PNWCG STEERING COMMITTEE
Meeting Notes
February 16, 2000
In Attendance:
Bob Anderson, Spokane City Fire Dist. #9
John Boro, ODF
Earl Cordes, OR Fire Service
Mike Dykzuel, OFIC (Guest)
Mike Edrington, BLM, SORO
Pam Ensley, FWS
Joel Greene, DNR (Guest)
Barbara Kennedy, SORO
Lanny Quackenbush, ODF
Joe Stutler, SORO
Cory Winnie, BIA
Ken Till, NPS (for Mark Forbes ??)
John Viada, WDNR
Larry Vandlin Chair of Alaska
Coordinating Group (Guest)
INTRODUCTION – BARBARA KENNEDY
The meeting began at 9:00 a.m. The main order of business was to update the strategic plan, with
an additional agenda item presented by Joe Stutler on Incident Management Team Integration.
INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM INTEGRATION – JOE STUTLER
Joe Stutler presented a proposal by the Operations Working Group on Incident Management Team
Integration. Joe first provided an overview of the proposal and its development. The Operations
Team had recommended that the best solution was for the teams in the Pacific Northwest to be
integrated. The committee agreed and had tasked the Operations Team to come up with a process
for integrating the teams. The original report on the task order was due on March 15, 2000, but the
proposal was ready ahead of schedule. The Operations Team has developed a six-step process that
they believe will work for the Pacific Northwest: 1) All IMTs will meet 310-1 standards; 2) fully
endorse the agencies of the State of Washington proposal to create a geographic board for all
IMTs in the state; 3) The agencies within the State of Oregon should develop a similar geographic
board; 4) the Operations Working Team would remain the geographic board for the national IMTs
and provide overlap support and liaison for both states’ governing and geographic boards; 5) all
three governing boards will continue to work through and resolve integration issues; 6) the
integration continues to be an evolving process. Joe identified agencies in Oregon that need to
work to get the process going in Oregon. Joe said the Operations Working Team was looking for
either acceptance of this process or direction to work on something else.
After discussion, the group agreed to proceed with the concept of the Board with ODF and OFIC
involved. Joe Stutler said the Ops Working Team would write the letter for PNWCG to those
agencies mentioned in the Russell Report. Joe also said they have people who could help set the
meetings up, provide the historical perspective, and participate from a stakeholder’s perspective of
incident management. He feels their role is support and overlap, not oversight. Barbara asked if
there were objections to having the Operations Working Team draft a letter asking the
organizations listed in Joe’s handout to develop a geographic Board whose main task would be to
identify and address the issues that need to be resolved. The committee agreed to this proposal.
STRATEGIC PLAN REVIEW – JOE STUTLER
Joe Stutler congratulated the committee for the good work they have done on the strategic plan
and expressed thanks for being invited back. He presented the agenda for the review of the
strategic plan, explained his role in the review process, and reviewed the development of the
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February 16, 1999
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current strategic plan. Joe then directed the committee in a discussion of topics related to strategic
planning.
The committee reviewed the Goals, Objectives and Tactics, first reviewing those items which had
due dates which have been reached and adjusting dates were necessary.
Tactic
5.111
5.112
5.113
Date
December 1, 1999
December 1, 1999
December 1, 1999
Changes/Notes
Has been completed, but will be ongoing.
Completed but ongoing, change to May 2000.
Change to May 1, 2000; add link to other geographic
groups.
Next, Goals and Tactics with upcoming due dates were reviewed.
2.111
2.112
2.113
Ongoing
March 1,2000
September 30, 2000
Changed to August 1, 2000.
April 15, 2000
Update provided by Ken Till, who felt there was much to
be done, but that the date could be met.
Goal 3: Effectively coordinate member agency wildland fire, prescribed fire, and other incident
staffing and resource needs. (New wording underlined. Resource needs includes radios, aircraft)
3.111
No change
3.121
No change
4.121
4.122
4.123
January 1, 2000
No change
No change
Second sentence of tactic, delete “who is now the lead for a
BLM/FS workforce analysis”; after “Who”, delete Mike
Edrington.
Chairs have not all been named. Barriers to
accomplishment discussed: subgeographic areas not well
defined; no chair identified; PNWCG liaison = chairs.
Changed to January 1, 2001, ongoing; revisit next year.
Validity to be resolved with subgeographic area topic.
No changes, committee will revisit to clarify, ongoing.
The committee agreed to postpone further discussion of Tactic 3.121 and Goal 6 until later in the
meeting.
Following lunch, Joe reminded everyone that the success of the committee was dependent on its
strategic plan. The committee reviewed the planning topics to: 1) validate (is the topic still valid),
and 2) determine if any changes or additional planning topics were needed. The “Toys” planning
topic (p. 2) was discussed. The committee agreed to eliminate the topic and incorporate the
important aspects of the item into other items.
