Pacific Northwest Coordination Group Steering Committee (PNWCG SC)
20 January 2010 @ Northwest Coordination Center (NWCC)
final meeting notes
Attendees: Paul Bell, ODF; Ken Snell, R6 USFS; Carl Gossard, BLM-SORO, Pam Ensley, USFWS;
Cory Winnie, BIA; Tod Johnson, NPS; Dave Quinn, NWCC, Pat Kelly-Executive Director/Facilitator;
Jan Mathis, BLM-SORO, notetaker; presenters, Jim Furlong, Kathy Shelton. Called in: Mike Matlick &
Esther Hernandez.
Leader’s Intent
Ken Snell
It’s the first meeting of a new year and a good time to pause and reflect on what we accomplished in
2009. We should be proud of our accomplishments!
Finalize Agenda
Pat Kelly
(Handout #1 – PNWCG SC Meeting Agenda, January 20, 2010 agenda, v.2, 1 p)
Moving these topics from today’s agenda to a future meeting:
Fuels Management WT topic to a future meeting. (Pam Ensley)
EMAC discussion to a future meeting, (Jim Walker or Paul Perz)
Finalize December notes
Jan Mathis
(Handout #2 – PNWCG SC December 16, 2009 Draft Meeting Notes , 6 pp)
Jan Mathis will make corrections, add content from Sarah Robertson re: TO 0905-03, finalize and post to
library/website.
NWCC Facilities Update
Dave Quinn
(Handout #3 – NWCC New Facilities Update to PNWCG, dtd Jan 20, 2010, 1 p)
(Handout #4 – NWCC Fiscal 2011 Budget Proposals to PNWCG, Jan 20, 2010, 1 p)
 FS is going to be the leaseholder
 GSA is currently looking for a building
 PNWCG SC will need to make a decision on the budget proposal.
Tentative date of April 1, 2010, special PNWCG SC meeting to focus on the NWCC budget
proposal. Start at 9 am until 3 pm at NWCC. To meet with SMES (Dan O’Brien, Kathy
Shelton, Brenda Johnson):
1. Understand history of the NWCC cost share and:
Support or revise
- Is staffing part of model or not – validate the budget before validating splits.
- What agencies to participate in the share?
2. Long term Coordination Center structure.
SC decision: in agreement with the budget percentages. How we apply them is up for
discussion.
Dave Quinn / Dan O’Brien will send electronic copies of the NWCC 2011 Budget Proposals
to Pat Kelly who, in turn, will send out to the SC.
PNWCG SC Meeting January 20, 2010 pg 1
Fire Prevention and Communications WT Update
Mike Matlick & Esther Hernandez
The new WT had a meeting on January 5, 2010 and a draft charter was drawn up. There are still some
issues with the Communications part of the new WT. (Rod Nichols, Tom Knappenberger, Maria Ti Mai)
The committee is in agreement that to keep the new WT together, perhaps the communications part could
be a sub-group.
Mike Matlick & Esther Hernandez will compose a short list of what’s been successful,
functional and useful to the SC by the Feb meeting.
Carl Gossard, Paul Bell and Ken Snell to talk to individual members to listen to their
concerns.
Esther Hernandez will send the draft charter electronically to Pat Kelly and he will
distribute to the SC. Their next meeting date for the WT is Feb 19, 2010.
Liaison to new Prevention/Communications/Investigations WT will be Paul Bell.
Paul Bell will contact Paul Perz and Mike Matlick to discuss.
Mike Matlick will be retiring on Jan 29, 2010. PNWCG SC expressed their appreciation for his efforts.
Paul Perz will be acting for Mike Matlick for PNWCG.
Incident Business Practices WT
(Handout #5 – IBPWT Program of Work, 1 p)
(Handout #6 – IBPWT Charter, 3 p)
Kathy Shelton
Reviewed POW and charter.
Does PNWCG want to see the taskings to IBPWT Committee?
SC in agreement to move the sentence in the last paragraph (under objectives) to the end of
the paragraph: “Ensure there is a crew agreement available for use by the PNWCG agency
partners…”
SC agreed to change the Equipment Rental Rate Group to Committee.
Whether to use “group” or “committee” for subunits of Working Teams is something to address in the
PNWCG SC Charter.
