Pacific Northwest Coordination Group Steering Committee (PNWCG)
September 28, 2011 Meeting
NWCC @ 150 SW Harrison St, Portland, Oregon
Final notes
Attendees: Carl Gossard, BLM-SORO; Joe Shramek, WA DNR (with WA FM proxy); Ken Snell,
R6 USFS; Cory Winnie, BIA; Paul Bell, ODF; Mark Havener, Oregon Fire Chiefs; Christy Neal
(representing Sue Husari, NPS); Pam Ensley, USFWS; Pat Kelly, Executive Director/Facilitator;
Jan Mathis BLM-SORO, recording secretary; call in & presenter: Sue Husari, NPS.
Decisions and taskings
Current Task Orders / Tracking (pg 2 & 3)
 Task Order 0904-02 – Joe Shramek will ask Gerry Day, Chair of the WA Geo Board, to
follow up with the Washington T2 teams to see if they have a medical criteria plan in place.
Joe will report back to Pat.
 Task Order 1104-01 – Ken will contact the OWT (Larry Nickey) to convey the message
that although the task order is written as discussion, it should be interpreted as direction,
and the expectation for implementation is for fire season 2013. Ken will give us an update
in October.
October Safety Focus Meeting (pg 3)
 Sue will create another draft for the October Safety Focus Meeting this week and send out
to the PNWCG SC.
 Tasking: PNWCG members to come prepared to describe their wildland fire & aviation
safety program (5 minutes each) and each bring a paragraph on agency’s safety program
that can be combined into a paper.
OWT members for State Geo Boards & Commitment to short IMT assignments (Hot Topic) (pg 4)
 Carry this topic forward to October: The relationship for communication, issue
identification, between Oregon and Washington Geo Boards and PNWCG.
Crew Contract/Agreement (pg 4)
 Paul Bell to draft a letter from PNWCG in support of continuation of the crew contract
resources by Oct 3. Paul will forward the draft to Pat and Pat to send out for 72-hour
review before PNWCG Chair signs.
National Fire Plan Grants Brochure (Hot Topic) (pg 4)
 Pam Ensley will communicate the following edits to Leanne Mruzik:
 Move logo to upper right front page
 Add the names of the agencies included in PNWCG (a key to what the logo means)
 Paul Bell’s language inserted.
9.28.11 PNWCG SC Meeting , pg 1
BLM support to IT positions (pg 5)
 Dan O’Brien to draft a letter to communicate the negative impacts that would occur with
the loss of IT support at NWCC and the implications to the interagency community. This
will be circulated with the agenda for the October meeting.
 Add agenda topic that will focus on NWCC budget.
Cohesive Strategy (pg 5)
 Pam Ensley to extract the nuggets from Phase 2 of the Cohesive Strategy for the PNWCG
Program of Work.
NMAC/GMAC (pg 6)
 Jan Mathis to ask Brian Watts or Bobbie Scopa when the next IC Advisory Council
meeting date is and location so it can be circulated through PNWCG SC.
Meeting called to order at 0900 hrs.
Leader’s Intent
Carl Gossard
Ken Snell has announced his retirement on Dec 31, 2011. Congratulations Ken!
I
would like to thank Joe Shramek for all of his work as acting Chair while I was away.
The agenda today includes topics that take us into the winter months: Cohesive strategy, issues
that should be brought to the NMAC/GMAC meeting on Nov 28 – Dec 1, and the hot topics on the
board.
Today’s agenda
Pat Kelly
(Handout 1 –PNWCG SC Meeting agenda, Sept 28, 2011 v1, 1p)
Current Task Orders /tracking
Pat Kelly
(Handout 2 – PNWCG SC Task Order tracking, Sept 26, 2011, v 25, 1p)
(Handout 3 – PNWCG Task Order to OWT 1104-01, 1 p)
Task Orders:
0904-02 Task Force – Develop a medical criteria plan.
The Oregon teams that went out this year have plans in place. There are 2 Washington T2 teams
that didn’t go out this year and PNWCG should follow up with them.
