CAPability readiness reporting?

[jdh]

I have a resource list (for the squadron), that is typed per NIMS, that I gave to the local EOCs and Emergency Management Coordinators when I got added to the COGs Emergency Management group and SAR board. But the only thing that NHQ put out, that I'm aware of, is the CAPabilities briefing and handout that is outdated. 

[LTC Don]

It is correct that CAP maintains control of it's resources at all times.  This is true of any agency.

Correct.

How is this handled in ICS? Under the Unified Command concept, any agency that reports in to assist, must provide an Agency Liaison Officer (ALO) to represent the agency to the IC.

WRONG. There is no such position as ALO in NIMS, ICS or CAP. ALO was a term invented by CAP when 60-3 came out in 2001 and CAP finally, correctly, deleted the term in the 2008 revision. There is no SQTR for it and no reference to it in 60-3. Unfortunately, the Mission Base Task Guide, which hasn't been updated since 2005, still refers to the ALO.

A Liaison Officer (LO), which CAP does have a SQTR for, is the person at the ICP to whom the Agency Representatives (AREP) from the incoming agencies report. Per CAPR 60-3 para. 1.3(d), the CAP AREP (for which there is no SQTR) must be IC qualified. There may not be an LO at every incident, in which case the AREP reports to the IC or other designated individual.

The actual asset reports in to the responsible IC Staff position, but maintains contact with the respective ALO AREP.

Correct, and the operational asset may also receive tasks from that IC staff position, not the AREP, depending on the incident.

...Under the Unified Command...

LOs and AREPs can also be utlitzed on an incident even when Unified Command is not being used.

Mike

Thanks for the input, and the corrections. 

AND, I highly urge any who want to get deeper into making ICS for CAP work, get qualified in the CAP LO specialty.

AREP = LO = AREP.  The terms/abbreviations are used interchangeably from chart to chart, but agreed -- AREP is the given proper term.  Noting the FEMA documentation is from 2008, and CAP's SQTR for LO is showing 2010.

https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is100he/student%20manual/l6_ics100highered_sm.pdf

I totally disagree that the LO must be a rated IC and should be changed.  That's just stupid.  I do believe the LO should be some type of branch director or someone with at least ICS-300 and 400 under their belt.  The AREP needs to be quick on their feet in clearly communicating to the CAP IC who is probably not at the incident. In the case of a major hurricane or tornado scenario, you may have multiple counties requesting services, each needing their own CAP AREPs to cover deployed field forces, or helping to coordinate air sorties.

[RiverAux]

It would be nice if there were an template that would auto fill useful information like this at the Wing level.

Really, when dealing with local emergency managers you should be focusing on the fact that you are part of a state and national organization, with an emphasis on the resources that your Group/Wing could bring to bear within a relatively short period of time.

Unless your squadron is exceptional, the locals aren't going to be impressed that you've got 5 ground team members, a leader, and a van.  However, they may be happy to find out that the Wing could bring in 75 GTMs by the next day....

However, be very, very careful to not overpromise a response of a certain size or time frame.  From a realistic point of view, you may be able to get folks from your local squadron on scene within a few hours, but for a Wing response you're probably talking about the next day for anything on the ground (air resources are a different story).  And frankly, thats probably where CAP fits best -- bringing in a decent number of resources the next day to supplement local capabilities. 

[sardak]

AREP = LO = AREP

Wrong. The terms are not interchangeable.

I totally disagree that the LO must be a rated IC and should be changed. That's just stupid.

That's good you feel that way. The LO does not have to be a rated IC. The AREP does. Read my post again and the reference paragraph in 60-3.

Mike

[sardak]

It would be nice if there were an template that would auto fill useful information like this at the Wing level.

Attached is a wing level resource report that is autofilled. It is available through WMIRS.

Mike

[Jaison009]

No different than other non-governmental agencies like Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. If I send my Red Cross personnel they report in at staging or through a LO but stay under my control in our concept of operations (ICS-like structure) for ARC not the local ICS structure.

Somebody commented that we need to be NIMS compliant first. Agreed. Unfortunately, NIMS isn't always NIMS compliant either.