If any of you have any specific needs, you can address this with your IBPWT representative.
With these changes the charter is approved and will be signed by incoming liaison Cory Winnie.
IC Council IT issue 1 2008
(Handout #7 – PNWCG Adopt an IMT, 1p)
Jim Furlong
Issue: There wasn’t a standardized way the teams would operate in the IT world. Agreed to standardize,
but how to fund? There are two funding issues:
1) Short-term - Getting teams up to speed with state-of-the-art equipment
2) Long-term - Maintenance of the equipment
PNWCG SC Meeting January 20, 2010 pg 2
Proposed the idea “Adopt an IMT,” for the top 11 teams, which falls back to the different agencies to
provide funding: BLM and FS will fund as specified in the document. BIA will transfer funds to
BLM. DNR, due to budget shortfalls, can’t support the funding level, however they support the
concept.
SC is in agreement to proceed with this idea for the teams this year.
Dale Guenther is working with the agencies and IMTs to develop an implementation plan. The
goal is to have the equipment in the hands of the teams by the beginning of 2010 fire season.
FYI and related to this concept, Kathy Shelton and Jim Furlong are working on this idea: Draw up a FS
contract, name it something like “IT Transition Module.” This would be a pre-season contract to provide
a server, router, etc. at the site ahead of time. When a team shows up, they can just plug in. This is a
separate from the ordering process that Dale Guenther will be working.
With this decision all action items from the 2008 IC council seasonal AAR are completed.
IC Council 2009 season AAR
(Handout #8 – 2009 IC AAR Issues, 2 pp)
Jim Furlong
The following 6 issues are being worked on and will be presented in depth at upcoming PNWCG
meetings:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Risk Management Process, lead – Dave LaFave (due at March SC meeting)
Role of NIMO, lead – Tom Cable & Nick Giannettino (due at March meeting)
Workforce Capacity, lead – Jim Furlong (due at April meeting)
Type 3 Teams, lead – Chris Schulte (due at April meeting)
Structure Protection Plan Template, lead – Rex Reed (due at March meeting)
IT Support to Teams, lead – Jim Furlong (presented at this meeting). This item is now closed.
Ken Snell: Are there any items from these issues that can be assigned to working teams rather than the
ICs? This is something for discussion.
Jim Furlong: Perhaps in the next paper, we can include an action plan. And from that, some of these
things can be assigned to working teams.
Break for lunch at noon, reconvened at 1245 hrs.
February Annual Workshop
Pat Kelly / Carl Gossard
(Handout #9 – PNWCG SC/WT/Advisory Council Annual Workshop agenda, Feb 17-18, 2010 v. 3, 1 p)
An estimated 35 attendees will be at the meeting (from SC, WTs, Advisory Councils, Task Forces, etc.)
Carla Schamber working on logistics, TBD possibly the same location as last year.
Pat Kelly has draft talking points that he will share with Ken.
Pat Kelly to work with Carl Gossard to craft an invitation & short note from PNWCG
chair, Ken Snell, to the WTs with a copy of the agenda.
PNWCG SC Meeting January 20, 2010 pg 3
Pat Kelly suggested to follow these steps at the meeting:
 Have folks read the existing SP. (would take about 30 minutes)
 Go from there to the POW, and really focus on the POW with the working teams.
 SC Chair, vice-Chair & Pat can take the ideas for the POW and bring back as a (strawman)
proposal in March/April for both the SP & POW.
Pat Kelly will work up a status of everything that’s been accomplished in the last year for
the SC.
Paul Bell will check with Rod Nichols regarding communication on Accomplishment
Report.
Task Order 0907-04 item 4
(Handout #10 – PNWCG Task Order 0907-04, 2 pp)
Carl Gossard
Carl Gossard is comfortable that we can take records verification language out of the MOUs, go through
the process, get them re-signed, etc.
Not comfortable with the monitoring of 20% of the courses. Do we need to monitor 20%, would 10%
work?
All three would be need to be updated at the same time:
1) Operating Plan
2) PTP MOUs
3) FCA MOUs
Carl Gossard to clearly articulate the details of the process to the TWT, get recommendations and take
back to PNWCG. Working towards making the changes by this fall.