 Joe Shramek will ask Gerry Day, Chair of the WA Geo Board, to follow up with the
Washington T2 teams to see if they have a medical criteria plan in place. Joe will
report back to Pat.
1008-04 – IBPWT – Organize annual meeting. Completed for 2011.
1011-12 – OWT – IMT successional planning. Refreshed every year. Report out Feb 2012.
9.28.11 PNWCG SC Meeting , pg 2
1104-01 – OWT – IMT member tenure. There is support from the PNWCG SC and will set
implementation for fire season 2013.
 Ken will contact the OWT (Larry Nickey) to convey the message that although the
task order is written as discussion, it should be interpreted as direction, and the
expectation for implementation is for fire season 2013. Ken will give us an update in
October.
For T2 teams, PNWCG’s connection is through Geo Boards. OWT as a member on each Geo
Boards. PNWCG doesn’t have any direct control over T2 teams.
1106-02 – Review draft 310-1. Completed August 2011.
1109-03 – Crew agreement Cost Sharing, Feb 2012.
1109-04 – OWT – IMT sharing with AK, March 2012
October Safety Focus meeting
Sue Husari
(Handout 4 – Draft PNWCG Safety Meeting Proposal, 1 p)
A vision Sue has on the outcome of the meeting: after focused discussion on topics, we would
then have a session (about 2 hrs long) to focus on the objectives of the meeting.
Brainstorm ideas:

Come to a common vision and understanding of the role of safety and health in PNWCG
and its entities. (Carl)
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Lay the foundation and develop a framework – what do we already have at our fingertips
and where do we need to go next? (Joe)
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Make recommendation to PNWCG to further a learning culture in the PNW in preparation
for developing HRO principles. (Ken)
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We need a safety culture that’s pervasive throughout all of the agencies from the bottom up
– accident prevention. (Sue)
HRO presentation for the safety meeting. The decision for who will be the presenter(s) will be
made by Carl and Ken. A suggestion by Sue: Tony Ingle and Mike Matarresse. Carl will contact
them.
Oct 18 is scheduled for the focus meeting and will be devoted to safety. Oct 19 will be to cover
other fire topics.
 Sue will create another draft for the October Safety Focus Meeting this week and
send out to the PNWCG SC.
 Tasking: PNWCG members to come prepared to describe their wildland fire &
aviation safety program (5 minutes each) and each bring a paragraph on agency’s
safety program that can be combined into a paper.
9.28.11 PNWCG SC Meeting , pg 3
Tracking Commitments
(Handout 5 – PNWCG SC Tracking commitments, Sept 26, 2011 v15, 1p)
1. Pam will extract nuggets from the Cohesive Strategy for consideration as PNWCG
Program of Work items.
2. Done
3. Recognize Chief Seidel – Pam has blanket will get to Jan, Carl to write the letter
4. Pending
5. Pending
August notes
Jan Mathis
(Handout 6 – PNWCG SC Meeting August 24, 2011 draft notes, v1, 6 pp)
OWT members for State Geo Boards (Hot Topics)
Commitment to short IMT assignments
Ken Snell
PNWCG would like more direct connection with the two Geo Boards (Oregon and Washington).
There will eventually be a need for short teams to fit in the with the agency administrators needs.
Suggestion: have an Ops person sit on each of the two Geo Boards. They can act as a
conduit/liaison for PNWCG to identify the issues and for communication between the two entities.
 Carry this topic forward to October: The relationship for communication, issue
identification, between Oregon and Washington Geo Boards and PNWCG.

Will this be in the form of a letter from the Chair of PNWCG to the Chairs of the
Geo Boards?
Break for lunch at 1130, reconvened at 1150 hrs.
Crew Contract/Agreement
Paul Bell / Carl Gossard
Where does the crew contract need to go in the future?
1. ODF to extend through 2012
2. Agencies who have a need for the crews write a letter to ODF
3. ODF to make a decision (in/out) by (Sept) change the date from Sept to Dec
4. Need current crew analysis
5. Determine way forward
 Paul Bell to draft a letter from PNWCG in support of continuation of the crew
contract resources by Oct 3. Paul will forward the draft to Pat and Pat to send out for
72-hour review before PNWCG Chair signs.
