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Incident Command for ARES Field Day
ICS NIMS
for Field Day Planning
Bill Ricker, N1VUX (formerly EC & DEC Boston; editor
EMA FD Directory)
Originally written for FD2000, updated for FD2005 & FD2008
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EMA ARES
The Incident Command System
National Incident Management System
(ICS NIMS)
not just for Disasters any more — not just for Command any more
Many of the "served agencies" in our ARES work will be trained in, and use during emergencies, a common
jargon and organizational structure called
"NIMS"
(or NIIMS; formerly called ICS).
This is an outgrowth of experiences in California wildfire
management, where firefighters and other emergency personnel from various agencies regularly have to work together
in different groupings than they've drilled. Use of ICS NIMS is now mandatory on all Fire departments and HazMat operations
(including private sector!) has been adopted by FEMA and MEMA and increasing numbers of local Emergency Management
Agencies (EMA's).
Standard Wildfire / Firefighting / Disaster ICS NIMS structure, from FEMA standards
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ICS NIMS has been used for planning in advance and execution of non-emergency events. For instance, according to the
FEMA trainer, Fidelity (the major Boston investment house) planned and executed it's annual employee Christmas
party (a pretty big event) using ICS NIMS (which was a major success, and validated their use of ICS NIMS for both business
and environmental emergencies).
Incidents/Events that can Utilize the NIMS Incident Command System
- Fires, hazardous materials, and multi-casualty incidents.
- Single and multi-agency law enforcement incidents.
- Multi-jurisdiction and multi-agency disaster responses.
- Search and rescue missions.
- Oil spill response and recovery incidents.
- Air, rail, water, or ground transportation accidents.
- Planned events, e.g., celebrations, parades, concerts.
- Private sector emergency management programs.
17-03-I402-SL
It will be easier for us to provide communications support to served-agencies' operations if we are comfortable
with their jargons and drills too. Indeed, demonstrated familiarity with their procedures and jargon may be necessary
to get the foot in the door in some situations.
Training in ICS NIMS is available through FEMA/MEMA, on the WWW, private-sector commercial training, and (unofficially)
via ARES.
[ Resources ]
ICS NIMS
and Field Day Planning
Most clubs have a usual committee structure for their Field Day planning. The people planning and the people
doing on Field Day are probably the same people -- and are exhausted by the time to clean up and prepare the logs
for transmission. Most clubs' usual committee structures are probably -- due to the structures of common sense
-- similar to the ICS NIMS-inspired structure proposed below. Some clubs may even already have assigned clean-up/demobilization/after-FD
roles, which are so useful to avoid volunteer burn-out. The major advantages predicted for using ICS NIMS titles for
your FD committees are (a) practice with the served-agency jargon; (b) emphasis on staffing by specific responsibility
and in shifts; (c) remembering to plan and recruit for take-down and follow-up as well as the more glamorous set-up
and operations.
A
ICS NIMS
Structure for Field Day Planning & Operations
The following is offered as a customizable template, not a carved-in-stone one-true-way. Clubs should do what
feels natural, don't wreck your Field Day! But if they can migrate towards using ICS NIMS terminology
and structures in their major events such as Field Day and PSE's (public service events), they'll
be better positioned to provide communications to events and emergency agencies using the ICS NIMS. So feel free to
edit the heck out this for your club, adjusting for how your club is comfortable dividing responsibility.
You don't need a large bureaucracy to do this ... One tenet of ICS NIMS is that several conceptual levels
of hierarchy can be internalized into one person. The person responsible for a function splits out only
the sub-roles that need delegating: but the ICS NIMS Names for the Roles let him/her quickly communicate to the various
delegates who is doing what and make sure nothing is forgotten.
ICS NIMS for Field Day
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- Incident Commander = Field Day Chair
- Safety Officer -- See KC1US's FD Safety Officer
memo.
- Information Officer / Public Relations = Public Information Officer (PIO)
- Press releases before
- Hospitality / Public relations at event
- Press releases after
- Might include VE Exam(*) or other public-service/member-service function.
(*) Question pools not infrequently change July 1, making Field Day a fun time for a last-chance test on the old study guides.
