East side Dispatch/NR dispatch
mheppler@blm.gov
Mike Almas
NIZ rep
malmas@fs.fed.us
Jim Nichols
IDL-DIC
trinitytreefarm@gmail.com
Brad McBratney
WFIC
bmcbratney@fs.fed.us
Tim Bradley
MT-MDC
tbradley@fs.fed.us
Tracey Nimlos
Business rep
tnimlos@fs.fed.us
Robert LaPlant
NRCC
Robert.laplant@blm.gov
Kevin Erickson
R-1 Equipment Com.
kerickson@fs.fed.us
Court Wallace
USFS Smokejumpers
tkendrick@fs.fed.us
Josh Ingle
USFS-Aviation
jingle@fs.fed.us
Patty Koppenol
NRCG Board
pkoppenol@fs.fed.us
Paul Pallas
East Zone
paul.pallas@fws.gov
Shawn Pearson
NID IC
smpearson@fs.fed.us
Doug Downs
ND Zone
doug_downs@fws.gov
Kathy Pipkin
NRCC Center manager
kpipkin@fs.fed.us
Bob Gilman
NR Ops
rgilman@blm.gov
Steve Frye
DNRC
sfrye@mt.gov
Operations Committee meeting minutes – NRCG
February 20th & 21st, 2013