National Fire Plan Grants Brochure (Hot Topics)
(Handout 7 – Developing Fire Resiliency in the PNW through National Fire Plan Grants, 2 pp)



Move logo to upper right front page
Add the names of the agencies included in PNWCG (a key to what the logo means)
Paul Bell’s language inserted.
 Pam Ensley will communicate these edits to Leanne Mruzik.
9.28.11 PNWCG SC Meeting , pg 4
BLM support to IT positions
Carl Gossard
The TTO FTE (Target Table of Organization Full Time Equivalent) for BLM is going to erode IT
support for two positions. This will have negative impact on the NWCC and the interagency
community. One of the positions is at the NWCC, the other is at the Redmond Air Center.
 Dan O’Brien to draft a letter to communicate the negative impacts that would occur
with the loss of IT support at NWCC and the implications to the interagency
community. This will be circulated with the agenda for the October meeting.
 Add agenda topic that will focus on NWCC budget.
Cohesive Strategy
Pam Ensley
Presentation and update on where we are with cohesive strategy:
 Completed Phase 1
 Phase 2 – document is currently out in draft form (available on the website)
 Phase 3 – Sep 30, 2012
 Pam to extract the nuggets from Phase 2 of the Cohesive Strategy for the PNWCG
Program of Work.
Fall AA Meeting
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Decided on an AA meeting for the spring, Tentative April 2012. Straw agenda items:
Safety (safety culture)
Grants (interagency)
Accomplishments
Working Team(s) make a presentation
Managing team size
Geo Boards
What has happened to our firefighting capability from the past
Virtual staff ride (what did we do, why did we do it?) Key decisions that were made
Issues for NMAC/GMAC
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Ken Snell
Carl Gossard / Pat Kelly
Short Teams (ST)
o Formalized ST or forcing LT (Long Teams) to go short – how to make short teams
work?
Team Rotation
o What’s the National standard?
Non-compliance with National Mob Guide
o AD use policy isn’t followed (ADs on IMTs)
HSPD-12 requirements
o Security requirements
o Compliance by non-fed employees
Successional Planning
o Failures
9.28.11 PNWCG SC Meeting , pg 5
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o Successes
Rental Cars
o Solutions to get vehicles for fires.
CRNW issue
o National
State Reimbursement
o Is there a change coming. If so, what is it?
Risk Management
o Replacement of 215A form for IMTs
DOI/FS
Common Direction
o Risk assessment
o Lessons learned v. APA
o Continuous learning
o Base 8
o NIMO teams
o 301/401
 Follow-up (Jan): Ask Brian Watts or Bobbie Scopa when the next IC Advisory
Council meeting date is and location so it can be circulated through PNWCG SC.
2012 Meeting Pattern
Carl Gossard
Meeting dates for the rest of 2011:
Oct 18-19
Nov 10
Dec 9
We will continue with the normal meeting pattern of the third day of the month for 2012.
To defer the 2011 Program of Work topic until October
Agenda item: AAR for 2011 Fire Season (Pam)
AAR
+ Lunch
+ Moving topics around for Joe
+ Like looking at hot topics
+ Topics
Meeting adjourned at 1430 hrs.
Handouts
Handout 1 – PNWCG SC Meeting agenda Sept 26, 2011, v1, 1p
9.28.11 PNWCG SC Meeting , pg 6
Handout 2 – PNWCG SC Task Order tracking, Sept 26, 2011, v25, 1p
Handout 3 – PNWCG SC Task Order 1104-01, 1 p
Handout 4 – Draft PNWCG Safety Meeting Proposal, Sept 28, 2011, 1p
Handout 5 – PNWCG SC Tracking Commitments, Sept 26, 2011, v15, 1p
Handout 6 – PNWCG SC Meeting Aug 24, 2011 draft notes, v1, 6 pp
Handout 7 – Developing Fire Resiliency in the PNW through National Fire Plan Grants, 2 pp
9.28.11 PNWCG SC Meeting , pg 7