SGAUS Military Emergency Management Specialist Academy

[Guardrail]

I visited the State Guard Association of the United States website, and came across something rather interesting.  The SGAUS offers a Military Emergency Management Specialist (MEMS) Academy for members of the military, state guards, and other military and civilian organizations.  This would be a great way for CAP members to expand their ES knowledge and test their training.  I think CAP members are allowed to participate, but NHQ doesn't say anything about it.

They even have a badge for it, with senior and master ratings available.  It's not authorized on the CAP uniform, but maybe in time it will be.  It looks very sharp.     

More info can be found at: http://www.sgaus.org/MEMS.html

[RiverAux]

Its not really a resident "Academy".  It is a badge you get for completing certain FEMA independent study courses. 

I think there are quite a few of these courses that could be integrated into CAP professional development and ES training.     

[Guardrail]

Its not really a resident "Academy".  It is a badge you get for completing certain FEMA independent study courses. 

I think there are quite a few of these courses that could be integrated into CAP professional development and ES training.     

Do you know if that's ever been proposed?  I wonder if National has ever looked into this...

[Ned]

We don't really need SGAUS, which after all is private corporation, not a governmental agency.

(Indeed, they require SGAUS membership in order to wear their badge, which is a little strange.  But it is their badge, so they can make the rules, I guess.)


They did a good job of selecting some FEMA and National Fire Academy courses, and designed a cool badge, but we could easily do the same thing.

Heck, we could simply adopt their program and call it CAPMEMS.  It's not like SGAUS owns the rights to the FEMA courses.  (But they do own the rights to their badge, so we would have to design our own.)

And their course is designed for SDF types; we could probably tweak it a little to optimize it for CAP folks.

Who'd like to take it on and develop CAPMEMS?

[DNall]

It has not been proposed. It's a set of FEMA courses & a paper or project as I recall to bring it all together, plus some time served at a local EOC. It's all ther eon the page. Not even all states are using it, but it's a worthy program & a good way to build a crosswalk. I think it's worth a good hard look & always in favor of programs administered by others for our benefit. Plus the bdge looks really cool right?    

I don't know that any further development is needed. Just a partnership w/ their academy to allow CAP participation. That's a real good thing for them cause it raises the credibility of their program in a big way & puts CAP personnel working thru them, which maybe means some stolen or dual recruits. Overall though they are flailing about looking for more mission, where we're better defined on that front & just need to get our act together. They'd love to have a degree of interoperability & to coat-tail into disaster missions around us. Personally I wouldn't mind one of their NCOs w/ an M16 riding shotgun w/ my GT in a disaster area.

[RiverAux]

I personally wouldn't recommend using the SGAUS program itself.  They are a bit controversial among SDF members (at least over on military.com) because they chose to recognize as SGAUS chapters organizations that are not actually official SDFs in their state.  Normally this would be ok, but some of the organizations they've recognized wear Army uniforms, use military ranks, and more or less represent themselves as actual SDFs when they are not.  Though the organization is generally credible this particular aspect significantly lowered my opinion of them

i would recommend that CAP pick and choose among the courses and come up with a mix that works for us. 

[DNall]

Hey I'm all for that. Just the wicked cool badge [/end minnesooota accent] & chance to build better relationships.

No I think you could tailor it better for what we do.... Grab the NIMS certification guide of disaster ICS staff; dump CERT on the front end as an intro; there's a FEMA course on managing volunteers (IS-244 I think); hmm... I think we could come up with something. I'd like to keep the element of service time at a local EOC though. Good way to build those relationships as well. Sure some of the more qualified could add to the list. Thing is though... we already have a DR ribbon. The criteria certainly need updating, but that's the older version of this. We also have badges for job fields, not a training level. It just doesn't jive with our existing system. Good thing to look at though.

[Hawk200]

We don't really need SGAUS, which after all is private corporation, not a governmental agency.

According to a lot of people here, we're not either.

Judging from some of the requirements on their initial pages, it's not exactly a cakewalk. There's a lot of actual completion requirements that require some legimtate work. It won't be a simple click through everything or watch a Powerpoint and get a certificate.

[Guardrail]

We don't really need SGAUS, which after all is private corporation, not a governmental agency.

According to a lot of people here, we're not either.

Judging from some of the requirements on their initial pages, it's not exactly a cakewalk. There's a lot of actual completion requirements that require some legimtate work. It won't be a simple click through everything or watch a Powerpoint and get a certificate.

That's one big reason why I propose either CAP involvement with MEMSA, or CAP's own MEMSA.  Completion of the course shows more than proficiency; it shows completion of a challenging course.  That's what people are looking for in ES Personnel, regardless of the organization they're in.  They don't have to be experts, but they do have to have credentials that were attained through hard work and show a level of expertise upon completion.       

[DNall]

You understand when you get done with all that it makes you a well educated shelter management team. It doesn't actually qualify you to do a whole lot. There's good FEMA standards out for GT folks. I like a solide disaster prep program, and I'm actually coming arount to thinking CERT is good for that basic orientation to disaster.

