Center Manager’s Meeting Notes
March 9, 2010
Vancouver, WA
Dan Obrien and Dave Quinn welcomed everyone and co-facilitated the meeting.
Introductions were made around the room.

Dan Obrien started the meeting with a facilitation exercise.
Told everyone to pick someone that they didn’t work with everyday and take two minutes each to tell a story about when they have been a part of a group that clicked.
Then after that was completed we chose another person next to us and told them in 30 seconds what the person we were with before said and 30 seconds to tell them our story and vice versa.
He then polled the audience and asked them to list some key things that made these teams work, teamwork, leadership, direction, common goal, camaraderie, respect, conviction, credibility, humor, personality and positive environment were some of the things that came out.
Why did we do this exercise?
All of the answers are reflections of values/beliefs; we need to focus on these energies as work together the next few days.
The next part of the exercise was a series of questions.
1.
In one sentence describe your center’s mission.
Answers included – To support the firefighters in the field, provide quality service to our customers,
Exceptional service to the firefighter and the tax payer.
2.
What is the biggest operational obstacle that we (as a group) can potentially resolve?
Answers included – Relationship building for our firefighters to trust dispatch (How do we get the message out that we’re not just a voice on the radio?), Dispatcher’s are required to have prior wildland fireline experience but it’s not reciprocal,
Communication, trust, workload and staffing were the big discussion topics. We need to put a face on dispatch and market ourselves.

3.
Describe in two words, your relationship with the fire staff officer you most work with.
Answers included – Respect and Communication,
Respect and Trust, Open and Direct.
4.
What is your staffs greatest undiscovered or underutilized strength?
Answers included – Knowledge (they are smart, leaders and firefighters, they just need to put it to use), Confidence and Faith in own ability,
Organizational skills, Creativity (no time to innovate), Leadership skills (even though there not a supervisor or manager), Expectations VS.
Compensation (Dan Obrien said expectation is defined as an open invitation to resentment and disappointment).
5.
What is necessary to develop or bring that strength online?
Answers included – Make them multi-functional, give them opportunities, give them something they can succeed at (let them struggle but don’t set them up for failure), mentor them, stand by their decisions and stand up for them, Give them the
Task, Tools, Time and Teach them.
6.
What’s your mission as a center manager?
This question wasn’t answered within the group.
7.
Indicate what the following individuals must do to help center manager’s accomplish their mission: NWCC Center
Manager (Dan Obrien), NICC Center Manager (Kim
Christiansen), and Agency Leadership.
NWCC – Don’t forget what it’s like outside the
GACC/NICC. Maintain communication with the field and go out to the centers within the GACC.
Sensitivity to higher level decisions. Listen to us and respond in a timely manner. Keep lines open so we can call with questions and ask for help. Dave
Quinn invited the Center Manager’s to come into
NWCC to see how the processes and decisions are made from NICC, NWMAC, etc. Take a look at the process.
NICC
– Get pressure from NWCG to push things thru without thinking it all the way through (slow down). Help streamline interagency processes; we are stove-piping and growing further apart instead of growing together.

Why did we do this exercise?
We are all leaders and it is our duty and obligation to act and work towards a vision for the future. He (Dan Obrien) wants to move us in a common direction and it will help us do our jobs better.
Comments from Dan Obrien included:
Be sensitive to partners but you also need to make sure you’re talking to the right people. Leadership is an undefined quality; it’s not authority, its inspiring people to get things done.

Dan Obrien advocates putting together a Center Manager’s Advisory Council to
PNWCG and will take that forward.
This doesn’t eliminate the PNW dispatch steering committee
(internal business) the advisory council is separate (external business).
Jim Furlong is a part of the IC Advisory Committee. He said we need to get formal recognition from NWCG and that will help to resolve issues and show we want to help ourselves. You can also have subgroups within the main group to bring forward recommendations and work on different tasks.
Dan Obrien talked about formulating a charter first off so that everyone has a common vision, purpose, or mission. Also need a strategic intent document which will lead to a strategic plan. This idea will help us connect more with the ground and help make a difference. The rest of the fire community will know what you’re doing and start taking us seriously. Dan asked if the group wanted to move forward with this idea, Katie (BICC) made a motion to move forward and the whole group agreed.
They then broke off a small group to come up with a proposal
(Katie, Nikki, Dan, Rettie and Renae). They were to report back sometime after lunch.
After lunch results – Proposal was made and accepted that the
Advisory Committee would be made up of Center Managers and
Assistants could be invited as non-voting members or to fill in as a voting member if the Center Manager designates them as such.
CMAC leadership was voted on and the decision was made to have a Chair and Vice-Chair that would be nominated and voted on by all CM’s. It will be a two year term and if the Vice-Chair wants to become chair they can nominate themselves and get voted on at the next vote. CMAC decision making rules were discussed and voted on. Policy decisions will strive for consensus but if that cannot be

met a two thirds vote is required with a quorum of all center managers present. Leadership decisions will be based on simple majority. CM’s to get nominations for leadership to Dan Obrien by March 22 nd
, elections will be open from March 29 th
til April 2 nd
.
The first order of business for new leadership will be to work with the CM’s and Dan on getting a Charter developed.