Redmond Training Center to handle the Notification process and administration of the MOUs.
Accomplishment of 20% monitoring would be more than shop could handle.
SC in agreement to keep the Task Order open and extend to May.
Carl Gossard will go back to the Operating Plan to find the definition of Associations.
As the process moves forward, it would be good to add an implementation plan to the
document.
Safety and Health Working Team (SHWT)
Ken Snell
(Handout #11 – Charter, Safety and Health Working Team PNWCG, 2 pp)
The SC agrees that Shelby Gales will be the initial chair of the WT.
Ken Snell will be the liaison to the WT.
Shelby Gales first task is to put on the Fire Ops Safety Conference. PNWCG will be sponsoring the
conference.
PNWCG SC Meeting January 20, 2010 pg 4
The next step is membership – looking for folks with a passion for safety, not by position.
Ken Snell to clean up the charter, sign it and get a hard copy to Pat Kelly and Jan Mathis.
SC members are requested to identify WT members.
Hot Topics
Job Aid
Ken Snell
The FS/BLM is going to have 2500 job aid booklets prints for wildland fire. The content is generic ICS
(Incident Command System) information, NIMS compliant, good for state and local government. We’re
going to change the graphics, some of the text and add a logo. Want to have it ready for the AA
Workshop in May.
SC agrees to have the PNWCG logo added to the publication.
Getting AOP rolling
Paul Bell
Members selected to work on the AOP:
Alan McGuire-Dale
Travis Medema
Brenda Johnson – Lead
John Szulk
*DNR
*FWS
*NPS
(*placeholder for names)
Crew Contract Update 2010
Paul Bell
Current status: Have agreed to not do any amendments to the 2009 crew agreement. Will be discussing
options for 2011.
Update on FF Extraction
Ken Snell
Wrote a letter to Tom Harbour for R6 FS to be pilot program for FF extraction to work to improve our
ability to get an injured firefighter out of remote areas. Suggested that we have something ready by 2011.
FS specific right now, but to this eventually going to be an interagency effort. 95% will be focused on
ground with 5% on aviation.
2010 DOI Budget Changes
Pam Ensley
Pam updated the SC on the DOI budget.
NWCG Letter on Successional Planning
Pam Ensley
If our GACC ever has an opportunity to nominate someone to represent us in a National successional
planning effort, Pam would love to volunteer.
PNWCG SC Meeting January 20, 2010 pg 5
5 topics to address at the February Steering Committee meeting:
Resources Task Group – 90 minutes
Fuels Management WT charter – 15 minutes
Structural Protection Plans from the ICs – will defer to March
EMAC Update – defer
Agreed to meet at the same location as the SC/WT meeting.
The February SC meeting will occur in two parts. The first will be from 0900-1200 on
Wednesday, February 17, from 0900-1200 and will consist of the business items listed above
plus last minute preparations for the Annual Workshop. The meeting will continue on the
afternoon of Thursday, February 18 from 1300-1500 to discuss action items from the
Annual Workshop.
A future agenda topic can be attendance at the PNWCG SC.
AAR
+ Flexible
+ Good job
- Attendance
Handouts
Handout #1 – PNWCG SC Meeting Agenda, January 20, 2010 agenda, v.2, 1 p
Handout #2 – PNWCG SC December 16, 2009 Draft Meeting Notes , 6 pp
Handout #3 – NWCC New Facilities Update to PNWCG, dtd Jan 20, 2010, 1 p
Handout #4 –NWCC Fiscal 2011 Budget Proposals to PNWCG, January 20, 2010, 1 p
Handout #5 – IBPWT Program of Work, 1 p
Handout #6 – IBPWT Charter, 3 pp
Handout #7 – PNWCG Adopt an IMT, 1p
Handout #8 – 2009 IC AAR Issues, 2 pp
Handout #9 – PNWCG SC/WT/Advisory Council Annual Workshop agenda, Feb 17-18, 2010 v. 3, 1 p
Handout #10 – PNWCG Task Order 0907-04, 2 pp
Handout #11 – Charter, Safety and Health Working Team PNWCG, 2 pp
PNWCG SC Meeting January 20, 2010 pg 6