- Planning Section [Field Day Chair & committee; or, Planning Chief may be Committee Secretary]
- Situation Unit: Situation Supervisor may also be Site Safety Officer,
or works closely with. Watching the fires; liason with Skywarn with
Logistics/Services/Comm or just listening to NWS to track incoming weather. ARES Real-World
/ Homeland Security Liaison with Logistics/Services/Comm.
Site security?
- Resources Unit (recruiting): Help other committees schedule people before FD. May utilize Talk-In
(Logistics/Services/Comms) to recruit club members in real-time on Field Day.
- Demobilization Unit (takedown planning): Planning who/how to take it all down, and (via Logistics)
get it all, and everyone, back to where they belong.
- Documentation: Preserve guest book, contest logs with Operations/Bonus
Unit? May help plan logging process, process/submit logs afterwards?
- Logistics Section
- Service Branch
- · Communications Unit (this is where we, ARES/RACES hams, usually fall within someone
else's
ICS NIMS operation!): Talk-in and any other non-contest comms operations, whether on radio/cell/internet, whether on ham, commercial or PS licensed, or part 15/FRS radios. Might include scoring the NTS points with/instead of Operations/Bonus Unit. Guard the usual repeaters, 146.52,
and club simplex frequency for queries, provide communications Liaison with RACES
/ SKYWARN / ARES for Planning/Situation and Safety Officer, relay information for any Supply
Also, set up wireless or wired internet access for Skywarn radar.
unit and shuttle mobiles.
- · Medical Unit: First Aid plan / focal-point; cooperate with Safety.
- · Food Unit: (all important!) - Can break down into Planning
& Shopping, Drinks, Snacks, Cooking, Breakfast, Dessert. Can leverage the Support Branch to find & move
the stuff once a list & Budget are prepared.
- Support Branch
- · Supply Unit: (truck-type transport; leg-work on purchasing for food and supplies; transporting
borrowed equipment for other sections' unfilled requirements, e.g. antenna tuner, and return!)
- · Facilities Unit: (arrangements & interface with landlord/host; renting outhouses and other
equipment; arranging borrowing of real estate and capital equipment based other sections' unfilled requirements, e.g., generator.)
- · General Ground Support
- ·General hands / Labor Details -- everyone! (Antenna and tent raising, lugging)
- ·Shuttle & Errands Group (car-type or passenger-van-type transport for people: shuttle to
public transit stop, last-minute shopping, pizza-run)
- · Power Group runs the generator(s), charges batteries, manages available power. (does this
fall under Facilities or General Ground? who cares, it's Support! Once you're operational, it's the primary
component of Support, along with errands & shuttles transport.
Works with, may be combined with, Safety Officer & Operations-Bonus. This is a great place for the ARES hams,
since they need Generator practice.)
- Finance & Admin Section (club treasurer or Field Day treasurer;
Frequently will be Club Treasurer and other Club officers handling their roles.)
Club officials with spending authority; approve purchases based on club rules and FD budget.
- Time Unit - Can handle ARES Sign-in, although Planning: Documentation probably does that. In a PSE or
activation, a Time Unit can tally up Volunteer hours for ARRL or Red Cross reporting. For
Field Day, attendance logs fall under Operations/Bonus and Planning/Documentation, since we're not Billing or estimating
equivalent Donated time, but logging such may be good practice.
- Procurement Unit - Support for contracting with PortaPotty and other suppliers. Normally
for ARES and Field Day, actually purchasing is delegated to Food or Logistics/Support/Supply, with Treasurer providing
simple reimbursement. In a large deployment, Agency
professionals will do real Purchasing and Supply will just pick it up.
- Operations Section
This is where everyone thinks all the action is, but anyone who's been through Field Day realizes half the fun
is in the above, everything else.
· Shift Leaders are Deputy Contest or
Deputy Operations Chiefs who lead while the Chief sleeps, or who rotate main Operational leadership if the IC is
"acting" as Ops & Contest Chief.
In ICS NIMS, Operations is divided into functional Branches as needed; with further geographic or functional
Divisions or Groups, as needed. Most of our functional Divisions can naturally be called "Stations".