Dave Quinn discussed mob guide additions for 2010.
Gave handout of additional language on IHC crew mobilization procedures for the PNW. This isn’t really new information, just wasn’t in the mob guide previously. Dave will email to center managers and if anyone has changes or concerns they can be addressed to him. He will be taking this information to the R6 IHC meeting next week.
Next mob guide addition was Dispatching of IMS Teams. We need to have an agreement and standard in R6. The group took a look at the handout given and the proposal that was written. The group re-wrote the proposal to take to the IMT’s –
When an IMT is ordered the Medical Unit Leader (MEDL) will be responsible for ordering an IMS team thru the incident host. The IMS manager keeps the roster for the
IMS team, the IMS manager contacts/updates host dispatch center when the IMT they are attached to comes up on rotation or as the roster for the IMS team changes. The
IMS team will be rostered by the IMS manager’s host dispatch center and will be ordered as a separate O # from the IMT.
Gina will work with the IMS teams’ host units to make up a standard resource item naming convention for the teams.
The group was informed that the Assignment Extension process is being done electronically this year. With all the faxing and stuff going on in the past, this will be a cleaner process. WA-DNR doesn’t accept electronic signatures so theirs will be done the old way or hard copy and scanned into a pdf. Also, an FYI, for AD extension requests the FMO or CM is their supervisor, for signature on the form.
Steve Arasim brought a task before the group on re-formatting
Chapter 50 of the mob guide. Gave a handout, a discussion brought about some ideas and awareness that it is not only dispatcher’s who use the mob guide, we need to leave most of the

numbers in there, reduce duplication, and add an index. Please send ideas to Steve and he will work on it for 2011.

The neighborhood concept will be new for 2010.
The PNW dispatch steering committee was thanked for working on the task order and their recommendation after review by the CM’s and NWCC will go into effect and into the mob guide this year.
There was some discussion on the topic but Dan Obrien said we will try it this year and if it doesn’t work we will revisit it again after the trial run.
The ODF crew pilot will be viewed as an IA agreement and not affected by the neighborhood.
Belinda will send ODF edits to Dolly before the mob guide is printed.

The Decision Support Center.
Will be implemented again this summer. It is designed to fill decision gaps and to provide analytical support to make good allocation decisions. The output provides short-term fire analysis.
It is also a training ground for people who are interested and that want to further their skills. The ops plan and ordering protocol will be out my mid-may. Dan also gave handouts on the National
Fire Decision Support Center which can be ordered through
NWCC.

Proposed NW MAC Resource Allocation Strategies.
A handout and brief explanation of the 5 different strategies was given. Grant Kemp will give a more in depth explanation at the full workshop on Thursday.

NMAC interim fire reporting guidelines handout was given and will be used this year.

Bar Code pilot program.
This program will be piloted by a couple IMT’s in R6 this year
(Pendleton, Rapp). This is a separated program than the new cache system.

Round Robin from Centers

VAD – has several job openings right now
BICC – Katie got CM position, Asst CM position is sitting at
ASC, new PSE starts March 8 th
DNR – sorry budget this year
ROD –
HSQ’s and pack tests, burning to start soon
SAD - combining with SUF by June and will be in Corvallis, still working on a name and will work with Gina for ROSS stuff
SU F – combining with SAD, has had 1 fire so far this year
NEWICC – back in center after being flooded ($80,000 in damage), hiring seasonal
MIC- Nikki got Asst CM job , RX fire season starting, still working on SOP’s after combining last year
COA – seasonals back, RX season starting
UPF – RX burning starting, Williams Creek litigation ongoing
PSICC – CM and Asst CM are open, Fish and Wildlife pulled out of the center
CWICC – 1 retirement, Stacy Armstrong filled the PSE 18/8, 2 seasonal positions open, RX to start soon
LIFC – ODF vacancy, RX soon
BMC – consolidation going well, built new organization, several positions open now (referral list to be pulled March 22)
JDCC –
3 PSE’s open (referral list to be pulled March 22)
COC – 30% of normal snowpack, Nancy Wiggins took new Asst
Fire Staff position on DEF, CM job out soon and will have overlap time (Grant to retire in early August)
EIC – fully staffed (Sherry is CM, Coral to start Asst CM next PP)
NWCC - Gina – looking at continuing the webinars this summer, everyone in rooms was in agreement with keeping them and
NWCC taking the lead. Working on ROSS cleanup with

organizations, ROSS group wants to manage the Unit ID’s because of a national push towards standardization. Appreciated the CM’s letting their folks help out with projects and assignments.
NWCC – Dolly - National Mob Guide is now formatted like the
Red Book. She will work on making the Regional Mob guide follow it somewhat.
NWCC – Dave - meeting today was the most talkative and interactive meeting he’s ever been to. Dispatch Priority lists will be out by June 1 st
.
Furlong – E/T agreement mobs got a lot of attention from leadership (Ken Snell, Charles Hill) last year. There’s a strong commitment to make things different. The plan is to start the season (June 1 st ) with the same resources we will have at the end of the season. A contingency plan is in place to roll over 2009 agreements if VIPR doesn’t cooperate.
The NWCC CM position is open (closes March 18 th
) hopes to have a cert by the end of March. Will put an interview panel together; make a recommendation to PNWCG, then to state BLM director by May 1 st , and hope to have someone in place by mid-June.