That's certainly true! But then, most of this stuff is intended to be fairly flexible since disasters are rarely one size fits all. At least when it comes to public safety, they have some basic expectations that seem fairly universal (although milage may vary). When the incident commander of a fire requests a pumper truck from another agency, the IC expects the pumper will roll into staging, be assigned a job, and work within the ICS org chart. When a law enforcement IC requests a tactical team from another agency, there's an expectation that the team will roll in with a team leader (usually a sergeant), show up at staging and be assigned a task and fall into the org chart.

If either of these ICs requested CAP, we'd send a liaison who would report back to a CAP IC on what it is the leading agency would like us to do. We would then independently stand up our own ICS-like structure, completely independent of the incident's structure.

At least, this is how it's been explained to me, that CAP people and assets must remain 100% under the control of a CAP IC. We can't send a ground team for example to an incident and have that team report to the agency's GBD directly like they would expect. Imagine if the pumper truck from my example would only answer to their LT, BC, and Chief during an incident? They'd be told to go home.

Like most things, there's no simple answer to this. It's not that CAP doesn't want to play nice, but we need to maintain accountability to the Air Force for the millions spent on aircraft, vans, and fuel. I don't have any easy answers myself, but I do hope there is some sort of middle ground we can find that keeps the Air Force happy while making ourselves an attractive resource to public safety.

[Fubar]

No different than other non-governmental agencies like Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. If I send my Red Cross personnel they report in at staging or through a LO but stay under my control in our concept of operations (ICS-like structure) for ARC not the local ICS structure.

Very true, but at the same time, your ARC personnel are typically not performing a task in parallel to other organizations during the incident. For example, if the local sheriff requests external SAR teams, including CAP ground teams to assist with a search, the sheriff will end up with a few teams worth of folks working for his GBD and one set of teams from CAP that will be working on their own through a CAP chain of command. When the ARC shows up, they aren't providing sheltering within the same facility as another organization.

I've see what happens when there are 5 ground teams in the field, one of which is CAP. When the GBD wants to tell the ground teams what to do, he gets on the radio and tells four GTLs their marching orders, then calls the CAP LO and provides instructions. The CAP IC approves it, tells the OSC, who tells the GBD who then tells the GTL. Then you hope the instructions all made it through intact and take less than an hour to be disseminated. When all five teams are generally working the same area and need to be coordinated, this extra chain of command really slows things down.

Public safety has different expectations than say FEMA who is more worried at the 50,000 foot overview of a disaster, where the ARC really shines at knocking out key needs of a disaster. On the street level, the deputy who's playing GBD just wants to be able to coordinate everyone with minimum hassle.

[The Infamous Meerkat]

It's this ^ that causes CAP to be much more trouble to a sheriff's office than we're worth... Unfortunately, this is why we don't get called. Justifying the extra hassle and wasted manpower to a sheriff's office isn't an easy task either, I've had a lieutenant give me that quizzical look on one mission when I tried to explain the process.  Then I got in trouble with CAP for just following his orders...    (never mind that we couldn't reliably reach command staff because they deployed us halfway across the state into a no-comms area)

Strangely enough, they haven't called us again in several years.

[Larry Mangum]

a 219 is not the proper tool to use for an agency to represent its capability.  The 219 is for tracking individual resources on an incident.  Each team, or piece of equipment would have one completed upon in processing.  an agencies capability report should be in a briefing, or pamphlet, or other simple marketing tools.  Remember you bring a lot more to the table than just a squadrons capabilities.  you get to draw from a very large and robust organization.

Yes, the above poster to my last post clarified the 219 purpose and sent me the link to IRIS and other reporting tools. We have a large and robust organization that (in my case) has a squadron that doesn't get called up to do terribly much. When it becomes an exercise for me to think about how we could have been useful in the x number of incidents last year that we weren't called out on, it becomes time for me to focus on the question: "Well, why weren't we called out?"

Then I thought: "Well, what ARE our capabilities?"

And then I realized I didn't have a good answer to that question. And if I don't have that answer, chances are pretty good our emergency coordinator doesn't either. And if they don't know, the one and only thing we'll ever get utilized for is our aircraft (which actually did get a mission last year.)