- Contesting Branch (Contest Chief; Plus Shift Supervisors who act as Chief)
Each Station counted in your 7-Alpha Field Day class would be one "Division" or "Group"
for ICS NIMS purposes, both for planning and operations. Most clubs probably have a pre-existing idea of what equipment
is required for each station and usually where to get it. Under ICS NIMS, a Station Captain can ask for Logistics /
Support / Supply assistance in getting loan (or purchase, if approved) for items that it's own staff can't loan
or borrow from customary sources. [See more detail below.]
- · HF SSB Division Station (Station leader; shift operators, shift loggers)
- · HF CW Division (ditto)
- · VHF+ Division(s) (ditto)
- · Digital Division(s) (ditto)
- · Satellite Division (ditto)
- · Shift Leaders are Deputy Contest or
Deputy Operations Chiefs who lead while the Chief sleeps, or who rotate main Operational leadership if the IC is
"acting" as Ops & Contest Chief.
- ... see Field Day Scoring thoughts
- Bonus Branch &/or ARES Branch = Emergency Coordinator or AEC, or NTS Net Manager, or ...
In using ICS NIMS, the club ARES unit can be made responsible for many of the Field-Deployment exercises of Field
Day, in particular, Logistics (getting and keeping running the generator). However, the "contest" part
of Field Day has many aspects that, while they belong in Operations, are still more ARES-like, in particular, the
bonus points some of may cross into other ICS NIMS Divisions, but may be
included in Bonus Branch and/or ARES Branch:
- Operations
- Ensuring power is according to operating class, i.e., emergency power.
- Handling NTS traffic (for points)
- Any other special points available (satellite or digital if no station?)
- Making Natural Power contacts (for points)
- Demo points
- Logistics
- Services - Communications·
- Sending SM/SEC radiogram (for points) (Communications)
- NTS origination/delivery could be Communications too.
- Real-world Liaison-- Skywarn, ARES, Homeland Security. (Also
Services - Communications)
- Support - Power · Operating as Power-management Group under Logistics
above
- Planning: Documentation or Admin: Time
- Taking role call / check-in of ARES-enrolled members present (for SM/SEC radiogram)
- Checking that PIO is logging visitors
- Setting up and Preserving Contest station logs
- Planning: Situation
- Safety (With Safety Officer)
- Real-world Liaison-- Skywarn, ARES, Homeland Security. (Also
Services - Communications)
Contest Chief & Shift Supervisors
The Contest Chief may have Shift Supervisors to spell him/her on the Line. They should ensure
operations conform to FCC and contest regulations, to protect the club's score & reputation and the license
trustee. The Contest Chief or Shift Supervisor is responsible for seeing that there is a Control Operator of appropriate
license grade supervising each station in use.
One particular concern for contest regulations to monitor is ensuring
that the number of transmitters in use never exceeds the number permitted by the contest class, including ensuring
that no two transmitters are under the same exemption at once. Some clubs have used physical Tokens for each counted
and exempted transmitter, others expect active coordination with the Chief/Supervisor; others may fudge but that
is not appropriate in a ICS NIMS operation! [comments]
Station Leader works with Planning/Resource-Recruiting to schedule operators & loggers; with Logistics
to acquire (and return!) the equipment; and likely with the Contest Chief & Shift Supervisors during Operations.
Caution
Reading through the online documentation and training on ICS NIMS and using an ICS NIMS inspired committee structure is
only the beginning. Please do not claim your Field Day was 100% ICS NIMS compliant just because you use the above outline
as a committee template. This will set rather higher expectations in your local Emergency Management Agency than
you would be ready to fill … unless all your Section and Branch chiefs have already been through FEMA-approved
intermediate ICS NIMS training, in which case you're better prepared to write this memo than I! However, if the Field
Day chair and one or more Section Chiefs (particularly Planning section chief if separate) had attended IS-100,
the introductory ICS NIMS training workshop, or worked through the online equivalent materials, others have seen the
A.R.E.A. ICS NIMS course, and others were signing up for the next ICS NIMS offerings, you'd be well on your way.
Incident Command System Resources
LINKS CHECKED MAY 2004
ICS NIMS for Information Technology- Incident Command for IT:
What We Can Learn from the Fire Department
Brent Chapman, Great Circle Associates, Inc.
Listen in MP3 format
View the presentation slides
"Have you ever wondered how fire departments organize themselves on the fly to deal with a major incident?
