PNWCG STEERING COMMITTEE
October 16, 2002
MEETING MINUTES
Attendees:
Leo Sidebotham – BLM
Laurie Perrett – USFS
Skip Simmons – WA DNR
Bill Lafferty – OR ODF
Pam Ensley – USF&W
Ken Till – WA NPS
Barbara Kennedy – SORO
Earl Cortes – Jefferson County Fire/OR Fire Service
Bonnie Wood – SORO
Bob Anderson – Spokane Fire District #9

Contract Ideas –
The meeting was originally put off until November 21 st
. A proposal was made, to create a working team to fine tune the contract and come back to present it in
December. Two team leaders will be needed with the possibility of pulling someone from working teams and someone from ODF. The main objective would be to have changes made by 2003. The tasks that were identified are:
Crew Contract –
1.
Identify key performance issues and develop recommended contract changes to enhance crew performance.
2.
Identify existing levels of administration service provided by ODF, and determine the desired level of service along with a recommended funding plan to support it.
Engine/Water Tender Contract –
1.
Identify key performance issues and develop recommended contract changes to enhance engine tender performance.
2.
Identify existing levels of administrative support provided by the USFS, and determine the desired level of service, to include possible involvement of other federal agencies, along with recommended funding strategies to support it.
Task Group Members – Leads: Ray Montgomery and Lee Oman
Incident Business Working Team Rep: Teresa Right (NPS)
Contract Working Team Rep: Don Moritz (ODF)
Training Working Team Rep: Ed Daniels (ODF)
Operations Working Team Rep: Gary Cooke (?)
USFS CO: Monty Bell
ODF CO: Don Moritz
WA DNR CO: Judie Cline

Action : Bill Lafferty and Leo Sidebotham were directed by the PNWCG Steering
Committee to ask for team leaders and give them an administrative person to assist. Bill is to get task ideas to liaisons to be shared with working teams and meet on November 21 st
. Pam has the history of it and will send it to Laurie.
Laurie will work on a letter asking what the issues are, as well as input to fix them. Deadline is November 15 th . Bob will make sure to get them to the ICs.

National Contract – Laurie Perrett
There is concern that the National Contract is at risk of being dropped if no one picks up the initiative on it. It is needed in some ways and not in some ways. It has been brought up at meetings regarding the possibility of someone needing to take the initiative on it if everyone wants it to continue.

National Fire Plan – Bonnie Wood
Tom Schmidt did a National Fire Plan summary in April of this year, regarding where is PNWCG at with the four items. Seems to have been put on hold, might just roll them into goals and objectives for 2003. Jim Russell got a hold of the
National Performance Measures, and they don’t quite make sense. Looks like two separate plans were written before they were told to make it one. Laurie suggested calling Tim Hartzel in the national office and Harry Croft to find out why they are different. Bonnie recommended that we pick out a few of the most important ones to work on for now. Key points are to implement the comprehensive strategy implementation plan, looking at the 23 tasks and 18 measures. Now they are attaching GPRA (government performance and results act) performance measures and are attaching them where they fit. Federal agencies are being told that they have to track cost and what database they have to use to track it. Bonnie needed the information of who is on the National Fire Plan steering group and which teams worked on the National Fire Plan in the past years. There was input from everyone to come up with names and team titles.
Ken will send Bonnie what he has electronically.

Self-Critique of PNW MAC Fire Season 2002 – (handout given)
The last three pages of the critique were already sent in to the National MAC. It was proposed to include Laurie’s additional pages (the first four) and take them to the National MAC meeting. Bob questioned page three, the second to last bullet regarding the balance between command and coordination. Leo commented that
NW MAC may have to move resources from one fire to another, and Laurie agreed that NW MAC would have to let people know when they are getting close to that point. Skip suggested that strings be attached to resources, meaning that when resources are given, they may need to be told that the resource may need to be returned or moved to a different fire at a certain time.
Action: PNWCG tasked Bob Appling, Gerry Day and Mike Lowry to update the
PNW MAC handbook. Bob will chair the group and complete the writing.


Fast Team Report – Pam Ensley
A memo went out and local actions were taken. PNWCG needs to take a look at what needs to be done locally and what needs to be set up nationally. Everyone has the chart that was sent out. Barbara will send out all pieces when Earl sends them to her.

2002 Fire Season Power Point Presentation – Group Leader: Karen Curtis
The Central Oregon Fire Management Group (COFM) met with Pat Kelly on
September 30 th
to get ideas. They came to present a rough draft Power Point presentation that is geared toward the public. Some of the suggestions to add or change in the presentation were:
1.
To possibly not include the section about not many acres were burned because of dollars spent.
2.
Illustrate how many people were affected by evacuation and other related elements.
3.
Add logos on first slide.
4.
Add that increased dollar budget helped in success.
5.
The lack of resources issue needs to be addressed.

Key Issues for PNWCG – Laurie (handout given)
1.
Need to have a better portrayal, there were complaints regarding how the
MAC does things. There is a disconnection in the communication flow.
2.
When National MAC calls, take the questions to the group.
3.
Include in MAC handbook that if you want and answer from the group, call the chair. Anything else is public opinion. Also keep MAC business in MAC.
4.
Don’t put issues to MAC that are not MAC issues, time and efforts could be better utilized
5.
Need to take a look at the 2002 Strategic Plan to make sure that we stay on track, possibly every meeting. Make sure it is posted on the web page.
6.
The question raised in number five in the handout, asked if the
Organization and Officers segment of the charter and working guidelines are still valid and are people available, also, do we need to formally incorporate the Interagency NFP Coordinator into the organization. The response was that there is suppose to be a liaison to the working teams and sub-geographic areas. Need to update the list of who is in charge of what.
Barbara has working teams list, and Earl has sub-geographic areas.
Bonnie asked what the roles and responsibilities are for the NFP
Coordinator and how PNWCG wants her to fit into that role. Everyone decided to think about it.

Federal Agency Rule Against Special Interest Groups Attending PNWCG
Meetings – Laurie Perrett
It was brought to Laurie’s attention that we would either need to uninvite Mike
Dykzeul of the Oregon FIC or invite other special interest guests to the meetings.
Everyone agreed that Mike would have to be uninvited. Bill will inform Mike informally, and Bob will inform him formally.

Future Agenda Items:
1.
How to get Strategic Plan for 2002 completed, possibly in December.
Everyone can read through it and pick out some points to discuss.
2.
Ask member Gary Cooke to attend next meeting on the 20 th
or 21 st
to discuss fast team report.
Meeting Dates for 2003:
Jan – 22 nd
Feb – 26 th
Mar – 26 th
Apr – 23 rd
May – 28 th
June – 25 th
July – 23
Aug – 27 th
Sep – 24 th
Oct – 22 nd
Nov – 19 th
Dec – 17th