So if I put together a readiness report, go to the local city council meetings once a year (with permission from the chain of command, of course) and take 3 minutes to announce our readiness status and available resources, this will result in politicians remembering we exist.

If I then forward the report and transcript to the emergency coordinator, they will remember we exist.

And there is almost always a reporter paying attention to the minutes of those meetings, which means the reporters might remember we exist.

If we exist in the minds of politicians, reporters, and emergency coordinators, we will be in danger of getting donations, free publicity, and missions.

And yes, ideally, we put together something useful enough that I can convince the other squadrons in our Group to start using it and create a Group report as well, and perhaps it succeeds to the point of becoming a standard for our wing.

And maybe along the way I find some more IT officers that have been hiding and get us all to work on some bigger projects together.

SAR work in Washington state, is a complex issue. Air SAR is coordinated and controlled by the primary AIR SAR agency in the state which is, WSDOT Aviation Division , and the Air SAR Coordinator is Tom Peterson. Ground SAR, is controlled by the local county sheriff who has complete control of his fiefdom. This means he literally, decides who can play, what gear they require and so on.  In some counties CAP is welcomed with open arms, and in others like King County, CAP is not welcome, as the county already has a lot of county paid assets.

In regards to MOU's, MOUS's are used to define what services CAP can provide to a local or state agency, and how the use of those assets will be paid for, when performing those services as a corporate mission. Federally funded missions are not covered by an MOU.

If you want to become more involved in local SAR efforts, the squadron ES officer and commander, need to meet with the WING ES Director, to make sure that we are not performing  or offering services that we are prohibited from performing, and to find out what steps must be taken for the assets to be activated. The meet with your local or county EMS coordinator to find out how you can assist them, based upon what you are permitted to do and the required steps to request that assistance. Requesting the assets, may be as simple as making a phone call to the state EOC at Camp Murray.

The steps to get involved or not near as hard or laborious as they may seen, you just have to do your homework .

[tg1970]

In regards to reporting CAP capabilities to local and state agencies, has anyone heard or run into an application known as the Salamander Badging System?  This is a web-based system that allows users to upload their capabilities in terms of both personnel and equipment.  Currently, this system is being used by state and local emergency managers in a large number of Midwestern states.  Seems like it's a challenge to constantly engage with state and local EMs.  Just when you finally make a break through in getting your name out there, something or someone changes and you're back to square 1.  Seems like this newer system would allow for more continuity in getting CAP's name out there as a viable option for supporting disaster relief.  Thoughts?

V/r

TG

[sardak]

Salamander is a vendor of an incident resource accountability system. The concentration of users is in the middle of the country is likely due in part to aggressive marketing and sales by the Midwest regional office, but it's used elsewhere in the US. Scrolling down the homepage brings you to a map showing where it's used: http://www.salamanderlive.com/index.php

I'm a member of our state's resource management and credentialing group in one of the states bordering yours that uses the Salamander system. It's not a resource ordering system, so someone already needs to know that CAP exists, what the organization can bring to the party and how to order CAP resources.

Salamander doesn't do that. It's for tracking resources on an incident, so what you get being in the Salamander system is a (non-FIPS 201) ID card that looks lke the rest of the IDs everyone who is in Salamander is wearing, has your credentials encoded into it and printed on it, and a system that can track you when the card's barcode is scanned. Equipment gets stickers with a barcode. The first image shows the different categories of card (denoted by the color of the center stripe), then the example volunteer card with white stripe - the agency logo goes in the upper right, and the back of the card. For those states in the center of the country working through the midwest office, the cards look the same except for the state name across the bottom. I'm in the system, but not as CAP, my card has a gray center stripe for government.
      

As for other resource management tools, our state uses WebEOC for resource ordering, among other things. It's accessible to far more people and agencies, and CAP resources are listed in it. In reality, no one is going to look there to find CAP resources, they're going to call the wing's 800 number if they need us. Once we're involved though, our resources will be ordered and tracked through WebEOC.

Mike