How they quickly and effectively coordinate the efforts of multiple agencies? How they evolve the organization
as the incident changes in scope, scale, or focus? They accomplish all this by using the Incident Command System
(ICS NIMS), a standardized organizational structure and set of operating principles adopted by most emergency agencies
nationwide. In this talk, Brent will introduce the concepts and principles of ICS NIMS, and discuss how these can be
applied to IT events, such as security incidents and service outages."
[USENIX LISA-05 conference]
ICS NIMS for ARES- THE INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM. AN. INTRODUCTION.
by Chief Bill Miller. Gaines Township Fire Department, Flint, MI.
ICS Incident Command System for Amateur Radio [Now archived
here]
ICS for AR Training Manual [Now archived here]
[Previously published by A.R.E.A. Amateur Radio Training Packages formerly at www.area-ham.org
AREA was a good general Amateur Radio Education site, as their name indicates, sadly gone.
I've archived these two documents; since they blocked IA Archiver in their robots.txt, the rest of the AREA archive
is lost.]
ICS NIMS in action- ARRL Letter reports Hams working within
ICS NIMS
- FEMA Classes
- FEMA IS-195
FEMA - IS-195 Basic Incident Command System - Independent Study
Basic Incident Command System, IS-195. The Incident Command System (ICS NIMS) is recognized as an effective system for
managing emergencies. Several States... [200 sequence equivalent]
"If you plan to use the course materials which are available on-line, you do not need to enroll at this time.
You will enroll when you take the final exam."
FEMA offers on-line courses: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers a series of self-taught courses
that might be of interest to amateurs involved in public service disaster response. Course titles include Emergency
Program Manager: An Orientation to the Position; Emergency Preparedness, USA; Radiological Emergency Management;
Hazardous Materials: A Citizen's Orientation; A Citizen's Guide to Disaster Assistance; and Basic Incident Command
System. Course materials are provided as Adobe Acrobat PDF files.
- WildLandFire: THE
ICS publisher's Homepage
- Incident Command System
ICS NIMS Documentation: Documents and Forms used to define and implement ICS NIMS
ICS NIMS Training Curriculum - online Powerpoint presentation covering modules 2 thru 17 [as HTML slides]
Training Modules
- BCERMS
- Emergency Management Division - Incident Command System
Training
The British Columbia Emergency Response Management System (BCERMS) The BC government, through its Interagency...
Courses available by credit card?
- LEPC
- Local Emergency Planning Committee, LEPC,
Incident Command System,
ICS NIMS
A Framework for Basic Emergency Plans with Functional Annexes using SLG 101 Guidelines
- SAR:Search and Rescue
- SARBC Search and Rescue Society of British Columbia - Search and Rescue Society of British Columbia
Home Page
Has excellent resources! SARBC - Incident Command System Includes
online forms.
National Association for Search and Rescue.
-
- Mandates -- some with materials
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- OSHA
- Standards & Directives mandating
ICS NIMS
CPL 2-2.59A - Inspection Procedures for the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard
OSHA 3152 - Hospitals and Community Emergency Response -- What You Need to Know.
- NYS EMO
- Incident Command System [NYSEMO] New York
State Emergency Management Office, Explanation of statewide
ICS NIMS.
- Massachussets Multiple Casualty Incidents/Triage State Protocols
- APPENDIX L. MULTIPLE CASUALTY INCIDENTS / TRIAGE. Each MCI/Disaster scene presents its own unique hazards and
difficulties.
On the Civil Service reading list for multiple exams.
- Mass.FireAcadmey
- Course Schedule: Incident Safety Officer This course examines the Safety Officer's role at emergency response
situations. A specific focus on operations within an Incident Command System (
ICS NIMS) as a Safety Officer is a main
theme.
- Dept. of Homeland Security NIIMS
- NIIMS, National Interagency
Incident Management System (NIIMS) based Incident Command System (
ICS NIMS) is part of DHS's plan for Emergency &
Disaster Response and Recovery
Other Federal ICS/NIMS/NIIMS mandates related to DHS: USCG)
DMAT
Pages in FD web: EMA FD Home!
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Safety Officer, Lightning, Heat, Resources!
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About (Notes, Credits)
Up: EMA Home §
EMA ARES