[SAR-EMT1]

I took CERT and even looked into joining the local EMA SAR/CERT team. I thought it was a joke. They advocated going into an area with the 'CERT backpack of goodies' and serving as underlings for FEMA and local fire/rescue and EMS types. There wasnt much for actual SAR there wasnt much for actual ICS.  The tem that I looked into had as its fuction to basically serve as messengers for the EMA and other EOC types. Yeah...Id rather stick with CAP Ground Teams.
However do I think we can take alot of FEMAs courses and put them to use YOU BETCHA - ICS 700 for sure, 300 and 400 for GTLs and Mission base staff. Radiological monitoring, disaster area prep, managment of unit logistics, etc...

[davedove]

I took CERT and even looked into joining the local EMA SAR/CERT team. I thought it was a joke. They advocated going into an area with the 'CERT backpack of goodies' and serving as underlings for FEMA and local fire/rescue and EMS types. There wasnt much for actual SAR there wasnt much for actual ICS.  The tem that I looked into had as its fuction to basically serve as messengers for the EMA and other EOC types. Yeah...Id rather stick with CAP Ground Teams.
However do I think we can take alot of FEMAs courses and put them to use YOU BETCHA - ICS 700 for sure, 300 and 400 for GTLs and Mission base staff. Radiological monitoring, disaster area prep, managment of unit logistics, etc...

That's because CERT is meant for everyday people who want to help out after a disaster.  It's just to give some basic information so they are not just "in the way" and are better prepared to help out in their neighborhoods before the "big guys" arrive.  It's far from being a complete course on the subject, but it is a good introduction.  CERT would be a good introductory briefing for CAP members, just a quick "here's some of what could happen" for disaster response.  The FEMA courses ARE much more appropriate for what CAP does.

[DNall]

Right that's all I'm saying is as an introduction. It really seems more appropriate fro what cadets should be called on to do, but I understand that's going tobe an 18+ thing also. It's really getting pushed hard down here like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread & the future of CAP, which is is just rediculous in my mind. Obviously the WSAR standards are what we'll be aiming for on GT. Seems like it'd be a good idea to start down that road now rather than get hit with it all at once.

Of course tehre are a lot of FEMA courses worth taking. There's a s managing volunteers course I want o look into a bit more. Supposed to cover from spontaneous up to the doctorine on how to deal with us, plus personal & communication dynamics. Don't know much past that. It would seem like we could train some pretty good staff w/ a lot of these courses, some of our internals, & some good leadership/mgmt training on the way up.

[Al Sayre]

Funny you should mention that (IS 244), I just finished it yesterday.  It was actually pretty good and I came away with a better understanding of recruiting and retaining for the squadron, along with a few other good ideas that popped into my head while reading the materials.  I'm planning on doing the other courses in the professional development series, and just started the one on leadership, it's fairly interesting, and also provides some useful insights.
 
There are a pile of free courses, all it takes is your time and to do them.  Tomorrow & Friday I'm taking ICS 300 with the state DHS folks.  I happened across their training calendar on the web, so I just called them up and asked if I could get in on it. They said "Sure, come on down..."  I'll let you know how it goes.

[DNall]

That's great! I was really curious about how well that'd apply to CAP. You know we've been talking for months on reforming the PD standards & such. That course just stood out to me as one that looked real useful, especially say with a military officer ocming over in grade that doesn't understand the dynamic. I'm going to have to jump on that one.

Let me know how that leadership course goes, say in comparison or supplement to SOS.

[Guardrail]

According to the State Guard Association of the United States' "The MEMS Academy Report", Oct 2006, there are CAP members enrolled in the State Guard Association of the United States' MEMS (Military Emergency Management Specialist) Academy.  It's on the first page, 3rd paragraph.

Link: http://al-sdf.org/mems1006.pdf

How can a CAP member interested in attending a MEMS Academy do so?  Does the paperwork need to go through National, or just the SGAUS?  This sounds very interesting and is something National may want to advertise.   

[DNall]

I'd be willing to bet you most are also members of an SDF. That said, I know some people in the Air Guard & thought for a while about enrolling in MEMS, but I don't see the point. I can freely do all those requirements independent of them (but don't have time). I don't see the point though. When I get done I can't wear the badge & I'm not certified to do anything on a disaster I hadn't already done before or that will help me credential by NIMS standards. I think there's some great courses in there, & some other great ones they missed, and I think it'd be great if CAP worked across that line to build relationships. But, I don't think at this point their program does much for me.

[arajca]

How can a CAP member interested in attending a MEMS Academy do so?  Does the paperwork need to go through National, or just the SGAUS?  This sounds very interesting and is something National may want to advertise.

You need to join the SGAUS. The cost is $25/yr. National has nothing to do with it. The MEMS badges is not approved for wear on the CAP uniform.

[SAR-EMT1]

On a similar note: how hard is it to schedule a AFRCC SAR SCHOOL? ( and for those who have attended, how does CAP relate?)

[Pylon]

On a similar note: how hard is it to schedule a AFRCC SAR SCHOOL?

There's some information about that in this thread and even more on this web page.