At Pam Ensley suggestion, the committee agreed the title of the “Convince Congress/Legislative
Bodies” topic should be reworded to more accurately reflect the topic; after Barriers, reword
“Money is not the issue . . . .”; and get agreement on the language. Lanny recommended deleting
“narrow banding” from the “Safely and Effectively Utilize Resources” topic on p. 4 and making it
an issue on its own. Pam recommended a topic related to recruiting new firefighters. After
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February 16, 1999
Page 3
discussion, the committee agreed to add a tactic under Goal 3 to retain employees and attract new
ones.
Next, Joe asked the committee to validate the top ten and top three topics out of the total of 20
topics. Joe reminded the committee that last year’s topics were prioritized based upon what the
committee could reasonably handle in terms of workload. Joe asked for any changes or any new
topics for the top ten topics. The following were suggested:
1. “Toys” topics as rewritten. (Note: This was later deleted and incorporated elsewhere.)
2. Aircraft/common standards. (Need to add to Strategic Plan.)
3. Cost-effective and efficient budget combined with “Convince Congress/Legislative
Bodies . . .”
Mike and Barbara felt that the goals were sufficiently written last year to cover the top ten topics.
The committee felt the following were the current top three topics:
1. Fuels (p. 9)
2. Availability of Resources (budget, personnel and retention) (to include subtopic on
Congress/Legislative Bodies) (p.10)
3. Effective Communication and Organization for PNWCG, the Members, the Board, including
Subgeographic Areas (p. 5)
VALIDATE MISSION STATEMENT
After discussion of the mission statement, the committee members agreed to change the mission
statement to read “An intergency coordination group providing leadership in interface and . . .”
(new wording underlined). Joe reminded the committee that the mission statement could be
reviewed in the future.
DEVELOP GOALS/OBJECTIVES/STRATEGY/TACTIC FOR ANY NEW TOPICS
Joe reviewed the remaining goals the committee needed to validate: I.) Availability of Resources;
II.) Retention and the Aging Workforce; and III.) PNWCG Communication. Joe suggested
concentrating on Items II. and III and provided alternative approaches for developing the
remaining goals. Bob Anderson proposed having the committee work on broad Goals and
Objectives and tasking out the Tactics. Mike and Lanny agreed.
Joe led the discussion on the Goal for Availability of Resources. The committee decided that
further objectives needed to be developed for Goals 2 and 3. Joe pointed out that budget was
missing from the discussion. The committee agreed to concentrate on the Goals and Objectives,
and look at the Strategies and Tactics if there was time. What the committee did not accomplish
would be tasked out. Mike suggested a strategy of following up on existing workforce studies.
Joe next asked the committee what it wanted to take on for the next planning cycle. He asked the
committee to identify goals regarding: aircraft/radio (“Toys”); coordination/effective utilization;
and ability to communicate between agencies in the PNWCG.
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February 16, 1999
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The committee first discussed the communications issue. The Goal wording (Goal 3??? Barbara
and Joe, I had not noted the following changes on my copy of the Strategic Plan, so I’m unsure
where to include them under Goal 3. Please check.) was refined by the committee to read
“Ensure interagency operability of communication systems among member agencies.” Joe
summed up that the goal is seamless communications among all PNWCG agencies. The Objective
was defined as “PNWCG to coordinate acquisition of radios among the agencies to ensure
seamless communication.” Obstacles to the objective were discussed. Strategies would include a
“Geographic Areas Communication Plan.” Joe asked the committee would like to accomplish
when it reviewed this issue on a monthly basis. Bob Anderson wanted to see a recommendation
from a Working Group. Committee members need to define performance expectations back to the
agencies’ communication staff. If an agency was heading off in the wrong direction, the PNWCG
could use its collective power to send the message to the agency that it was causing a
communication problem. The following Objectives were added (Strategies and Tactics to be
developed by a subgroup):
3.2 – Objective: All wildland fires, prescribed fires and incidents are equipped with common
radio capabilities.
3.3 – Objective: Aircraft
3.4 – Objective: Initial Attack Capability
3.5 – Objective: Voice/Data/GIS technology
Joe said there were still a few things that need to occur with Goal 5, but the bulk of the work is in
Goal 6. The committee reviewed Goal 6, PNWCG Communications, beginning with a discussion
of subgeographic areas. Mike Edrington reviewed how different areas did or did not work. The
committee discussed the concept of subgeographic boards, their function and form. Bob Anderson
suggested having four subareas: East and Western Washington and Oregon. PNWCG is just
concerned about function/feedback, not how the boards were grouped. The committee agreed on a
Goal for 6.0 that stated: “Effective and efficient coordination and cooperation in operations,
training and prevention.” The 6.1 Objective was changed to read: “Coordinate and support the
development of effective and efficient subgeographic coordinating groups that focus on
operations, training and prevention.”
Joe reviewed the composition of the small groups who agreed to work on the development of
strategies and tactics for Planning Topics II.) Availability of Resources, and III.) Communication/
Coordination. Group II members are Pam Ensley; Cory Winnie; John Viada; and Terry Hueth,
leader. Group III members are Mike Edrington, leader; Bob Anderson; Earl Cordes; and Mark
Forbes.
The committee agreed that the small groups would present the tactics for validation at the April
meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.